BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//CERN//INDICO//EN BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:P26 - Alternative Conceptions of Senior High School Students to As tronomy Concepts DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20261123T033000Z DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20261123T040000Z DTSTAMP;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20261112T143036Z UID:indico-contribution-894@indico.narit.or.th DESCRIPTION:Speakers: Ryan Manuel Guido (Rizal Technological University)\n **Introduction**\n\nFilipino students are required to undertake the revise d basic education curriculum (RBEC\, or K–12 curriculum) from kindergart en up to senior high school set by the Department of Education (DepEd). In cluded in the revised curriculum are astronomy concepts that are taught at different grade levels in junior high school (from Grade 7 up to Grade 9) . Topics in Grade 7 include the concepts of seasons and eclipses. Characte ristics of asteroids\, comets\, and other members of the solar system are taught in Grade 8\, while characteristics of stars and constellations are taught in Grade 9. (Department of Education\, 2016)\n\nThe arrangement of topics in astronomy and other science concepts in elementary and junior hi gh school is patterned using a spiral progression curriculum. This curricu lum was promoted by Bruner. Bruner (1960) encourages different educational institutions to teach concepts first at a more simplified level\, but as the learner progresses\, those concepts will be relearned and they will ad d concepts that are more complex but related to the first one. Thus\, conc epts will have a gradual increase in difficulty. To assess the effectivene ss of the curriculum\, the Bureau of Educational Assessment conducts the N ational Achievement Test (NAT) for junior high and senior high school stud ents. Based on the latest result of the NAT\, the national result is 44.1% in the school year 2016–2017\, which is lower compared to the 44.7% res ult in the school year 2015–2016. (Aguinaldo\, 2019) However\, scores in relation to astronomy concepts are not included. One of the perennial pro blems in curriculum assessment is the alternative conceptions of students. \n\nAlternative conception is defined as the students’ personal construc t of knowledge that is different from the universally accepted scientific facts (Chhabra & Baveja\, 2012). Also\, Gilbert (1983) defined alternative conception as an idea or thought of a learner that is different from the socially agreed concept. If the student learned an alternative concept\, i t may be difficult to unlearn or change due to the high resistance of the learner to change it. (Novak\, 1988) In recent years\, there have been num erous studies that focus on identifying the difficulties students have in comprehending different astronomical concepts (Kharis\, 2016). However\, t here is scarce literature on the alternative conceptions of astronomy conc epts among students in the Philippines. Based on this\, researchers would like to determine the different alternative conceptions of astronomy conce pts taught to senior high school students during junior high school.\n\n** Methods**\n\nThe researcher used a qualitative descriptive survey design. According to Calmorin & Calmorin (2007)\, this design is best suited to de termining the degree of differences between the subjects. Also\, the resea rcher will determine the variation of participants in different conditions and situations.\n\nThe participants of the study were the Grade 11 senior high school students. Grade 11 students were the participants because the y already learned about astronomy topics in junior high school. Also\, the researcher assumes that they have no astronomy concepts learned in their grade 11 subjects in science (Earth Science\, Physical Sciences\, Earth an d Life Science\, and DRRR) in relation to the chosen astronomy topics sinc e those topics are not included in the curriculum guide of the said subjec ts. The researcher employed stratified random sampling. Stratified random sampling used layering techniques. In each layer or stratum\, the particip ants were selected randomly. (Calmorin & Calmorin\, 2007).\n\nThe previous junior high school of each participant will be considered in this study. This is to make sure that the participants came from different junior high schools and to increase the variability of the answers. After classifying the students in stratification\, the researcher will use systematic rando m sampling to select the students randomly.\n\nThe researcher used a guide d or structured interview to determine the alternative conceptions of astr onomy concepts among senior high school students. The researcher and the p articipant used video conferencing applications for the interview. The gui ded or structured interview consists of pre-formulated questions that will help the researcher answer the formulated problems. To answer the first q uestion\, the researcher will include two sets of questions. The first set of questions will assess the known understanding of the subject of eclips es (solar and lunar eclipses). The second set of questions will determine their understanding of seasons. For the answers to the second question\, t he research will include questions that will determine how the participant s acquired those alternative conceptions. For the third question\, the int erview guide will consist of questions that will determine the factors inf luencing how they acquired those conceptions. These guided or structured i nterview questions were designed by the researcher. The researcher will al so make a table of specifications for the questions. This will allow the r esearcher to align the questions with the required competency in astronomy in the science curriculum guide from the Department of Education. The que stions from the interview guide were submitted to the research adviser to check and to give comments and suggestions. After that\, the researcher se eks the guidance of astronomy professors at the Department of Earth and Sp ace Science at Rizal Technological University to validate the content of t he questions.\n\n**Results**\n\nThe different results and analyses are pre sented in the order of sub-problems of this study\, as follows: Senior hig h school students have alternative conceptions of different astronomy conc epts covered by the curriculum guide for junior high school students.\n\nI n the concept of a solar eclipse\, students have alternative conceptions i f they explain the concept in verbal form rather than in diagram form. The alternative conceptions of students in drawing form are the Earth-Sun-Moo n model and the Moving Sun and Moon model. For the verbal form\, the alter native conceptions are: (1) solar eclipses happen at night\; (2) the sun a nd moon are moving towards each other\; (3) when the moon rotates\, it cov ers the sun\; and (4) the moon is blocking the path of the sun.\n\nIn the concept of a lunar eclipse\, students also commit alternative conceptions if they explain the concept in verbal form rather than in diagram form. In the diagram form\, the alternative conceptions of students are: (1) the m oving moon and sun model\; and (2) the earth-moon-sun model. Students also commit alternative conceptions if they explain them verbally. These are: (1) light emitted from the Moon was blocked by Earth\; (2) the Moon disapp eared during a lunar eclipse\; (3) Earth came between the Sun and Moon\; ( 4) the Moon blocked the sunrays reflected on the Earth\; (5) the mechanism of a lunar eclipse was the same as that of a solar eclipse\; (6) the Moon was blocking Earth’s light\; and (7) the Sun was blocking the Moon duri ng the nighttime.\n\nHowever\, for Philippine seasons\, there is no differ ence between the verbal and diagram forms. The alternative conceptions in drawing form are: (1) distance of the Earth from the Sun\; and (2) local w eather model. Also\, students have alternative conceptions regarding the n ames of the seasons\, like (1) rainy and summer\, (2) winter and summer\, (3) El Nino and La Nina\, and (4) sunny\, rainy\, and typhoon. In verbal f orm\, these are the alternative conceptions of students: (1) the northern hemisphere experiences a rainy and sunny season\, while the southern hemis phere experiences winter and autumn\; and (2) if the Philippines is not in the spotlight of the sun\, then it is a rainy season. Otherwise\, if the country is in the spotlight\, then it is sunny or “tag-init” and (3) i f the Earth is farther from the Sun\, then it is rainy. If near\, then it is summer\; (4) the Philippines is located at the center of the equator\; and (5) the Philippines is experiencing balanced day and night. Students a cquired those alternative conceptions through the pedagogy of their teache rs (length of instructional time\, teaching methods)\, the surfing of the internet and social media\, the personal experiences of the students\, and the visual representation of the mechanisms of the astronomy concepts.\n\ nConclusions\n\nThe results of the study led the researcher to conclude th at senior high school students have alternative conceptions of different s elected astronomy concepts that are included in their junior high school l esson. The researchers noticed that students gave more alternative concept ions if they explained the concepts in verbal form than in drawing form. T his conclusion is true for the concepts of solar and lunar eclipses but no t for Philippine seasons. Also\, students gave a higher alternative concep tion of the mechanism by which lunar eclipses work than solar eclipses\, b oth in verbal and in drawing form. Based on the responses of the responden ts\, the research also concludes that students acquired those alternative conceptions through the pedagogy of the teacher (which includes the length of instructional time and teaching methods)\, the use of the internet and social media as information sources\, the personal experiences of the stu dents\, and the visual representation of those phenomena.\n\nhttps://indic o.narit.or.th/event/238/contributions/894/ LOCATION:Dusit Thani Mactan Cebu Resort\, Mactan\, Cebu URL:https://indico.narit.or.th/event/238/contributions/894/ END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR