Concezioni alternative degli studenti di scuola superiore su argomenti di base di Astronomia. Parte 1: Ruolo dell'Istruzione formale.

This paper presents the results of a survey on students’ knowledge at the end of high and middle school about elementary astronomical concepts (change of seasons, moon phases, eclipses of the Moon and Sun, origin of the universe). To this end, a questionnaire was administered to approximately 200 students visiting the Astronomical Observatory of Naples in the school-year 2011-12. The results suggest that students at the end of high school have a better knowledge about astronomical phenomena than at the end of middle school. However, the percentage of at least partially correct answers in the students of their last year of high school is on average only around 50%. This suggests that students, regardless of their educational level encounter considerable difficulties in explaining astronomical phenomena. In particular, these difficulties arise especially when the justifications and reasoning must necessarily draw on plane and solid geometry and optics (construction of images and shadows). Consequently, our study suggests that Astronomy education carried out during high school courses, although necessary to build a basic understanding of these phenomena, does not significantly improve students’ achievement. Educational implications of this result are briefly discussed.