Journal Article

Diagnosing elementary teacher's misconceptions of gravity

Suyanta, Prasetyo, Z K, Desstya, A

2021

Overview

Gravity is one of the important concepts in elementary school. The teachers must understand it well without misconceptions. Furthermore, it is obvious that research on elementary teacher misconceptions of this concept is rarely done. The goal of this study was to describe the elementary school teacher's misconceptions of gravity. This was a qualitative research. The study was conducted on 30 public and private elementary school teachers in Surakarta. The test was used as data collection instrument consist of 3 true false questions with reasons. The teacher was to be a misconception if the justification of a statement was true, the discussion was wrong. The result indicated that 30% of teachers experienced misconceptions. They stated that objects on earth were not thrown into space due to the earth's magnetic force. Tides were caused by the rotation of the moon around the earth and the evaporation of water. Parachutists with closed parachutes fall faster because the earth's gravity was not obstructed. These indicated the need for efforts to improve teacher professionalism so that the quality of learning was better.

• Publisher: IOP Publishing