Abstract
Twenty in-service elementary- and middle-school teachers were surveyed on attitude, value, interest, teaching confidence, and dedication to teaching in the subject area of astronomy. The teachers were surveyed immediately before and after they took a specially designed, semester-long, astronomy-forteachers course developed with a constructivist instructional strategy. The participants reported significantly improved attitudes as measured by a Likert-scale survey. Four years later, the
teacher participants were surveyed again. Results of the second survey indicate that teacher attitudes and confidence toward teaching astronomy did not decline
or worsen even after four years. The data in this study suggest that appropriately designed courses for teachers, can have long-term effectiveness.
