Many Basic Education's teachers (EB) don't deal concepts related to astronomy and when they do so, they just follow didactic books which contain many conceptual errors. Astronomy is one of the contents taught in the EB and is part of the curriculum proposed by the Education Department of the State of São Paulo. With the intention to minimise some deficiencies, a University Extension Course for teachers of the Diretoria de Ensino Regional (Mauá, Ribeirão Pires and Rio Grande da Serra) was conducted with the following objectives: to raise alternative conceptions, to subsidise teachers by means of lectures, discussions and workshops, and to check the learning after the course. Therefore, sixteen questions were applied before and after the course. The results were quite satisfactory.
teaching of astronomy; alternative conceptions; teacher education
