Furthermore, students are expected to apply their understanding of
gravity to other concepts throughout the course. Additionally, interviews with six Physics experts
indicate that gravity offers a good opportunity to think scientifically, a stated objective of many Astronomy
teachers and a useful lifelong skill . The present study uses a grounded theory framework within a constructivist
pedagogy to explore student understanding of gravity in an introductory college astronomy course via openresponse
questionnaires. The results show that college student understanding of gravity is lacking in many
areas that are documented in younger students, but also new areas as they attempt to integrate classroom
instruction with their previous knowledge. Providing exhaustive documentation of student misconceptions is
necessary to move forward in the development of comprehensive assessment, curriculum improvement and,
therefore, student learning (Prather 2009).