  Both the basic educational contents for students and study programs for
science teachers include several topics in physics and astronomy, from the
simplest ones to others as advanced as nuclear fusion to explain stellar
evolution and space-time geometry for an approach to modern cosmology. In all
these subjects, and most often in the simplest ones, alternative conceptions
emerge, as both groups reach science course with preconstructed and consistent
models of the universe surrounding them. In this work we present a series of
basic questionings that make us reflect on the present situation of the
teaching-learning relationship in astronomy within the framework of formal
education. We then briefly explain our project aiming at finding the real
learning situation of both students and prospective primary-school teachers in
astronomical topics and, from the expected results of it, we point towards the
need to develop didactic tools that could contribute to improve formal
education in astronomy issues.
