Primary School Students' Images of Scientists and the Sources of These Images

Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine the 4th-grade students' images of the scientists and the relations between these images and the images of scientists that primary school teachers describe in their classes and the images presented in the 4th-grade textbooks. The sample of the study consisted of 244 4thgrade students, 10 teachers, and 4th grade science and social studies textbooks. The study was designed according to the case study design, which is one of the qualitative research designs. As a result of the study, it has been determined that the students have stereotypical images about gender, age, working environment, and the works of the scientists. While it was determined that 85% of the students draw male scientists. However, contrary to the results commonly seen in the literature, the image of a scientist with a lab coat is found to be at a lower level in this study. In addition, the results obtained in the interviews with the teachers and textbooks examined revealed that there are similarities between these images that the students have and the images that the teachers have taught and the images presented in the textbooks.