Differences and Similarities in Scientists’ Images Among Popular USA Middle Grades Science Textbooks

<p style="text-align: justify;">Research on students’ perceptions of scientists is ongoing, starting with early research by Mead and Metraux in the 1950s and continuing in the present. Continued research interest in this area is likely due to scholarship suggesting adolescents’ impressions of scientists are sourced in-part from media, which influence their interests in science and identity in becoming a scientist. A significant source of images, in which adolescents (or middle school students) view science and scientists, is in their science textbooks. A qualitative content analysis explored images of scientists in three of the major U.S.-based middle grade science textbooks published in the new millennium: sixth grade biology, seventh grade earth science, and eighth grade physical science. The Draw A Scientist Test (DAST) Checklist was employed to assess scientists’ images and the stereotypes therein. From nine textbooks, 435 images of scientists were coded and analyzed by publisher and grade level / area by DAST constructs of appearance, location, careers, and scientific activities. Statistical analyses showed significant variances between grade levels and textbook publishers of scientists. Despite scientists portrayed in active endeavors, traditional tropes of the scowling, older, solitary, white male scientist persist. This study offers insight in leveraging improved images of scientists in textbooks.</p>

Media Representations of Science during the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Analysis of News and Social Media on the Island of Ireland

COVID-19 is arguably the most critical science communication challenge of a generation, yet comes in the wake of a purported populist turn against scientific expertise in western societies. This study advances understanding of science–society relations during the COVID-19 pandemic by analysing how science was represented in news and social media coverage of COVID-19 on the island of Ireland. Thematic analysis was performed on a dataset comprising 952 news articles and 603 tweets published between 1 January and 31 May 2020. Three themes characterised the range of meanings attached to science: ‘Defining science: Its subjects, practice and process’, ‘Relating to science: Between veneration and suspicion’ and ‘Using science: As solution, policy and rhetoric’. The analysis suggested that the COVID-19 pandemic represented a platform to highlight the value, philosophy, process and day-to-day activity of scientific research. However, the study also identified risks the pandemic might pose to science communication, including feeding public alienation by disparaging lay understandings, reinforcing stereotypical images of scientists, and amplifying the politicisation of scientific statements.

Middle School Students’ Perceptions of Scientists and Views About to Become a Scientist

It is important to explore children’s perceptions related to scientists for preventing their lack of interest in science and avoidance of science careers. This study aims to reveal middle school students' images of scientists, with an analysis of how those images may be influenced by middle school science textbooks currently use in Turkey. It was also examined students’ opinions related to becoming a scientist. The study is based on a qualitative research methodology. The sample consists of 98 students from a middle school (5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade). The data was gathered by four science textbooks, the Draw a Scientist Test (DAST) and an open-ended questionnaire. The findings showed that most of the middle school students think that scientists as men, happy, wearing a lab coat and glasses, working individually in indoor places. Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton were drawn as the most famous scientists. The images of scientists in the science textbooks were mostly men. On the other side, more than half of the students were not sure or not eager to be scientists for their future careers because of negative thoughts on scientific studies and not matching their own characters and the characters that scientists should have.

Examining Hispanic Preservice Teachers’ Perceptions of Scientists in a Science Methods Course

This article describes the intervention strategies implemented in an effort to affect a group of Hispanic pre-service elementary teachers’ images of scientists during a science methods course in a teacher preparation program in the U.S.-Mexico border region. Although there is an extensive volume of research reporting on the use of the DAST-C instrument to study K-16 students’ images of scientists, the number of studies on exploring and influencing preservice teachers’ views of science and scientists is rather scarce. Findings in this study indicate that a semester-long intervention strategy focused on (a) pre-service teachers’ generated inquiry project, (b) written reflections on inquiry learning, and (c) a pre and post-drawing tests, allowed participants to reflect on their views about scientists and science, and experience a gradual shift from views conforming to stereotypical views of scientists to portrayals of science practitioners as individuals, just like other people in our society pursuing real interests.

How Peruvian Secondary Students View Scientists and their Works: Ready, Set, and Draw!

The investigation of students’ images of scientists and their work is of interest to researchers due to the widely held belief that the students’ perceptions are important preliminary indications for the future academic and professional choices. This study explored the images of 218 Peruvian high school students about scientists and their work (convenience sampling). Specifically, ‘Draw–A–Scientist Test’ (DAST) was administered, while the analysis framework included an enriched version of ‘Draw–A– Scientist Test–Checklist’ (DAST–C). Several descriptive and inferential analyses were performed in order to address the research questions. The results showed that Peruvian students hold common images of the scientists. The majority of the students depicted scientists as men, working indoors, wearing lab coats, surrounded by research symbols and involved in chemistry. In addition, the results showed, to a significant degree, that girls more frequently draw symbols of knowledge than boys. On the other hand, boys drew, on average, more stereotypical images than girls regarding the alternative stereotypical image subscale for scientists. No statistically significant gender differences were found in the remaining indicators and scales. Finally, it is noteworthy that Peruvian students' drawings included, on average, less stereotypical indicators than students of similar age from South Korea, Turkey, the United States of America, India, Greece, Bolivia, and Colombia.

Science Teachers’ and Their Students’ Perceptions of Science and Scientists

The purpose of this study was to explore school science teachers’ and their students’ perceptions of science and scientists. The participants included 116 in-service middle school chemistry teachers who attended a training program at the Faculty of Education, Lebanese University, and 250 of their students, randomly selected from a larger sample of 2345, enrolled in Grades 7-9 at Lebanese public schools all over Lebanon. Using the Draw-a-scientist-test (DAST), qualitative and quantitative data was collected from the participating teachers and their students. The teachers themselves administered the test to their students. Results showed that the stereotypical image of a scientist being a Caucasian, male, working in a lab, and conducting experiments mainly in chemistry were prevalent. There was absence of contemporary scientists and female scientists among the preferred names of scientists delivered by the students. The participants held positive attitudes towards scientists and many students were usually positive about pursuing careers in science and technology. Compared to their teachers, more students thought that scientists make inventions in the field of technology. Students in lower grades had more diverse images of scientists. The stereotypical images increased among students of higher grades and became more similar to those of their teachers and the authors of the textbooks that they use.

The image of the scientist in the works of V. Korolenko

The article considers the connection of the works of V. G. Korolenko with the literary Western European tradition of depicting prominent people, labelled by the stamp of genius, who left a noticeable mark in science. The concept of genius is considered in the interpretation of philosophers I. Kant, A. Schopenhauer and F. Nietzsche, who saw it as consistent with their theories: contemplation and self-denial, will, energy of all previous generations. According to philosophical concepts, the following main trends in the literature of the nineteenth century were formed: the image of fanatical thieves from the works of M. Shelley, G. Wells, or infantile observers, as the heroes of the works of J. Verne – eccentrics detached from the real life. The realistic tradition in the depiction of images of scientists is considered on the example of the work of A. Chekhov «Boring Story». The image of a scientist created by a writer reflects the main contradiction in the life of a creative person – the discrepancy between life in science and real existence. There wasn’t any difference between creative and real life for V. Korolenko. He «lived as he wrote, and wrote as he lived». The great righteous man of everyday life, a missionary of spiritual deeds, the writer Korolenko created an image of the scientist Izborsky similar to his own life principles. The narrative structure of the work enabled the author to reflect on his student's past and think about his own unrealized future. It is hypothesized that Korolenko could be new Timiryazev or Mendeleev; however he chose the way forward active citizenship and revolutionary mood. The paper examines how the writer transformed the image of the scientist, which developed in European literature, into a new type of hero, due to socio-historical conditions and the spiritual search for time. The images of scientists created in the story «On both sides» and partly in the novel «The Story of My Contemporary» are analyzed from two points of view – the narrator-student and professor-teacher. A young man, who is also in a difficult mind condition, perceives personality, oratory, moral principles of the scientist Izborsky. The analysis of the narrator's structure helps to determine the conceptual features of the image of an ascetic scientist, among which is paid attention to the presence in the works of historical context, the strength of moral influence on students, admiration for the prospects of scientific discoveries.