An Investigation of Secondary School Students’ Images of a Scientist with Regard to Gender Variable in Turkey

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to determine secondary school students’ images of a scientist with regard to gender as the variable. The study was carried out with the participation of 240 secondary school students in a city located in the western part of Turkey in the fall term of the 2017–2018 school year. The data were collected with modified-draw a scientist test. Within the context of the current study, the secondary school students’ images of the scientist were explored in terms of appearance, working area, and work of the scientist. At the end of the study, it was determined that for these secondary school students their images of scientists’ appearance (55.4%), workplace (82.1%), and studies (86.3%) were traditional. Considering the study results in terms of gender, it was noted that male students’ images of a scientist’s appearance were more traditional at 63.3%, while female images were less traditional at 44.6% and concentrated on the broader than traditional category (42.6%). Moreover, participant students’ images about the scientists’ workplace and studies did not reveal difference in terms of gender. Considering that the image of the scientist is shaped according to the gender, students must be offered opportunities to meet more woman scientists in course books, especially in science courses. In addition, visits should be organized to the workplace of scientists with different genders or more time should be allocated for scientific activities so students can have more true and reliable images of scientists’ workplaces and studies.