High school students' images of an environmental scientist

Abstract

Understanding the nature of science and how an environmental scientist works develops the abilities of the students in participating in environmental discussions and critically evaluating environmental problems. Therefore, it is important to work on the image of the scientist, as well as attitudes towards scientists. The purpose of this study is to investigate high school students' images of environmental scientists. In this respect, six questions were used to determine 227 high school seniors' images of environmental scientists. The students were asked to draw a picture of an environmental scientist. In addition, questions were asked on the age of the environmental scientist, his or her job, work setting, and sources of images. In the analysis of the data, firstly, the number of the drawings depicted by the students and the gender of the scientists in these drawings were determined. Then, each drawing was evaluated according to indicators of a standard image of a scientist determined in previous research. A description method was used in analyzing the data. The students' answers were coded and the frequency distribution shown. It was determined in this study that high school students generated drawings displaying both positive and negative images of a scientist. Some of those drawings showed similarities with stereotypical images of scientists reported in previous research.