Towards a Clearer Understanding of Students’ Ideas about Science and Technology: an exploratory study

The Contribution of the Theory of Relation to Knowledge to Understanding Students’ Engagement in Learning Physics

“…To that, we can add the lack of knowledge that most of them have about the working methods and social use of physics (secondary students associated to the ideal-type 2, 3, 4 and 5, first group of university students). This lack has already also been highlighted by other studies (Cleaves, 2005;Hill & Wheeler, 1991): physics is a discipline which is often perceived as purely academic, both because students do not transfer the school learnt knowledge in daily life and because they have a very poor representation about its social use. These observations can probably be connected, on one hand to the weak ratio of engaged students the discipline generates, and on the other hand, to the essentially utilitarian reasons which push students to engage in physics studies.…”

The Draw‐An‐Environment Test Rubric (DAET‐R): exploring pre‐service teachers’ mental models of the environment

“…Drawing on this study and those of Goodenough (1926), Chambers (1983) developed the Draw-A-Scientist Test (DAST) to provide information regarding children's perceptions of scientists. In studies using the DAST, drawings of scientists reflected motivation and self-efficacy of learning and teaching science (Rosenthal 1993;Carnes 2000), gender differences (Mason, Kahle, and Gardner 1991;Huber and Burton 1995), pre-college students' ideas about science (Flick 1990), pre-service teachers' and adults' stereotypical views of science and scientists (Beardslee and O'Down 1961;Moseley and Norris 1999), perceptions of technology (Hill and Wheeler 1991) and choice of science as a career (Smith and Erb 1986;Warren 1990;O'Brien, Kopala, and Martinez-Pons 1999;Finson 2002;Zeldin and Pajares 2000). Finson, Beaver, and Crammond (1995) developed the Draw-A-Scientist Test Checklist (DAST-C) to facilitate ease of assessment.…”

Investigating Students’ Private Perceptions of Scientists and their Work

“…• Symington & Spurling (1990) have argued that students are given no purpose for the drawing, so consequently, 'The drawing produced would therefore reflect their knowledge of the public stereotypes of scientists, rather than what they themselves know about scientists' (p. 75). Hill & Wheeler (1991) have provided some support for this position: they used an interview-about-instances approach and found that both primary and high school students knew a lot more than could be revealed using the DAST. For example, 'Even though they [students] thought that males are more likely to be involved in science, they saw no inherent reason why females could not be scientists' (p. 135).…”

“…For example, scientists are often pictured as lonely people, working in laboratories by themselves. Hill & Wheeler (1991) maintain that students usually draw a scientist working alone because they have been instructed to draw a scientist. • Symington & Spurling (1990) have argued that students are given no purpose for the drawing, so consequently, 'The drawing produced would therefore reflect their knowledge of the public stereotypes of scientists, rather than what they themselves know about scientists' (p. 75).…”