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Drawing a scientist: What we do and do not know after fifty years of drawings
School Science and Mathematics, Nov 2002 by Finson, Kevin D
Since 1957, there has been a growing body of research dealing with the perceptions students have of scientists. Typically, the research studies in this area have utilized students' drawings in efforts to discern what those perceptions are. Emergent from this research has been what one would call a stereotypical perception of scientists, and strong evidence exists that such a stereotypical perception is persistent and pervasive across grade levels, gender, racial groups, and national borders. This manuscript provides a review of the more salient studies done on students' drawings of scientists and the perceptions therein revealed since Mead and Metraux's seminal study in 1957, In addition, the manuscript summarizes what this body of research has and has not revealed thus far, and what seems to lie ahead, including implications for science education.
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Over the past 50 years, a growing body of research has been conducted on people's perceptions of science and scientists. Much of this research has focused on children's perceptions, although not exclusively so. This article attempts to provide an overview ofthis research. This review is not exhaustive but provides the more salient aspects of the research findings on the topic. A review ofthe literature published in various journals or presented at conferences served as the basis for this overview. During the search, those works specifically dealing with subjects' perceptions of scientists were identified and included.
The implications of this body of research may be significant. Some have indicated that the perceptions of scientists held by students (or others) are related in some way to their attitudes toward science, locus of control, and self-efficacy (Finson, 2000; Finson, Riggs, & Jesunathadas, 1999; Schibeci, 1989). For example, Kahle (1988) stated that an individual's perceptions of scientists are one aspect of attitudes toward science and that this may have an impact on the attention given to the study or teaching of science. O'Brien, Kopala, and Martinez-Pons (1999) linked self-efficacy in a certain field to the probability ofan individual choosing that career, and Zeldin and Pajares (2000) reported similar findings for females. Hence, individuals who have negative perceptions of science or of scientists are unlikely to pursue science courses of study and, subsequently, enter a science/science-related career (Hammrich, 1997). Therefore, having some foreknowledge of students' perceptions of scientists may be important to educators if they are to effectively and positively impact students through instruction.
Early Stages of Exploring Perceptions of Scientists
The formal study of high school children's perceptions of scientists can be traced back to the seminal work conducted by Mead and Metraux in 1957. In this work, Mead and Metraux had 35,000 high school students write an essay in which they described their image of a scientist. Analysis of the essays revealed that the typical high school student perceived a scientist as being an elderly or middle-aged male in a white coat and glasses who worked in a laboratory, where he performed dangerous experiments. This has come to be considered the classic stereotypical image of a scientist.
Studies Using Written Instrumentation
Beardslee and O'Dowd (1961) developed a questionnaire including a 7-point differential semantic scale using ideas and words gleaned from interviews with about 1,200 college students, which provided information similar to that obtained by Mead and Metraux (1957). The researchers compared images between men and women drawers, public versus private school attendees, freshmen versus seniors, students from different socioeconomic backgrounds, and students from different types of communities. No significant differences were found between subjects in any of these groups, leading Beardslee and O'Dowd to conclude that the image of scientists held by college students was extremely stable.
Surveys conducted by Etzioni and Nunn (1974) and Hills and Shallis (1975) attempted to ascertain information about the image ofscience and scientists. Following in 1975, Rodriguez developed ofa 31-item differential semantic scale used for the same purpose. Basalla's work (1976) verified that the stereotypical images reported by Mead and Metraux (1957) persisted, and this persistence was confirmed the next year by Ward (1977), who arrived at the same conclusion. Ward further found that the perception had come to include aspects making the scientist exceedingly clever, often wise, slightly sinister, and disinclined to pursue mundane things, preferring instead to perform scientific wonders, particularly in chemistry.
In 1982, Krajkovich and Smith developed an instrument called the Image of Science and Scientists Scale, which consisted of 48 position statements having a7point Likert-type scale and was developed for use with high school students. Throughout the 1960s and 70s, research utilizing these and other instruments demonstrated that children's stereotypical images of scientists remained relatively stable. This stability was also reported to extend across cultural lines, as noted by Chambers (1983) through his systematic study of images of scientists in the People's Republic of China. In this study, he found the images closely matched those from Western culture.
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