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

Abstract

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.