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Understanding Perceptions of Scientists: A Qualitative Assessment Study

This study explores how participants perceive scientists through qualitative data collection methods, including drawing exercises, surveys, and interviews. Participants are asked to illustrate what they believe a scientist looks like and further describe their drawings. Surveys utilize a 5-point scale to gauge attitudes about scientists and scientific research, while interviews provide deeper insights into the understanding of scientific discovery. Data collected focuses on participants' interpretations of scientists' attributes, roles, and the nature of scientific work. The goal is to identify trends and gather meaningful insights from these qualitative assessments.

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Understanding Perceptions of Scientists: A Qualitative Assessment Study

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  1. Assessment Strategy • Consider: due to small numbers of participants all data will be qualitative • Types of Data Collected • Draw a scientist • Surveys • Interviews • Pre and post data was/will be collected for 1-3

  2. 1. Draw a Scientist • Participants are asked to “draw what you think a scientist looks like” • In addition, we asked them to do one of the following: • On your drawing, label the various items drawn • OR write a description or explain your drawing in words • Scoring Data • A rubric from APS education1 was used to score drawings • Data expected: • appearance of scientist (eccentric Einstein type, nerdy, etc.) , symbols of research (e.g. test tubes), symbols of knowledge (e.g. books) • Who is the scientist?: Male or female, ethnicity, etc. 1 APS eduction site www.the-aps.org/education/2006rts/pdf/DASTRatingRubric.pdf (accessed 1/17/2010)

  3. 2. Surveys • Adapted from the CAEQ, Chemistry Attitudes and Experiences Questionaire2 • Participants are asked to use 5 point scales to rank several types of info. • Each scale has a positive and negative attribute. • Ex. question: “Talking about science with my friends” would be ranked from “dull” to “fascinating” • Scoring Data • Numeric values from 5-point scales are used • Data expected: • What are scientists like? (interesting, athletic, etc.) • What is science research like? (harmful, solves problems, etc.) • What are science jobs like? (tedious, satisfying, etc.) • What science activities are considered boring/interesting? 2 Dalgety, J.; Coll, R.; Jones, A. Journal of Research in Science Teaching 2003, 40, 649-668.

  4. 3. Interviews • With a small sample set, this is expected to give the most meaningful results • Questions asked to focus groups of 3-4 participants. All participants were interviewed this way. • Data Expected – sample questions • What is a scientific discovery? • How are discoveries made? • Who makes scientific discoveries? • Who can be a scientist? what is required of them? what do they do daily?

  5. Initial Pre-data • Data Collected • Draw a scientist • Beakers with bubbling reactions were common • Similar numbers of male vs. female, most scientists ethnicity was unclear • Interesting to note, most were smiling. • Surveys • No definite trend seen yet • Interviews • Still being evaluated • Will look for trends in pre and post interviews and analyze according to model developed by Strauss and Corbin.3 3 Strauss, A. & Corbin, J. (1991) Basics of qualitative research; grounded theory procedures and techniques. Sage Publications.

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