Scientist image of primary school 4th grade students and the role of textbooks and teachers in the formation of these images

The aim of this study is to determine the image of the scientists of the 4th grade elementary school students and the role of the 4th grade textbooks and teachers in the formation of these images. The sample of the study consists of 244 students and 10 teachers from four different primary schools in the Gümüşhane center during the academic year of 2017-2018. In the study, the data were collected in two stages. In the first stage, "Draw A Scientist Test" developed by Chambers (1983) was used. Students are asked to briefly explain their drawings in order to prevent the interpretation of their drawings. In the second phase of the study, interviews were held with teachers to determine the sources of the scientist images the students, and the way in which scientists took place in the 4th grade science and social studies textbook was examined. The case study, which is one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the study. The data were analyzed by using the "Draw A Scientist Checlist –Draw A Scientist Checklist (DAST-C)" developed by Finson et al. (1995) with additional new sections. As the result of the study, it has been determined that students have stereotypical images of gender, age, working environment and work done similar with previous studies. It was also determined that the most important factors affecting the images of scientists that students have are teachers and textbooks.