A study of science and scientist, focussing on the perceptions of 11 to 13 year old students from different countries

The main aim of this study is to identify students' perception of science and scientists from Turkey, Italy, England, Slovenia, Poland and Estonia. The study is designed with the phenomenological approach which is type of qualitative research and carried out participation of 150 students from Turkey, Italy, England, Slovenia, Poland and Estonia. "Draw-a-Scientist Test (DAST), Roundhouse Diagrams of Scientist" and "open-ended question" were used as instruments of data collection in this study which is conducted during 2014 to identify students' perceptions of Scientist. The results, obtained from the evaluation of the data, indicated that students have similar stereotypical perceptions about the scientists, but these stereotypical perceptions show differences between the countries. While students have positive perceptions about the scientists, the results indicated the students have not enough perceptions about the social responsibilities of scientists in society and ethical values of scientists. Significant differences detected from the students' definition of science after the evaluation of the open-ended question. The knowledge of the students about the science, and its dimensions and nature of science dramatically shows huge differences between countries. Other aspects of the results indicated that there is not any statistically significant correlation between the level of scientific tests points of PISA and the level of stereotypical perceptions of the students.