Chinese Journal of Science Education


Vol. 7 No. 4, Pages 343 - 366, 1999

Analyzing Elementary School Student's Understanding of the Nature of Science and Their Perceptions of Having a Future Career in Science (Article written in chinese)

Chia-Kuen CHUANG

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate elementary school students' understanding of the nature of science and their career goals related to science. Questionnaries were utilized to collect data of students' identity toward science, their understanding of the nature of science and their career goals related to science. Randomly chosen from 12 schools, 724 elementary students in the fifth and sixth grades took part in this study, among them were 36 students with different scientific identi ties who were interviewed.

The results indicate that only one-fifth of the students intended to be scientists, with the composition of the elementary school classes having a ratio of peer scientists to non-peer scientists of two to one. Students' mental representation of the nature of science can be divided into seven categories: science is an invention or discovery, a thinking activity, a method, a kind of knowledge, an object or a thing, a kind of value, and others. The judgment of students of peer scientists on the characteristi cs of science and the social status of 20 different occupations were higher than non-peer scientists. However, this was not the case for occupations as biologists, chemists, and physicists since all students agreed that people who hold these jobs are scie ntists. The analysis of information from the interviewed students revealed that students' understanding of the nature of science and career goals related to science remains fragmented and egocentric. Students' self-image and their image of science and sci entists correspond to the socialization process - social category, identity and comparison, which can be found in social identity theory, and they also correspond to the viewpoints of students' self-construct.

Keywords: social identity theory; peer scientists; intend to be scientists; nature of science; career of science

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