Sheldrake, Richard;
Reiss, Michael J;
Lodge, Wilton;
(2024)
What do you think being a good scientist involves? School students’ views about science, scientific research, and being scientists.
International Journal of Science Education
10.1080/09500693.2024.2385759.
(In press).
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Abstract
Students often convey positive perceptions of science and scientists, although fewer express aspirations towards becoming scientists. Students’ science identities may link with wider perceptions, including what working as a scientist involves, although less research has explored these perceptions in detail. To gain new insights, questionnaire responses were considered from 289 school students across Year 9 to Year 13 (age 13/14 to 17/18 years old) from England and the island of Guernsey. Many students within the sample felt informed about science and scientific research and developments (67%), but fewer agreed that they saw themselves as scientists now (19%) or in the future (33%). Students’ written responses to ‘What do you think being a good scientist involves?’ were analysed and encompassed themes including: working scientifically; curiosity and discovery; determination, resilience, and perseverance; ability and understanding; interest, passion, and motivation; and openness to new ideas and different views. Some differences in the prevalence of themes were revealed across students with different characteristics, circumstances, and science identities. The findings offer new insight into students’ perceptions, to help understand how being a (good) scientist may be more or less feasible for different students.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | What do you think being a good scientist involves? School students’ views about science, scientific research, and being scientists |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1080/09500693.2024.2385759 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2024.2385759 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent. |
| Keywords: | Identity; investigative research projects; working scientifically |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10195465 |
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