A Scientist Created in the Picture that Pre-service Teachers have in their Minds

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate pre-service teachers' picture of a scientist in their minds. A semi-structured questionnaire was administered to 104 voluntary pre-service teachers who were at their last years in primary education programme. The results showed that the first people came to pre-service teachers' mind was Einstein as a scientist. The findings were categorized into seven themes within three title indicated that in terms of pre-service teachers' picture in their minds, the scientist was generally an old and short male who has loose long white or gray hair, and who wore glasses and laboratory coat on. This scientist was curious, patient, determined, logical, research oriented and critical individual, but asocial type. The results showed that this scientist usually worked in a dark or semi-dark and messy laboratories filled with scientific equipments, books, filing cabinets and full of papers with scientific notations and formulae. According to the result, it can be said that the picture of a scientist that pre-service teachers have in their minds does not base on very realistic thinking. It could be suggested that during teacher education period, pre-service teachers could be educated to develop realistic thinking.