High School Students' Images of Physicists

The aim of this study is to reveal the high school students’ images of physicists. Participants of this study consisted of 85 students in a high school in a province center on the East Black Sea Region of Turkey. The data were obtained by adapting the “Draw A Scientist Test” developed by Chambers (1983) and updated by Song & Kim (1999) to “Draw A Physicist Test”. The obtained data were analyzed by content analysis. In this study, it was determined that most of the high school students described a scientist as male, 40-49 years old, wearing sports/daily clothes, wearing glasses, looking happy, working individually, and teaching in class. It was seen that students often drew or described scientists by thinking of their own physics teachers. For this reason, it is suggested that more activities with the topic of physicist should be included in the curricula, textbooks, and course contents in order to create a more accurate perception of physicist in high school students.

Although several studies have been carried out to identify the participants' images of a scientist in the literature by using DAST, few studies have adopted the test into different concepts and used to identify the participants' images about it. It can be seen in the adopted versions of DAST that, physics, one of the science disciplines, has not been chosen as the focus concept. In this study, we chose the concept of physics and expected that the findings of this study can be enlighten the question for researchers; 'Why physics course is not liked and why it is considered difficult by students?'. The result of the national studies conducted on the attitudes of high school students towards the physics course revealed that the attitudes of high school students towards the physics course are neutral (Sezgin-Selçuk, Özkan & Demircioğlu, 2015) or negative (Kaya & Böyük, 2011) and the average attitude scores decrease as the grade level increases (Yiğit, Kurnaz & Şahinoğlu, 2015).It is also known that students' perceptions and mental images of scientists have a significant influence on their attitudes towards science (Finson, 2002) and affect the students' career plans (Karaçam, 2016). The OECD report in 2017 indicated that, quite a few students selected science-related study fields in higher education (URL-1). Thus, it is important that students have positive images of scientists (Kaya, Doğan & Öcal, 2008). It is believed that identifying participants' images of scientist/physicist is a significant requirement in this context.

Method
This study was carried out according to the case study method, one of the qualitative research methods. It is thought that the holistic single case study which used to illuminate specific cases and carried out with a single analysis unit (an individual, a program, a school etc.) is appropriate for the nature of this study (Yıldırım & Şimşek, 2006).

Participants
The participants were chosen by convenience sampling, which is one of the purposive sampling methods. This sampling method gives speed and practically to the research (Yıldırım & Şimşek, 2006). The participants consists of a total of 85 high school students who are studying in a high school in a province center on the East Black Sea Region of Turkey, who voluntarily participated in the study and completed the entire scale.

Data Collection Tool and Process
In this study conducted with the aim of revealing the images of high school students towards physicists, the "Draw A Scientist Test" developed by Chambers (1983) and updated by Song & Kim (1999) was adapted to "Draw A Physicist Test" (DAPT). No changes were made to the data collection tool, only the word of the "a scientist" was changed to "a physics scientist". Two experts (a science education and a physics education) opinions were received about the suitability of using the data collection tool.
As in the original test, a box was given to the students in DAPT so that they could draw the physicist in their imagination, and the students were asked descriptive questions regarding the gender, age, physical appearance, what it did, the environment it was in, and the characteristics of this physicist drawn in the box. In addition to these questions, they were asked to indicate by reason a physics they respected/admired. Finally, in order to identify the sources inspired by the students while drawing the physicists, the students were presented with options such as movies, cartoons, science journals, documentaries, student's family, or teachers.
In the data collection process, there was no time constraint, and students were left free to answer the DAPT easily. On average, the forms were filled in during 1 lesson (40 minutes).

Data Analysis
In the process of the controlling data, 85 students' forms were deemed to be valid and 12 students' forms were excluded from the study for various reasons (drawing-explanation is unrelated, drawing only).The obtained data were separately analyzed by content analysis and presented in tables with frequency and percentage values. The sum of percentile values can exceed 100% in some cases, as students indicated multiple opinions.
In the data analysis stage, both researchers examined the papers separately and made classifications. After this stage, the classifications with agreement were accepted, and the classifications with no agreement were reevaluated and categorized.

Findings
Findings related to the physicist images of high school students were presented in tables. The findings about the gender and age of physicists are shown in Table 1. It was determined that high school students thought that physicists were generally male (77,65%). It was seen that 16,47% of the students drew a female physicists, and the students drawing a female physicist were girls. 30,59% of high school students described physicists to be in the age range of 20-29, 23,53% in the age range of 30-39, and 32,94% in the age range of 40-49. Example drawings of high school students' views of physicists in terms of gender and age range are presented in Figure 1. The findings of the physical characteristics of the physicist in the students' images are summarized in Table 2. The students portrayed physicists with different hair styles (long hair 24,71%, short hair 28,24%, messy hair 22,35%, groomed hair 31,76%), while only 4,71% of the students pictured the physicist as bald. Furthermore, the students portrayed physicists with moustached (10,59%), with colored eyes (8,24%), with large eyes (21,18%), with a small nose (10,59%), and with a large mouth (3,53%). Most students portrayed physicists with a happy facial expression (64,71%). In addition, physicists were portrayed with casual/daily outfit (24,71%) or suit (22,35%), wearing glasses as an accessory (28,24%). 18% of the students portrayed the physicist as a tall person, while 33% portrayed it as a normal weight individual. Example drawings of high school students' views of physicists in terms of physical characteristics and features are presented in Figure 2. The findings on the type of work and work environment of the physicist in the students' images are summarized in Table 3. In Table 3, it can be seen that students described the working type of physicists as individual (98,82%), and the working environment generally as an indoor such as classroom (45,88%), or laboratory (16,47%). Example drawings of high school students' views of physicists in terms of working type and working environment are presented in Figure 3. The findings on the type of tools used by the physicist in the students' images are summarized in Table 4. Students often specified a board (31,76%), table (18,82%), smart board (7,06%), test tube (5,88%), and books (4,71%) as the tools and supplies used by the physicist. Example drawings of high school students' views of physicists in terms of the tools and supplies used by physicists are presented in Figure 4. The findings on the information symbols used by the physicist in the students' images are summarized in Table5. Information symbols used by students in the physicist drawings can be listed as formulae (18,82%), symbols (8,24%), shapes (3,53%) and models (2,35%). Example drawings of high school students' views of physicists in terms of the information symbols found in the drawings are presented in Figure 5. The findings on the professional and personal characteristics of physicists in the students' images are summarized in Table 6 -7. The students listed the professional characteristics of a physicist as giving a lecture (41,18%), making an experiment (23,53%), being proficient in physics topics (12,94%), being able to do everything (12,94%), teaching (11,76%) and producing new things (9,41%). The personal characteristics of a physicist were listed as cheerful (12,94%), intelligent (12,94%), enjoyable (9,41%), sympathetic (9,41%), good person (7,06%) and understanding (5,88%). Findings related to the physicists admired by high school students and the reasons of their admiration are presented in Table 8. The physicists most admired by students are their own physics teachers (45,88%). Among the reasons for this selection are being able to teach well (30,77%), being a good person (15,38%), making the students like the course (15,38%) and being very intelligent (15,38%). Among the admired physicists, Einstein ranks second (29,41%). Students admired Einstein for reasons such being very intelligent (32%), standing against memorization (16%) and personal life (8%). Newton, Hawking, Lewin, Edison, Dawkins and Tesla are also among the physicists admired by a small number of students. It is also seen that being very intelligent constitutes a significant part of the reasons why students admire physicists. The sources that inspire students while they draw the physicists in their images are listed in Table 9. The sources that students are inspired by the most while drawing the physicist in their image were the physicists themselves (30,59%), movies (28,24%), their teachers (24,71%), the Internet (17,65%) and caricatures (17,65%).

Discussion, Conclusion and Suggestion
In this study conducted with the aim of determining the physicist image of high school students, the drawings and responses to the open-ended questions were evaluated in terms of "gender", "age", "physical characteristics", "working type and environment", "tools and supplies used", "information symbols used", "professional and personal characteristics", "admired physicists and reasons of admiration" and "inspired sources".
Most students (77,65%) in this study depicted a male physicist. Many studies in the literature have found that participants mostly describe scientists as men (Ağgül-Yalçın, 2012;Akçay, 2011;Ayvacı, Atik & Ürey, 2016;Chambers, 1983;Deniş-Çeliker & Erduran-Avcı, 2015;Finson, 2002;Görecek-Baybars, 2017;Kara & Akarsu, 2013;Nuhoğlu & Afacan, 2011;Özkan, Özeke, Güler & Şenocak, 2017;Song & Kim, 1999;Türkmen, 2008;Ürey, et al., 2017;Yontar-Toğrol, 2000). In this study, it was seen that the students drawing a female physicist were girls. In general, it was seen that male students tend to draw male scientists and female students tend to draw female scientists (Chambers, 1983).Similarly, in most studies, it is found that female scientist drawings are made by female students (Ağgül-Yalçın, 2012;Kara & Akarsu, 2013;Kibar-Kavak 2008;Korkmaz & Kavak, 2010;Özkan, Özeke, Güler & Şenocak, 2017). This shows that the idea of female physicists is still not adequately settled in minds. This is also supported by the fact that the physicists admired by the students are male physicists (i.e., Einstein, Newton). It is thought that textbooks, which are the source of inspiration for students, also play a role in the emergence of this result. Karaçam, Aydın and Digilli (2014) indicate that the majority of scientists included in the textbooks are images of stereotypical scientists of European origin, male, from the middle ages, or ancient Greece. Similarly, Köseoğlu and Durukan (2017) found that all of the scientists included in science textbooks were male. Based on these results, it is believed that contents related to scientists should be increased in textbooks by giving more emphasis to female scientists.
In this study, it was determined that most of the high school students described a physicist as 40-49 years old (32,94%), wearing sports/daily clothes (24,71%) or a suit (22,35%), looking happy (64,71%), teaching in class (41,18%), with short hair (28,24%), with groomed hair (31,76%), and with a moustache (10,59%). In the study of Kara and Akarsu (2013), it was determined that according to secondary school students, scientists are usually perceived as people wearing lab-coats and glasses, with a beard, and as people who are constantly finding new knowledge and therefore perceived as happy. Arslan and Savaş (2017)'s study revealed that, secondary school describe the social scientists as happy, having short haired and wearing glasses, studying in office or in nature and using research symbols such as paper, book, pencil and shovel and anchor in their drawings. Turgut, Öztürk and Eş (2017) found that the secondary school students often describe scientists with wearing lab-coats, glasses and laboratory materials, and think the scientists are producing information by working in the laboratory. Also, this image of physicist can be attributed to the fact that students imagine the images of Einstein in their minds as a physicist, seen in movies, in the Internet, or in textbooks (Ayvacı, Atik & Ürey, 2016). This is supported by the fact that 29,41% of the high school students indicate Einstein as a physicist they admire, and the sources they are inspired by in their drawings are movies (28,24%), internet and caricatures (17,65%). In other words, it can be said that students develop images of scientists based on media organs such as Internet, newspapers, movies and cartoons (Ağgül-Yalçın, 2012;Kara, 2013;Kibar-Kavak, 2008;Özkan, Özeke, Güler & Şenocak, 2017). In the study of Özkan, Özeke, Güler and Şenocak (2017), it was seen that the scientist image in the drawings of university students was mostly the instructors in their departments, while Einstein, Newton and Edison were the most frequent scientists in the drawings of some students.
In the drawings of high school students, physicists are mostly depicted as working individually (98,82%). Similarly, it has been determined in various studies that participants think that scientists work alone (Ayvacı, Atik & Ürey, 2016;Deniş-Çeliker & Erduran-Avcı, 2015;Özkan, Özeke, Güler & Şenocak, 2017). The students in this study drew a physicist in the classroom (45,88%), in the laboratory (16,47%), and in the study/research room (5,88%). In the literature, it has been found that scientists are generally thought to be working in indoor areas such as a laboratory or their own study/research room (Ağgül-Yalçın, 2012;Ayvacı, Atik & Ürey, 2016;Chambers, 1983;Eyceyurt-Türk & Tüzün, 2017;Görecek-Baybars, 2017;Finson, 2002;Özkan, Özeke, Güler & Şenocak, 2017;Song & Kim, 1999;Turgut, Öztürk & Eş, 2017;Türkmen, 2008). Akcay (2011) have found that students perceive scientists as people who work in indoor. In the study conducted by Deniş-Çeliker and Erduran-Avcı (2015), it was observed that the number of laboratory drawings were very high in primary school students in the pre-test, however, after the scientific activities they participated in, an increase in the drawings of multiple working environments (drawings with both indoor and outdoor environments) was observed in the post-test. The students' perception that scientists produce the knowledge only indoor areas such as in a laboratory can be changed with the scientific activities of out-of school environments.
A striking result in this study is that 45,88% of the students indicated a classroom as the work environment of a physicist, and specified objects such as board, table, smart board, book as tools and supplies used by physicists and emphasized lecturing (41,18%) among the professional characteristics of a physicist. This situation has been interpreted as the fact that the students regard their physics teachers as a physicist, and this leads to the conclusion that the teachers are influential on students' images of physicists. This is supported by the fact that in cases where students indicate that they admire their own physics teachers as a physicist (45,88%), they mostly try to draw their own physics teachers. Another finding that supports this situation is that students see their teachers as a source of inspiration in the drawings they make about the image of a physicist (24,71%). The studies in the literature show that teachers are one of the factors influencing the image of scientists (Ağgül-Yalçın, 2012;Türkmen, 2008). At this point, it is thought that as a role model, it is necessary for teachers to encourage their students towards science, and to enable their students to access information like a scientist in terms of their course contents.
The sources that students are inspired by while they draw a physicist were listed as physicists themselves, movies, their teachers, Internet, cartoon, science journals and textbooks. The studies in the literature have shown that the scientist images are influenced by textbooks, teachers, extra-curricular activities, cartoons, science fiction books, the Internet, scientists' life stories, and science journals (Ağgül-Yalçın, 2012;Buldu, 2006;Buluş-Kırıkkaya, Bozkurt & İşeri, 2011;Güler & Akman, 2006;Türkmen, 2008;Karaçam, Aydın & Digilli, 2014). For this reason, it is recommended that written materials such as textbooks and science journals should be prepared in a way that contributes to the scientist image of students (She, 1995) and that positive features of scientists should be emphasized (Türkmen, 2008;Ağgül-Yalçın, 2012). Scientists who work in different fields, their work and life stories should be included more in visual materials such as movies and cartoons, and written materials such as textbooks and science journals (Ağgül-Yalçın, 2012;Finson, 2002;Karaçam, 2016;Köseoğlu & Durukan, 2017).