An Epistemic Network Analysis of Students’ Beliefs About Natural and Educational Scientists

Abstract

AbstractAmple research has demonstrated that students hold inaccurate beliefs about scientists, and that these beliefs affect different variables, such as study and career choices. However, while numerous studies have focused on investigating students’ images and beliefs about natural scientists, research has not yet examined students’ beliefs about scientists within the social sciences and humanities. Against this background, the present study explored secondary school students’ beliefs about the work and skills of educational scientists and compared these beliefs with their views of natural scientists. For this purpose, we surveyed secondary school students and conducted an Epistemic Network Analysis of their answers to certain open-ended questions. Our findings show that students tend to view educational scientists as practitioners who work in educational or socio-pedagogical institutions and who need social skills. On the contrary, natural scientists are seen as researchers who work in laboratories and need cognitive skills. Thus, these findings suggest that educational scientists are less associated with scientific research than natural scientists. Those inaccurate beliefs could lead to wrong expectations related to studying educational science or social sciences more generally. Hence, the findings presented here point to the need to foster more adequate beliefs about scientists in studentsKeywordsBeliefs about scientistsSurveyEpistemic network analysis