Mathematicians in the eyes of students: An image study

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to investigate elementary school students' images of mathematicians. The study group was composed of 1115 students attending four different schools in four cities of each of four regions in Turkey. The participants were the students attending the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grades of these schools. Two classes, a male classroom teacher and a female classroom teacher were selected randomly from each grade level. The students were within the age range of 12-15 years. The instrument used in this study was originally developed by Chambers (1983) (Draw a Scientist TestDAST). According to the findings, there were mutual images of mathematicians despite small cultural differences in the regions and generally it can be said that students do not known who mathematicians are and what they do. It is anticipated that results and recommendations will shed light on integration of history of mathematics with courses, on pedagogical transformations and studies focusing on imagetransformation.