THE SCIENTIST PROFESSION AND THE PERCEPTIONS OF FUTURE TEACHERS

Abstract

Although many studies reveal the view of basic education students about scientists, there are still few studies focused on the understanding presented by future teachers. From this perspective, the present research aimed to analyze the perceptions of undergraduate students of a Biological Sciences course about the scientific profession. This research presents the qualitative approach and was carried out in the discipline Methodology for Science Teaching in a university in the state of Maranhão. For data collection, the undergraduates were asked to prepare a drawing in order to answer the following question: "What does it mean to be a scientist?" and then they explained the drawings produced orally. The results showed that most of them had stereotyped perceptions about scientists, and it was a work carried out mostly by men, with lab coats and glasses, working alone in a laboratory, surrounded by glassware and samples of living beings, for example. These results arouse reflection on the need to include, in undergraduate courses in Biological Sciences and other teacher training courses, discussions about what science and scientists are, based on didactic possibilities that can contribute to demystify such stereotypes.