Research Findings of Dr. Zhai Junqing Receives Special Coverage by Foreign Media
On November 18, 2015, Dr. Zhai Junqing of the College of Education published an article entitled “Spiderman and Science: How students’ images of scientists are shaped by popular media” in Public Understanding of Science, a fully peer reviewed, quarterly international journal covering all aspects of the inter-relationships between science (including technology and medicine).
ResearchGate and the Society of Science and Public provided special coverage about Dr. Zhai’s research findings in their official websites on December 28, 2015 and on January 15, 2016 respectively. Dr. Zhai’s study addresses the influence of popular media on how young children perceive science and the work of scientists. Using an adapted version of the Draw-A-Scientist Test, 15 classes of fourth graders (9–10 years old) at three different schools in Singapore are sampled (n = 266). The students’ drawings as well as their identification of three sources from which they obtain inspiration for their drawings are analyzed. The results demonstrate a strong relationship between students’ drawings of scientists and their reported sources of inspiration. They suggest that popular media play a large role in shaping how young children view scientists.
https://www.researchgate.net/blog/post/scientists-through-the-eyes-of-children
