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International Journal of Science

Education
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Primary children's conceptions of

science and the scientist: is the
impact of a National Curriculum
breaking down the stereotype?
a b
Lynn D. Newton & Douglas P. Newton
a
School of Education , University of Durham
b
Department of Education , University of Newcastle
upon Tyne , UK
Published online: 16 May 2012.

To cite this article: Lynn D. Newton & Douglas P. Newton (1998) Primary children's
conceptions of science and the scientist: is the impact of a National Curriculum breaking
down the stereotype?, International Journal of Science Education, 20:9, 1137-1149, DOI:
10.1080/0950069980200909

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 INT. J. sci. EDUC., 1998, VOL. 20, NO. 9, 1137-1149

RESEARCH REPORT

Primary children's conceptions of science and the

scientist: is the impact of a National Curriculum
breaking down the stereotype?
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Lynn D. Newton, School of Education, University of Durham, and

Douglas P. Newton, Department of Education, University of Newcastle upon
Tyne, UK

Past research has shown that children hold images of scientists and their work which fit a stereotype of
scientists as male, balding, bespectacled and with a laboratory coat, working alone in a chemistry
laboratory environment. Such stereotypes have been shown to form early and strategies intended to
change perceptions may be applied too late and too narrowly. Researchers in several Westernized
countries have identified this trend. Recently, there has been a suggestion that such images are becom-
ing less stereotypical, at least in the UK. The major change in science education in the U K during this
time has been the introduction of a national curriculum. This study revisited primary children's views
after a period of five years, using a common procedure (the Draw-a-Scientist Test). During this period
all the children had been taught science in line with the requirements of the English and Welsh National
Curriculum Order for Science. We found that perceptions have not changed significantly over this
period of time amongst primary school children, despite the imposition of the National Curriculum.
Results indicated that there is still a gender biased stereotype and an unrealistic view of the scientists'
work. The need to analyse carefully and conservatively the data produced by such studies is emphasized
and consequences for other countries introducing national curricula are discussed.

Introduction
In a global survey of the official curricular requirements for primary schools,
Meyer and Kamens (1992) suggested that there is an international convergence
in official statements of national curricula. They found that there are great similar-
ities in the subject areas taught and the time given to them, despite the variety in
cultural and historical backgrounds of the different countries. In addition, they
noticed that there was a tendency for changes in curricula in particular countries to
parallel each other and to take the form of conformity to world curricular patterns.
It would seem that the various national curricula are, in reality, merging into an
international curriculum for the twenty-first century. Furthermore, at the heart of
such an internationally relevant curriculum lies not only literacy and numeracy
(and everything which those terms stand for) but also scientific literacy.
The extension of science teaching into the primary schools of England and
Wales as a consequence of the National Curriculum Order for Science (DfE 1989)
may ultimately help to create a more scientifically literate society, but this goal
involves more than a knowledge of science and its processes as defined by the
current requirements. There is a significant need for appropriate and realistic
0950-0693/98 $12·00 © 1998 Taylor & Francis Ltd.
 1138 L. D. NEWTON AND D. P. NEWTON

conceptions of science as a discipline, the nature of a scientist's work and the image
of a scientist (Denny 1983, Newton 1989, Wolfe 1990, Newton and Newton 1997).
How children perceive both science as a subject and the scientist as a person may,
in the long term, be important at not only the personal but also the societal level.
There have been several national and international studies of young children's
views of science and the scientist which have found that the major aspects of the
stereotypical image are shared by children in the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia
and New Zealand (Newton and Newton 1992). In many states and countries
represented by these studies, national curricula have already been introduced or
governments are in the process of doing so. Does the introduction of a national
curriculum for science change children's views of science and the scientist?
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Conceptions of science and the scientist may be acquired in a variety of ways.

With younger children, they are usually the subject of formal instruction and are
more likely to develop from their various experiences of science (Howard 1987).
Children commonly read books and comics, watch television, and listen to more
than the teacher. All may contribute significantly to the development of concep-
tions of science and the scientist. However, children read, watched television and
listened to others before the introduction of the National Curriculum. What has
changed is that they must receive some formal instruction and direct experience of
the subject in the classroom. This may have made a difference.
In 1990, we studied the conceptions of 1143 primary school children in north-
eastern England just as the National Curriculum Order for Science was being
introduced, and identified their conceptions of science and the scientist (Newton
and Newton 1992, 1995). This was done using Chambers' Draw-a-Scientist Test
(Chambers 1983) which does not depend on verbal ability and can be used with
young children. Schibeci and Sorenson (1983) have described the test's advantages
as not requiring reading and writing, taking very little time to administer and
having a low likelihood of eliciting 'socially desirable responses'.
Some caution is needed in interpreting children's pictures. Their drawings
reflect their stage of development and some attributes may have no particular
significance for a child but may be given undue significance by an adult interpret-
ing them. For example, very young children commonly draw bald, smiling faces on
potato-like figures regardless of the situation. They attach no significance to the
baldness or the smile. It cannot be assumed that this indicates an intention to show
a happy disposition in a male figure. Slightly older children's figures are often
cruciform. It would be unwise to read something germane to conceptions of
science in developmental changes of this kind (Newton and Newton 1987). A
child's drawing of a scientist may not always be a direct representation of the
child's conception of a scientist. A member of a particular group may be made
more recognizable by giving the depiction some 'badge' or canonical form (like a
stethoscope for a doctor). It is probably some amalgam of the child's conception of
the scientist and some canonical form or caricature. Variation and changes in that
form are likely to be related to changes in those conceptions and in other concep-
tions which underlie them. Such changes can occur as more instances are added to
the child's experience and as the balance of those instances changes (Howard
1987). In short, changes in the science education a child receives could give rise
to changes in their conceptions and, in turn, in their drawings of scientists
(Newton and Newton 1992).
 CHILDREN'S CONCEPTIONS OF THE SCIENTIST 1139

From the 1990 study, it was argued that most of the children saw scientists as
mainly men, often bearded and balding, wearing spectacles and white laboratory
coats. This image was present as early as six years of age and has a lot in common
with what has been found in other studies in Europe, Australia and North
America. By seven years of age, many of the children elaborated their drawings
with backgrounds. The attributes of these backgrounds pointed to a view of
science dominated by chemical apparatus, processing substances and making
new materials. Slightly more girls than boys indicated that science was about
this kind of applied chemistry. The boys, on the other hand, were more likely to
depict aspects of the study of forces, energy, and Earth in Space. Most children
depicted science as an indoor activity and, when they drew an active scientist, it
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tended to involve manipulation of apparatus, observation and recording of data.

A study more recently reported by Matthews (1996) used a slightly different
way of eliciting conceptions of science and the scientist from groups of students.
On the basis of the evidence he collected, Matthews concluded that:

. . . the image pupils have of scientists is changing to show less gender bias, and to be
more realistic, (p. 231)

He refers to Tuckey's (1992) study in which she found, as we did in 1990, that
primary children's perceptions were strongly stereotyped, although girls' slightly
less so than boys'. Matthews (1996: 239) generalized from his study to say that:

The results of my study do not confirm this, but indicate that a significant percentage
of boys are seeing girls as possible scientists, although there is clearly much room for
improvement . . .

There are, however, some difficulties with generalizing the primary age range from
Matthews' conclusion. First, his study was of older students. He concentrated on
132 secondary school pupils and 34 trainee teachers on postgraduate courses. He
also asked a further sample of secondary pupils, using a written questionnaire, if
science was more a boy's than a girl's activity. That they were secondary pupils
could account for some of the differences but Matthews generalized to primary
school children. Matthews used a variation of the DAST (Draw-a-Scientist Test)
to collect the evidence, and this could also be a source of his different results. The
technique he used was to ask pupils to draw two scientists, not one, as in the
standard Draw-a-Scientist Test, arguing that the latter would tend to produce
stereotypical pictures. He then classified the characteristics in the responses. He
argued that it was necessary to obtain pictures of two scientists in order to obtain a
balanced view, otherwise the results would 'overemphasize the stereotype'. This is
a false argument. A standardized image of a type of person is, by definition, a
stereotype and the purpose of the exercise is to identify it. In this situation, if
no stereotype exists, the first image should be either male or female in equal
proportions. Any significant deviation from this supports the stereotype.
Unfortunately, by introducing drawings of two people, Matthews has intro-
duced another problem. He did not seem to have used a control group, to check
what happens when children are asked to make drawings of two people in general.
What do children produce in this situation? Do they follow a stereotypical pattern
of male-female, or mother-father, or brother-sister? By asking for two scientists, is
Matthews not seducing the drawer to produce something different for the second
 1140 L. D. NEWTON AND D. P. NEWTON

figure? We made the case earlier that, in the absence of a control group, the DAST
is better used as an indicator of changes rather than as an absolute measure.
Another problem is in the way Matthews typified scientific activity. For
instance, he asserts that:
The minority of scientists illustrated as being physicist-based (27%) reflects the trend
of the unpopularity of physics in schools, (p. 234)
Could it not be a result of difficulty in characterizing physics as a distinct activity?
How can a child distinguish in a drawing between a physicist using a bunsen
burner and beaker to investigate some aspect of heat and a chemist using the
same apparatus to dissolve something? There is also an interest factor to drawing
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— bunsen burners and rabbits may be more interesting to draw than forcemeters
and plants. Consequently, there is an oversimplistic interpretation of the drawings
which lead to some unwarranted assertions.
If the stereotype is really being eroded, then asking pupils to draw two scien-
tists should produce significant numbers of two female scientists, or two male
scientists or one of each sex in the pair. Matthews used a very loose analysis of
his findings. By using percentages, some differences between responses have effec-
tively been concealed and some could have occurred by chance alone. This leads to
questionable conclusions. For instance,
. . . that 44% of the pupils did draw male and female figures is encouraging. However,
what is less encouraging is that of those pupils who drew female and male scientists,
33% were boys and 59% were girls. It is also significant that 44% of all the drawings
were of two males and only 13% two females, which indicates that both males and
females are following stereotypical views. (Matthews 1996: 233)
So, is this breakdown of the stereotypical image of science and the scientist
occurring at the primary school level as well as in the later years? From data
collected more recently we offer some evidence to contribute to the debate.

Method
Using the same approach and a similar sample size to that used in our earlier
(1992) study, Chambers Draw-a-Scientist Test was completed by 1000 children
in the age range 4+ to 11+ years at the end of the summer term of 1996. These
children were from 35 classes, Reception to Year 6, in five schools in the north-east
of England. Table 1 shows the distribution of children by age. The schools were in
a mixed socio-economic area, with a wide range of rented and owner-occupier
accommodation, and a predominantly white school population. None of the
schools was selective and they were deemed to be typical of most schools in the
north-east of England. All children in all classes were included and, as such,

Table 1. The distribution of children in each year group who completed

the Draw-a-Scientist Test in 1996.
R 1 2 3 4 5 6
Boys 81 86 86 75 79 77 69
Girls 48 60 47 77 76 65 74
 CHILDREN'S CONCEPTIONS OF THE SCIENTIST 1141

represented the full range of ability. Since all classes were included, this might be
considered to ameliorate the influence of any one teacher such as the science
co-ordinator. All of the schools have been recently inspected and have received
satisfactory or better inspection reports for science teaching. As such, the
children's responses to and perceptions of science could be considered to be fairly
typical of what we might expect to currently see in UK primary schools.
A field worker, trained as a primary teacher, gave the children an A4 aheet of
white paper and asked them to draw a picture of a scientist. Younger children were
tested in small groups of about four so that those for whom the word 'scientist' was
meaningless could be noted. This also facilitated the clarification of any ambiguous
attributes of the picture by questioning after its completion. There was no time
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limit. A control group for comparison was not necessary, since the purpose was to
compare the earlier (1992) perceptions with the post-National Curriculum experi-
ence perceptions.
As an absolute measure, the DAST test may be precise enough to provide an
indication of the level of awareness of aspects of the popular image of science and
the scientist but, as mentioned earlier, a consecutive interpretation is essential
(Maoldomhnaigh and Hunt 1988, Symington and Spurling 1990). We make this
note of caution having met less restrained interpretations of our own earlier find-
ings. The charm of some children's naive pictures can tempt unwarranted conclu-
sions. It also has to be remembered that, whatever pictures tell us, there will
always be things left unsaid.
To facilitate comparison of the incidence of various features, the picture attri-
butes previously found to offer clear identification were classified on the following
basis:

Attributes of the figure:

Sex, laboratory coat, spectacles, beard and baldness.
Attributes of the background:
(a) regarding science as a body of knowledge and the study of:
• Living things — indicated by depictions of plants and animals;
• Materials - indicated by depictions of laboratory apparatus commonly used
to process substances (for example, flasks, bottles, connecting tubes, test
tubes, bunsen burners);
• Forces and energy — indicated by depictions of apparatus for producing,
measuring or observing the effects of forces and energy;
• Earth and Space — indicated by depictions of rocks, soil, stars, planets, and
apparatus for investigating these;
• Other — backgrounds not classifiable as above.
In most cases, the content of the background fitted one of these groups. If more
than one attribute was present, the one attended to by the human figure or, if the
figure was passive, the one nearest to the figure was recorded. A separate count was
made of the incidence of technology - indicated by tools associated with shaping,
cutting, fixing and finishing artefacts, and of the artefacts themselves (for example,
a robot under construction, a model car being made).

(b) regarding science as a process involving:

• Indoor work — indicated by the depiction of an indoor scene;
• Outdoor work — indicated by the depiction of an outdoor scene;
 1142 L. D. NEWTON AND D. P. NEWTON

• Manipulative procedures - indicated by the depiction of hand contact with

equipment;
• Observation - indicated by the depiction of posture so that the figure looks
at equipment, materials, event or phenomenon (for example, bending to
examine the contents of a flask, using a magnifying glass);
• Measuring — indicating by the presence of measuring devices or apparatus
with a scale (for example, ruler, measuring cylinder);
• Recording and communicating information - indicated by the presence of
recording implements (for example, pencil, notebook) and of aids to com-
munication (for example, board displaying scientific information, books);
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• Thinking — indicated by posture or pictorial metaphor (for example, a light

bulb or question mark above the figure's head);
• Using information technology — indicated by the presence of computer key-
board and monitor.

Results

The children's depictions of the scientist

Both boys and girls depicted the scientist predominantly as male, a tendency which
increased with age until, by the age of 10 years, all the boys and over 80% of the
girls did so (figures 1-3). As might be expected, there was uncertainty about the
concept of a scientist amongst the younger children. This declined rapidly with age
and indications of a male predominance was apparent amongst the girls by the time
they were seven years of age. The differences between the proportions of male
scientists drawn in 1996 compared with those drawn in 1990, whether they were
drawn by boys or girls, were small and not statistically significant.

Boys'Scientists (1996)

Figure 1. Scientists drawn by boys in each year group.

 CHILDREN'S CONCEPTIONS OF THE SCIENTIST 1143
Girls'Scientists (1996)
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Figure 2. Scientists drawn by girls in each year group.

Figure 3. A drawing of a scientist by a Year 3 girl.

 1144 L. D. NEWTON AND D. P. NEWTON

The children also tended to give their scientists 'special' or laboratory coats,
particularly from seven years upwards. In this respect, there was not a lot of
difference between the boys and girls, both being equally likely to do so.
Between two-thirds and three-quarters of the pictures of these older children
had this attribute (figure 4). The population of drawings of scientists with spec-
tacles increased steadily with age (figure 5) and was greater than in 1990 sample
(p -C 0.001). However, the rise in the occurrence of spectacles in children's draw-
ings of scientists is not as simple as at first it appears. Children did not always
distinguish between safety spectacles and those for eyesight defects. Discussion
with the children showed that some intended the former. The increase, therefore,
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"TH £

Figure 4. One of the relatively small number of female scientists, drawn

here by a Year 6 girl.
 CHILDREN'S CONCEPTIONS OF THE SCIENTIST 1145
Scientists Wearing Spectacles (1996)
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Figure 5. Percentages of drawings depicting scientists wearing spectacles.

Scientists with Baldness (1996)

Figure 6. Percentages of drawings depicting bald scientists.

seemed to arise more from an increased experience of safety spectacles in practical

activities in the classroom than from a change in conceptions.
The incidence of beards and baldness followed similar patterns, reaching
about one in five of drawings for beards and two in five for baldness (figure 6).
Regarding the depiction of beards, the proportions were not significantly different
from those found in 1990 although the incidence of baldness was a little less
( / > « 0.001).
 1146 L. D. NEWTON AND D. P. NEWTON

The children's depictions of science

After six years of age, more than half the children added other, separate represen-
tations to their pictures of scientists, regardless of whether they were boys or girls.
More than four out of five of these depicted objects to do with the processing of
materials (chemical apparatus like flasks, beakers and tubes, as in figure 3). This
was some 10% more than in the earlier study (p < 0.001). About 10% of the
pictures included depictions of living things, some 5% less than before but this
difference was not statistically significant. Of these, pictures with plants continued
to be very much in the minority, amounting to only four instances. Two per cent of
the children drew aspects of forces, energy, Earth and Space which was not greatly
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different from the proportion in the earlier study.

The National Curriculum for Science for England and Wales (DfE 1989) requires
that children be taught aspects of both physical and natural science. However, the
processing of materials, particularly using glassware like flasks, test tubes and bunsen
burners, is not required and such equipment and activity could be seen as unsafe for
younger children (ASE 1992).
Almost all children who added background showed science as an indoor
activity (97%), much as they did in the earlier study. Of these, some 45% depicted
the scientist manipulating objects in the scene, usually chemical apparatus like
flasks and test tubes. About 2% showed scientists observing while another 2%
indicated that they were recording results. A few depicted scientists' mental states,
like puzzlement, excitement or sudden enlightenment (4%), measuring instru-
ments (3%), writing implements (75 occurrences with a significant increase with
age (p < 0.05). Similar data were found in the earlier study. On the other hand,
in 1990 only 2% of pictures with backgrounds showed computers. This had
increased to some 5% (p < 0.05) and there were now instances drawn by Year 1
and 2 children when previously they had been confined to Year 3 and above. As in
the earlier study, some children (5%) included spanners, hammers and similar
tools to work manufacturing materials and produce artefacts in their pictures.

Discussion
The way primary children are currently depicting scientists and their work is, in
essence, much the same as children did six years earlier. The scientist still tended
to be drawn as a middle-aged male, bearded and in a laboratory coat, and the
activity was still largely indoors, doing chemistry. Since all the children were
now being taught science, why was there so little difference? It may be that the
classroom experience of science has made a difference to conceptions but these do
not show in the children's drawings. The occurrence of safety spectacles, however,
does suggest that drawings change in response to classroom experience. Similarly,
children occasionally depicted scenes which included aspects of their recent work
in science, such as pictures of the remains of extinct animals (figure 7). Another
possibility is that classroom experience reinforces the popular conceptions of
science and the scientist found in our earlier study. It is also possible that the
classroom experience was largely irrelevant to the children's conceptions of science
and the scientist. This would mean that there tended to be little teaching which
reflected on the nature of science, the scientist and the wide range of work that
 CHILDREN'S CONCEPTIONS OF THE SCIENTIST 1147
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Figure 7. A Year 2 boy's drawing of a scientist on a fossil hunt.

scientists might do. There is evidence that this can be so from other research
(Cavalcante et al. 1997). Even if the relevance and nature of science were made
more explicit in school, they could be overwhelmed by the impact of out-of-school
stereotypical instances of science and the scientist in, for example, children's books
and television programmes.
 1148 L. D. NEWTON AND D. P. NEWTON

Conclusion
We concluded that there were few significant changes to primary pupils' concep-
tions of science and the scientist in 1996, compared to those reported in 1990.
Moreover, we do not believe that the stereotypes are being eroded to the extent
that Matthews (1996) suggests. Some conceptions are notoriously difficult to
change, once established. Strategies of the kind suggested by Matthews to improve
conceptions (for example, deliberately teaching about equal opportunities at sec-
ondary school) may be generally ineffective. It could be a case of too little, too late.
Conceptions of science and the scientist probably begin to form very early, when
children are about six or seven years old, so it is unwise to ignore them until the
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children are older (Newton and Newton 1992).

Given that international research indicates that children's conceptions of
science and the scientist show remarkable similarities, at least in Westernized
societies, and that there is an emerging international curriculum in which science
education has a significant place, teachers in other countries as well as the U K
might expect that a more thorough and structured teaching of science will address
the problems of the stereotypical view of science and scientists. Such an assump-
tion cannot be made, at least for younger children. As science teaching in primary
or elementary schools develops, this strand of a child's science education may be
neglected. It is not usually assessed and may not hinder the acquisition of scientific
concepts and the skills of exploration and investigation. However, its impact on
attitudes and actions in the future may be greater than either.

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