High School Students’ Images of “Biology Teacher”

Abstract

Images of the individuals about any matter are one of the most important factors influencing learning. In this regard, images have become of the mainly discussed matters in education. Teacher is one of the most important factors of education. Since teacher is a natural role model for students, students’ “teacher” images influence their academic achievements, personality development, perspectives about science and nature. In this respect, it is highly important to reveal how biology teachers are perceived by the students. The purpose of this study is to reveal the images developed by high school teachers about biology teacher by means of the Draw a Biology Teacher Test. In line with this purpose, 254 high school students in Konya province were applied the “Draw a biology teacher” scale as a single question in the academic year 2016-2017. As a result of the analyses of the drawings, it was revealed that the biology teacher image of the students was rather a “biology teacher making site research in nature”, a “biology teacher doing experiments in the laboratory”, a “biology teacher using technology in the classroom”. Additionally, the biology teachers had a camera, telescope and microscope in the student drawings. The results showed that there was a change in the students’ traditional-stereotype biology teacher images.

Keywords: Biology teacher images.