Investigation into Omani Secondary School Students' Perceptions of Scientists and Their Work

The purpose of this study was to investigate Omani 12th grade students' perceptions
about scientists and their work and accordingly propose some recommendations in
order to encourage new generations to choose science and engineering-oriented
specialisations in higher education. A 37-item questionnaire was designed to
determine these perceptions and to find out if there are any differences in
perception between males and females. The questionnaire was administered to 943
randomly selected students from ten schools in four Educational Governorates in
the Sultanate of Oman, of which 411 were male and 532 female. The findings
indicated that the four main resources used by Omani students to get information
about scientists and their work are, the media, books, the internet, and the content
of the school curriculum. The majority of students have clear perceptions of
scientists' work, but are less clear about scientists’ relationship with the society.