European Identity - Individual, Group and Society - HumanitarianNet

320 EUROPEAN IDENTITY. INDIVIDUAL, GROUP AND SOCIETYFor the case of the rice genome, these could be taken from theProfesNet web site on the Internet 11 . Apart from this, it is good to givethe students a few guidelines to search for more news on the topic onthe Internet.To demythologise scienceDespite major efforts carried out in the past few years by a numberof Science educators to direct the attention of teachers and curriculumdevelopers towards history, philosophy and Science sociology, manyscientific curricula continue to promote a deficient or distorted imageof science. At the moment, researchers are concentrating on the visionof science held both by pupils and teachers.Avoiding the current stereotypesSolomon explored the stereotypes of scientists transmitted byEnglish schools 12 (supposedly originated from the teacher’s own beliefs)and those contained in curricular materials (often text books):—Scientist (he is always a white male who works on his own).—Isolated from the rest of the world (frequently working in a darkplace under electric lights).—Bald (and wearing thick glasses).—Short of money (his clothes patched all over; spiders hangingfrom the ceiling).—Carrying out risky experiments (explosions everywhere).—Surrounded by strange machinery, etc.Solomon’s methodologies were repeated (children were invited todraw a scientist and were then interviewed) in a Spanish schoolpopulation and the same results were obtained 13 . The drawings haveidentical characteristics.When students were asked to draw more than one scientist (bothmen or women), they appeared isolated from one another and, when11http://www.profes.net12Solomon, J. (1994). “Pupils’s images of scientific epistemology”. InternationalJournal of Science Education, 16, 3, pp. 361-373.13Domingo Pampliega, A. (1999). Visión de los alumnos sobre los científicos.Aportaciones a la naturaleza de la ciencia en la Educación Secundaria Obligatoria. Tesisde Maestría Máster IEPS-Universidad Carlos III, Madrid.