Students’ Out-Of-School Experiences, Job Priorities, and Perceptions toward Themselves as a Scientist: A Cross-cultural Study

The purpose of this study was to examine middle school students' out-of-school experiences related to science, priorities related to their future job, perception toward themselves as a scientist. One intact school was assigned randomly from each country. The study involved 479 students (363 Turkish students; 116 American students), aged between 11 and 13. It was used the survey instrument “Relevance of Science Education” was developed by an international team. Results show that for this sample there continue to be significant gender and cultural differences in science experiences and perceptions towards scientists and of careers. It is thought that the findings of this research will contribute to the development of universal education on science, to the researchers studying on comparative education, cultural diversity and also to the international literature on science education.