Reducing Racially-Biased Beliefs by Fostering a Complex Understanding of Human Genetics Research in High-School Biology Students

遗传本质论认为，同一种族的人拥有共同的基因，这些基因使他们在身体、认知和行为上都是一致的，因此与其他种族不同。该项目将完善遗传学教育课程，称为人类基因组扫盲(HGL)，以减少对遗传本质论的信仰。这项研究将为课程编写者和教育工作者提供关于如何设计人文遗传学教育的知识，以最大限度地减少学生的遗传本质主义信念，并最大限度地减少适得其反的威胁(无意中增加对本质主义的信念)。研究结果将展示如何通过使用HGL学习材料向学生讲授人类遗传学研究的复杂性，来支持那些希望减少对遗传本质论的信念的教师。项目研究成果、学习材料和专业发展机构将提供给全国各地希望教授遗传学以减少种族偏见的教育工作者和研究人员。为了为研究做准备，该项目将修改和扩充该项目现有的HGL课程和专业发展学院。在第一年，该项目将开发新版本的人类基因组干预措施。利用这些材料，该项目将培训教师在他们的课堂上实施新版本的HGL干预措施。研究人员将在教师和学生学习的过程中录制视频和音频样本。这些数据将被定性分析以：(1)检验教师、学生和材料之间的相互作用如何促进或阻碍遗传本质主义的概念变化；以及(2)识别和证实支撑逆效应的一般因素。通过这些研究构建的知识将被用于修订HGL干预措施和PDI。在第三年，使用HGL干预的修订版，该项目将进行整群随机试验(CRT)。CRT将把HGL干预措施与定义明确的“一切照常”遗传学课程进行比较，使用一个统计上强大的、不同地理位置的样本(来自33个州的N=135名教师、N=16,200名学生)。使用CRT的数据，该项目将确定干预措施降低了本质主义、对其没有影响以及适得其反的教室。然后，该项目将使用刺激回忆的方法采访这些教室里的老师和学生，以了解导致这些结果的因素。该项目将利用这些信息来制定卫生保健系统干预措施和个人发展倡议材料的最终版本。到第四年年底，该项目将培训另外90-100名教师使用HGL干预措施，惠及至少33个不同州的10,800-12,000名学生。探索研究PREK-12计划(DRK-12)旨在通过研究和开发创新资源、模型和工具，显著提高Pre-K-12学生和教师在科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)方面的学习和教学。DRK-12计划中的项目建立在STEM教育的基础研究和先前的研究和开发工作的基础上，为拟议的项目提供了理论和经验上的证明。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Genetic essentialism is the belief that people of the same race share genes that make them physically, cognitively, and behaviorally uniform, and thus different from other races. The project will refine a genetics education curriculum, called Humane Genome Literacy (HGL), in order to reduce belief in genetic essentialism. This research will provide curriculum writers and educators with knowledge about how to design a humane genetics education to maximize reductions in students’ genetic essentialist beliefs and minimize the threat of backfiring (unintentionally increasing belief in essentialism). The research findings will demonstrate how to support teachers who wish to reduce beliefs in genetic essentialism by teaching students about the complexity of human genetics research using the HGL learning materials. Project research findings, learning materials, and professional development institutes will be made available to educators and researchers across the country who desire to teach genetics to reduce racial prejudice. To prepare for the research, the project will revise and augment the project’s existing HGL curriculum and professional development institutes. In year one, the project will develop new versions of the HGL interventions. Using these materials, the project will train teachers to implement new versions of the HGL interventions in their classrooms. Researchers will video and audio record a sample of teachers and students as they learn. These data will be analyzed qualitatively to: (1) examine how the conceptual change of genetic essentialism was promoted or impeded by interactions between teachers, students, and the materials; and (2) identify and corroborate general factors undergirding the backfiring effect. Knowledge constructed through these studies will be used to revise the HGL interventions and PDIs. In year three, using the revised versions of the HGL intervention, the project will conduct a cluster randomized trial (CRT). The CRT will compare the HGL interventions to a well-defined “business as usual” genetics curriculum, using a statistically powerful and geographically diverse sample (N = 135 teachers, N = 16,200 students, from 33 states). Using data from the CRT, the project will identify classrooms where the interventions reduced essentialism, had no effect on it, and where it backfired. Then, the project will use stimulated recall methods to interview the teachers and students in those classrooms to make sense of factors that contributed to these outcomes. The project will use this information to develop the final version of the HGL interventions and PDI materials. By the end of year four, the project will have trained an additional 90-100 teachers to use HGL interventions, reaching an additional 10,800-12,000 students, in at least 33 different states. The Discovery Research preK-12 program (DRK-12) seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools. Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.