Towards a More Human(e) Genetics Education: Exploring how Knowledge of Genetic Variation and Causation Affects Racial Bias among Adolescents

这个项目利用了遗传学教学和与种族成见发展相关的心理偏见之间的关系。之前的研究表明，当学生以特定的方式教授遗传学时，它会增加错误的假设。例如，了解非洲人后裔中镰状细胞性贫血的流行情况和欧洲人后裔中囊性纤维化的流行情况，可以导致初中生和高中生推断，由于遗传因素，种族群体在智力、学习能力和科学能力方面存在差异。相反，教育干预告诉学生，种族内部比种族之间存在更多的基因差异，这可以减少人们对基因导致种族群体在智力、学术和科学能力方面存在差异的看法。尚不清楚的是，为什么人类遗传学教育会导致青春期种族偏见的这些变化？使用实验、准实验和定性研究方法，这项研究将确定将人类遗传学的学习与减少种族偏见联系起来的认知、社会和教育因素。在这样做的过程中，这个项目将探索在生物课堂上学习人类差异如何影响青少年在课堂外如何看待不同种族的人。因此，这项工作可以帮助教育工作者理解如何以对社会负责的方式教授关于人类差异的科学。该项目得到了教育和人力资源核心研究计划的支持，该计划为STEM学习和学习环境的基础研究、扩大STEM的参与和STEM劳动力发展提供资金。本项目将调查影响和/或缓和反本质主义遗传学教育对青春期显性和隐性种族偏见影响的因素。种族遗传本质论是一种心理偏见，它导致人们低估存在于种族内部的实际遗传变异性，而高估存在于种族之间的遗传变异性。研究表明，这种偏见与西方社会跨人类发展和跨文化的种族陈规定型观念和偏见的发展有关。本质论还与对生物变异和进化的误解有关。本质主义、种族偏见和生物学误解之间的联系，部分是由于本质主义世界观与生物学理论和数据不一致的事实。本项目将探索在初中和高中生物课堂上实施反本质主义遗传学干预，以了解这种干预是否以及如何减少隐性和显性形式的种族偏见。这项工作的中心将是实施现有的反本质主义遗传学教育干预措施，该干预措施已被证明可以减少青少年中明显形式的种族偏见。在第一阶段，该项目将使用有声思考方案和定性方法来确定调节学生如何对干预材料进行推理的社会和认知因素。在第二阶段，将使用比较中断的时间序列、学生的焦点小组以及基于视频的干预教学分析来确定社会和认知变量，这些变量是干预对种族偏见影响的潜在中介因素。在第三阶段，将使用分组的个人随机试验来测试预先登记的调解和/或调节机制，这些机制将干预与减少隐性和显性种族偏见联系起来。在研究的每个阶段，将利用对因果机制的发展知识来修改干预材料，使其在提高遗传素养和减少青少年中的种族偏见方面更加有效。

This project draws on the relation between genetics instruction and psychological biases associated with the development of racial stereotyping. Previous research has suggested that when students are taught genetics in particular ways, it increases faulty assumptions. For example, learning about the prevalence of sickle cell anemia in people of African descent and the prevalence of Cystic Fibrosis in people of European descent can cause middle and high school students to infer that racial groups vary in intelligence, academic ability, and science ability because of genetics. Conversely, educational interventions which teach students that there is more genetic variation within races rather than between them can reduce the belief that genes cause racial groups to differ in their intellectual, academic, and science abilities. What is still unknown is why does human genetics education cause these changes in racial bias during adolescence? Using experimental, quasi-experimental, and qualitative research methods, this research will identify the cognitive, social, and educational factors that link the learning of human genetics to reductions in racial bias. In doing so, this project will explore how learning about human difference in the biology classroom affects how adolescents view people of different races outside of the classroom. Consequently, this work could help educators understand how to teach about the science of human difference in a socially-responsible manner. This project is supported by the Education and Human Resources Core Research program, which funds fundamental research in STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development. This project will investigate factors that mediate and/or moderate the impact of an anti-essentialist genetics education on explicit and implicit forms of racial bias during adolescence. Genetic essentialism of race is a psychological bias which leads people to underestimate the actual genetic variability that exists within races and to overestimate the genetic variability that exists between races. Studies have established that this bias is implicated in the development of racial stereotyping and prejudice across human development and across cultures in Western societies. Essentialism is also associated with misconceptions about biological variation and evolution. The links between essentialism, racial bias, and biological misconceptions are due, in part, to the fact that essentialist worldviews are inconsistent with biological theory and data. This project will explore the enactment of an anti-essentialist genetics intervention in the context of middle and high school biology classrooms to understand whether and how this intervention reduces implicit and explicit forms of racial bias. The work will center on the implementation of an existing anti-essentialist genetics education intervention which has been shown to reduce explicit forms of racial bias among adolescents. In phase one, the project will use think-aloud protocols and qualitative methods to identify the social and cognitive factors which moderate how students reason in response to intervention materials. In phase two, a comparative interrupted time series, focus groups with students, and video-based analyses of the teaching of the intervention will be used to identify social and cognitive variables that are potential mediators of intervention effects on racial bias. In phase three, an individually randomized trial with clustering will be used to test pre-registered mediating and/or moderating mechanisms that link the intervention to reductions in implicit and explicit racial bias. During each phase of the study, developing knowledge of the causal mechanism will be used to revise the intervention materials to make them more effective at increasing genetic literacy and reducing racial bias among adolescents.