Multiple Representations of Human Genetics in Biology Textbooks

Multiple ways of representing the emerging new genetic knowledge and its implications have resulted from recent research including the Human Genome Project. In this chapter, we discuss that the presentation of human genetics is now less deterministic, formulated in a more systemic approach, taking into account the interaction between the genes and their environment (epigenetics), discussing the notion of biological determinism, and including connections with ethical and social implications. How are these new genetic trends represented today in biology textbooks? Do multiple ways exist across cultures, languages, and countries? Two complementary sets of data are presented and discussed: (1) the representation of human genetic diseases in French biology textbooks, showing a frequent absence of a systemic approach with nevertheless some exceptions; and (2) a comparative analysis of biology textbooks in 16 countries, showing the common similarity in their use of an implicit message through the same clothes and hairstyle of identical twins, but strong differences--in their use of the metaphor genetic program--which depended on the sociocultural context of each country. We argue that the renewal of the taught representations of human genetics is not only correlated with the renewal of scientific knowledge, but also with implicit values underlying each country's sociocultural context

A GENDER EFFECT RELATED TO TEACHERS' CONCEPTIONS ON BIOLOGICAL GENDER DIFFERENCES. A SURVEY IN 14 COUNTRIES

In the context of the European research project Biohead-Citizen, 5,706 in-service and pre-service teachers from 14 countries (most in Europe, but also in Africa and Middle East) filled in a questionnaire containing 16 questions mainly related to the existence and to the origins of differences between men and women. We analyse the teachers' answers on biological gender differences, as possible interactions between their scientific knowledge (K) and values (V). Nine questions were focused on possible KV interactions, dealing with biological and / or social differences between men and women. Five questions were related only to scientific knowledge and two questions only to values. In each country we applied the questionnaire to six different samples : pre-service and in-service primary schools teachers , and biology and national language upper schools teachers . The answers were submitted to multivariate analyses. The results confirm that biology teachers have more scientific knowledge on this issue than their colleagues. Nevertheless, the answers to questions related to sexist or hereditarianist values show very significant differences among countries, the less economically developed countries being more sexist than the other ones. There is a significant gender effect for the sexist variables. The ratio men / women being different from one country to another, and inside the six samples in each country, we suppressed these two effects to show that the gender effect is still significant independently to these variables. Female teachers are significantly less sexist than their male colleagues

The genetic determinism of human performances. A comparison between teachers' conceptions in Finland and France

International audienceFinland has the best mean sciences scores among the OECD countries while France is in the OECD average (PISA 2006). Nevertheless, when measuring interactions between knowledge and values in teachers' conceptions, the comparison between the two countries shows surprising results. In the context of the European research project Biohead-Citizen, in-service and pre-service teachers filled out a questionnaire including 31 questions related to the genetic determinism of human performances. The samples (732 in France, 306 in Finland) comprised Primary School teachers and Secondary School Biology and Language teachers. The answers to the questions dealing with only scientific knowledge, or with only social values, did not differ with the country. Nevertheless, there are very significant differences for the interactions between knowledge and values mainly related to innatism: for instance, Finnish teachers more agree with the proposition "there are genetic factors in parents that predispose their children to be good in school" (or "good violinists"); or with "It is for biological reasons that women more often than men take care of housekeeping". Our results are analysed with different statistical tests including multivariate analyses. They are then discussed, taking into account the respective content of school textbooks in the two countries

Teachers' conceptions of biological determinism in five countries: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France and Italy

e-book: http://www.esera.org/media/eBook_2013/strand%2012/Pierre_Clement_09Jan2014.pdfInternational audienceThe interaction between the genome and its environment (epigenetics) is a new paradigm in biology. Nevertheless, the notion of genetic determinism is still present in syllabuses and textbooks. What about teachers' conceptions? We analyzed the teachers' conceptions related to the genetic determinism of human performances in five European countries, using 24 questions of the Biohead-Citizen questionnaire. The conceptions of the 2038 teachers, when grouped by country, show clear and significant differences, being more deterministic in the three countries of North Europe (Finland, Estonia, Denmark) than in Italy and France, and more sexist for only some of the related questions. When grouped by religion, the differences are significant but disappear after suppression of the country effect, while this last one does not disappear after suppression of the religion effect: there is no specific religion effect. There is a gender effect (female teachers being more feminist), an effect of the level of instruction at University (the most instructed teachers having more knowledge but also some more tolerant attitudes), and an effect of age (the oldest believing more in genetic determinism). A Co-Inertia analysis shows significant correlations between teachers' answers on genetic determinism with their political opinions: genetic determinism (as belief of heredity of intelligence) and intolerant attitudes (as sexism and racism) are correlated with the most conservative political opinions. Finally, we found a specific and paradoxical effect of biology training of teachers: biologist teachers have, without surprise, more knowledge than their colleagues, but are also more convinced of the importance of genetic determinism: their training in biology still needs to be improved by introducing the most recent concepts of genetics, as epigenetics

Les conceptions d'enseignants de 14 pays sur le déterminisme génétique de certaines performances et comportements humains.

National audienceLa génétique humaine vient de tourner le dos à l'ère du "tout-génétique" qui réduisait à un déterminisme génétique toute performance ou comportement humain, alors que ceux-ci émergent aussi d'apprentissages socioculturels dont le support biologique est l'épigenèse cérébrale. Les conceptions des enseignants ont-elles suivi ces changements ? Notre travail analyse les réponses de 5706 enseignants et futurs enseignants de 14 pays à des questions relatives à ces déterminismes génétiques. Leurs conceptions sont étudiées en tant qu'interactions entre valeurs et connaissances scientifiques, au moyen d'analyses multivariées. Elles varient très significativement d'un pays à un autre, mais elles sont aussi corrélées de façon plus ransversale à des convictions religieuses et politiques. Les valeurs qui fondent les conceptions innéistes / héréditaristes s'articulent le plus souvent sur des connaissances scientifiques périmées, issues de l'ère du tout-génétique, en particulier dans les six pays non européens de notre échantillon. Inversement, en Italie et en France, l'interaction KV (connaissances / valeurs) s'appuie sur des connaissances plus actuelles et des valeurs moins fatalistes. Cependant, dans certains pays comme la Finlande, des conceptions héréditaristes co-habitent avec des connaissances scientifiques assez actualisées. L'importance d'analyser ces interactions est soulignée pour rendre l'enseignement de la biologie plus citoyen

Images of twins and the notion of the genetic program in the school textbooks of biology: a comparative study held among 15 countries

Genetic concepts have been strongly evolved during these last ten years, and have been found less connected to reductionist or hereditarist values. The aim of the specific research was to analyze and identify if the current school textbooks of biology ensue this progress, in the way the topic “human genetics” is taught in the textbooks of 15 different countries. Results show that the notion of the genetic program remained central in some countries, while it fades behind the notion of genetic information in some others. In addition, almost all the twins’ pictures demonstrate the following pattern: they are identically dressed and they have the same hairstyle, which gives evidence of a strong obstinacy of a determinist reductionist ideology.European project FP6 Biohead-Citizen CIT2-CT-2004-506015.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - LIBEC/CIFPEC - Unidade de investigação (16/644)

Teachers' conceptions on environment and GMO in twelve europen countries

We analyze the conceptions of 4248 teachers on Environment and GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms), in 12 European countries: Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania. Most of the differences between teachers' conceptions are observed inside each country. Some of them (related to preservation or utilization of Environment) significantly differentiate the 12 countries. Biology teachers have more knowledge on GMO and more opinions pro- GMO than their colleagues. Female teachers are significantly more anti-GMO than their male colleagues. More a teacher studied at University, more he or she thinks that the resources of our planet are limited.CIEC – Research Centre on Child Studies, IE, UMinho (FCT R&D unit 317), Portuga

TPACK of teacher educators: a study across six countries

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Workshop : Quantitative analysis of research data: Introduction to R Statistical Software

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