An exploration of attitudes towards modern biotechnology: a study among Dutch secondary school students

Modern biotechnology will have a large impact on society and requires informed decision-making and critical attitudes toward biotechnology among the public. This study aims to explore these attitudes in secondary education. For this purpose, a questionnaire was constructed according to the general tripartite theory of attitudes. 574 Dutch secondary school students completed the questionnaire. Based on principal component analyses, several distinct and independent cognitive, affective, and behavioural factors were found, demonstrating that attitudes towards biotechnology are a multi-component concept. In a cluster analysis on these factors, we found four interpretable clusters representing different groups of students. The four groups are labelled as 'confident supporter' (22%), 'not sure' (42%), 'concerned sceptic' (18%) and 'not for me' (17%). These results indicate that there is a diverse appraisal of modern biotechnology amongst secondary school students. Suggestions for educational interventions are made

Attitudes of Secondary School Students towards Modern Biotechnology

I interviewed a group of four sixteen-year old secondary school students about their attitudes towards modern biotechnology. When I asked them what they knew about this subject, one girl responded: “Well, I know it’s about genes, they are located in your DNA, and within your genes is all the information for your body …or something like that.” Her fellow student immediately reacted: “It’s about genetic manipulation; they can change something without you knowing about it.” One of the two boys in the group could not care less and just said: “It’s boring! It is something for smart people, not for me.” When I asked them about their feelings towards it, the first girl said: “I find it very interesting and fascinating, that they can do stuff like that.” The other girl was not that convinced, and replied: “I think it’s like playing God, manipulating everything can not be good.” While the other boy in the group had not made up his mind: “I really don’t know what to think about it now, no one in my family is sick or anything, so for now it does not concern me.” Four students with four different ways of looking at and responding to modern biotechnology; one of the girls in the group was very aware and interested, while the other girl was reluctant. One boy did not really care, while the other boy was not sure what to think of it. They all differed in their knowledge, feelings and beliefs, but they all had some kind of attitude towards modern biotechnology. In this dissertation, two issues with regard to the interaction of modern biotechnology and secondary school students will be investigated. The first issue concerns the question what young people currently know about modern biotechnology, and what their underlying views and opinions are. In other words, what are the attitudes towards modern biotechnology of secondary school students? This introduction will present a description of modern biotechnology (genomics), followed by the concept of attitudes, and attitudes towards modern biotechnology. Students’ attitudes towards modern biotechnology constitute the building blocks of this thesis. The second issue examines the way science education may help students not only to develop their levels of knowledge, but also to invite students to reflect upon modern biotechnology and develop their attitudes to more profound levels. The need for scientific literacy and the role of science education herein is highlighted

Education through fiction: acquiring opinion-forming skills in the context of genomics

This study examined the outcomes of a newly designed four-lesson science module on opinion-forming in the context of genomics in upper secondary education. The lesson plan aims to foster sixteen-year-old students’ opinion-forming skills in the context of genomics and to test the effect of the use of fiction in the module. The basic hypothesis tested in this study is whether fiction stimulates students to develop opinions with regard to socio-scientific issues. A quasi-experimental pre- and post-test design was used, involving two treatment groups and one control group. One of the experimental groups received a science module incorporating movie clips (i.e. the movie group). The other experimental group received the same science module, however, only news report clips were used (i.e. the news report group). Prior to and after the module, 266 secondary school students completed a questionnaire to test their opinion-forming skills. The results demonstrate that the science module had a significant positive effect on students’ opinion-forming skills and that the movie group improved their skills more compared to the news report group. It may be concluded that the use of fiction, to be more specific movie clips about genomics extracted from feature films, to introduce a socio-scientific issue in the classroom stimulates students to develop their opinion-forming skills

Effects of a science education module on attitudes towards modern biotechnology of secondary school students

This article evaluated the impact of a four-lesson science module on the attitudes of secondary school students. This science module (on cancer and modern biotechnology) utilises several design principles, related to a social constructivist perspective on learning. The expectation was that the module would help students become more articulate in this particular field. In a quasi-experimental design (experimental-, control groups and pre- and post-tests) secondary school students’ attitudes (N=365) towards modern biotechnology were measured by a questionnaire. Data were analyzed using chi-square tests. Significant differences were obtained between the control and experimental conditions. Results showed that the science module had a significant effect on attitudes, although predominantly towards a more supportive and not towards a more critical stance. It is discussed that offering a science module of this kind can indeed encourage students to become more aware of modern biotechnology, although promoting a more critical attitude towards modern biotechnology should receive more attention

An exploration of attitudes towards modern biotechnology; A study among Dutch secondary school students

International audienceModern biotechnology will have a large impact on society and requires informed decision-making and critical attitudes toward biotechnology among the public. This study aims to explore these attitudes in secondary education. For this purpose, a questionnaire was constructed according to the general tripartite theory of attitudes. 574 Dutch secondary school students completed the questionnaire. Based on principal component analyses, several distinct and independent cognitive, affective, and behavioural factors were found, demonstrating that attitudes towards biotechnology are a multi-component concept. In a cluster analysis on these factors, we found four interpretable clusters representing different groups of students. The four groups are labelled as ‘confident supporter' (22%), ‘not sure' (42%), ‘concerned sceptic' (18%) and ‘not for me' (17%). These results indicate that there is a diverse appraisal of modern biotechnology amongst secondary school students. Suggestions for educational interventions are made