
NSF Org: |
DRL Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL) |
Recipient: |
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Initial Amendment Date: | March 15, 2017 |
Latest Amendment Date: | June 17, 2019 |
Award Number: | 1660985 |
Award Instrument: | Continuing Grant |
Program Manager: |
Michael Ford
miford@nsf.gov (703)292-5153 DRL Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings (DRL) EDU Directorate for STEM Education |
Start Date: | September 1, 2017 |
End Date: | August 31, 2024 (Estimated) |
Total Intended Award Amount: | $1,299,042.00 |
Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $1,299,042.00 |
Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2019 = $398,432.00 |
History of Investigator: |
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Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
5415 MARK DABLING BLVD COLORADO SPRINGS CO US 80918 (719)531-5550 |
Sponsor Congressional District: |
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Primary Place of Performance: |
5415 Mark Dabling Blvd. Colorado Springs CO US 80918-3842 |
Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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Parent UEI: |
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NSF Program(s): | ECR-EDU Core Research |
Primary Program Source: |
04001920DB NSF Education & Human Resource |
Program Reference Code(s): |
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Program Element Code(s): |
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Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.076 |
ABSTRACT
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.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
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This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
This line of research explored whether racial prejudice can be reduced by teaching students about the complexity of human genetics. The specific form of prejudice that this project sought to reduce is called genetic essentialism. Social-scientific studies reveal that genetic essentialist beliefs about race contribute to dehumanization of racial outgroups, disinterest in interracial friendships, racial stereotyping, and interracial hostility. Individuals who endorse genetic essentialism believe that there is a lot of genetic variation between races and little to no genetic variation among same race individuals. Therefore, they tend to believe that racial disparities in complex human traits are always caused by genetic differences between groups. Yet, research in population genetics and behavioral genetics demonstrates that essentialist beliefs are inaccurate because: (1) on average, most genetic variation occurs within human populations rather than between them; (2) complex human traits are multiply-determined by interactions between genes and environments. This project explores the hypothesis that belief in genetic essentialism can be reduced by helping students to better understand patterns of human genetic variation and the concept of multifactorial inheritance.
To explore this hypothesis, the project team conducted several studies in American schools, including six randomized trials, a quasi-experiment, and two qualitative studies. In these studies, the project team tested several educational interventions (e.g., two instructional units, and several computer-based learning modules) about patterns of human genetic variation and multifactorial inheritance; interventions they developed for the purpose of refuting essentialist beliefs about race. These interventions involved humane genetics instruction since they taught students about complex genetic concepts in order to challenge racially-prejudiced beliefs. To support the implementation of humane genetics instruction, the project team also developed a 30-hour professional development institute for teachers. Approximately, N = 2,200 secondary school students, N = 2000 undergraduates, and N = 176 adults, learned from the humane genetics interventions developed for this project. Forty high-school and undergraduate teachers also received professional development to implement humane genetics instruction in their schools.
The results of our studies pointed in the same direction: humane genetics instruction significantly reduced genetic essentialist beliefs about race. Additionally, the reduction in genetic essentialism achieved by humane genetics instruction was not significantly moderated by research participant's self-identified race or their cultural worldview, and there was no between-state variation in the treatment effect on genetic essentialism in a large, multi-state, trial that we conducted. However, humane genetics instruction was more successful at reducing genetic essentialist beliefs when it was administered after students learned about Mendelian and molecular genetics. Students who had prior knowledge about multifactorial genetics also showed greater reductions in their genetic essentialist beliefs in response to humane genetics instruction. These results suggest that humane genetics instruction will be more effective if it is implemented after students have been introduced to the basics of genetics, ideally in high school or early college.
The reduction in genetic essentialism achieved in these studies was consistently associated with increases in students' knowledge of genomics and mediated by a change in how learners modeled genetic variation in human races. Put differently, humane genetics instruction caused students to become more knowledgeable about genomics, yet students' genetic essentialist beliefs about race declined only after they developed an accurate scientific understanding of the amount of genetic variation within and between human ancestry groups. When students learned about multifactorial models of inheritance it did not directly lead to a reduction in students' genetic essentialist beliefs. Although such learning did indirectly facilitate a reduction in genetic essentialist beliefs by leading students to understand that genes have only small effects on complex human traits.
We estimate that the reduction in genetic essentialism caused by humane genetics instruction is generalizable to high schools in 20 states (Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Washington, Wyoming). Additionally, in the states where these results are generalizable, the number needed to treat is 14 (95% CI [8, 131]). This means that when a highly trained biology teacher implements humane genetics instruction in a class of 30 high schoolers, they can expect two of their students to move from believing in genetic essentialism to disbelieving it. Our research suggests that these students will instead develop the belief that race, and racism, are socially real.
Additionally, our research suggests that humane genetics instruction does not cause emotional discomfort among White or non-White students. Indeed, non-White student participants reported less anxiety, confusion, and frustration while learning from a humane genetics curriculum compared to their business-as-usual genetics curriculum. Altogether, the results of this project suggest that the prevalence of racial prejudice can be significantly reduced in the United States by changing the way we teach genetics. Moving genetics education beyond the basics of Mendelian and molecular genetics, and toward the complexity of modern genomics, can reduce racial prejudice.
Last Modified: 08/10/2024
Modified by: Brian Donovan
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