Born this way? Exploring how genetics essentialist beliefs may influence student learning.

Presenter Information

Pamela Kalas, University of British Columbia - VancouverFollow
Maryam Moussavi, University of British Columbia - VancouverFollow

Session Type

Presentation

Room

Physics and Astronomy, room 117

Start Date

17-7-2025 11:00 AM

End Date

17-7-2025 11:30 AM

Keywords

science learning, student beliefs, genetic essentialist tendency

Primary Threads

Teaching and Learning Science

Abstract

Genetic essentialism—the belief that DNA sequences determine people’s traits, behaviours, and belonging to a category - can reinforce prejudice and discrimination^1-5. We suspect that, in addition, students’ genetic essentialist beliefs could affect their learning – not in genetics or in biology specifically, but in any discipline. How so? Join us to find out!

In the first part of our session, we’ll present findings from three years of data on students’ genetic essentialist tendencies (GET)—how strongly they agree with genetic essentialist statements. We measured these using the validated GET scale⁶, administered at the beginning and end of two first-year biology courses with genetics content. We’ll also share student quotes explaining their answer choices. Since instructors in the multi-section course taught genetics differently, and the smaller cohort-based course used a different curriculum, we’ll examine whether these variations affected GET scores. Did students’ views shift over the term? We’ll unpack what the data reveal and what it might mean for teaching across disciplines.

In the second part of the session, we’ll use selected GET scale questions and student responses to spark discussion about how genetic essentialist beliefs might influence learning across scientific disciplines. Could the way genetics is taught be shaping how students engage with physics, chemistry, geology, or math? Join us for a lively and thought-provoking conversation.

Ethics: The study was approved by UBC’s Behavioural Research Ethics Board (# H21-02538).

References cited:

1. Harden, K.P. (2023). Genetic determinism, essentialism and reductionism: semantic clarity for contested science. Nat Rev Genet, 24: 197–204. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41576-022-00537-x
2. Dar-Nimrod, I., & Heine, S. J. (2011). Genetic essentialism: on the deceptive determinism of DNA. Psychological bulletin, 137(5), 800–818. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021860
3. Donovan B. M. (2021). Ending genetic essentialism through genetics education. HGG advances, 3(1), 100058. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xhgg.2021.100058
4. Donovan, B. & Nehm, R.H. (2020). Genetics and Identity. Science & Education, 29: 1451–1458. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-020-00180-0
5. Gingell, G., & Bergemann, A. D. (2021). Disrupting Essentialism in Medical Genetics Education. Medical science educator, 32(1), 255–262. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-021-01458-w
6. Dar-Nimrod, I., Ruby, M., Godwin, A., Cheung, B., Murray, D., & Tam, K. (2023). The Genetic Essentialist Tendencies Scale (GETS): What can our genetic essentialist biases predict? Unpublished manuscript. University of Sydney.

Elements of Engagement

Participants can expect to interact with, and reflect on some of the GET scale questions, examine a set of free-form answers provided by students, and engage in reflection and discussion about the possibility that students’ (and maybe even instructors’) degree of genetic essentialist beliefs could affect learning in their discipline. The session will use some digital documents (PDFs) and a digital polling and sharing system (e.g., Mentimeter; Padlet) so we strongly encourage participants to bring their own electronic device to access these resources.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 License.