A dozen teachers volunteered to participate in a study led by Brian Donovan, a science education researcher at the nonprofit BSCS Science Learning, to see the effect of inserting the topic of race and ancestry into science classrooms on students’ attitudes about race. “Teachers participating in the training said that student beliefs about racial genetic differences at their schools surface in offhand pronouncements about who can dance and who is smart. They also lurk, some suggested, behind the expressions of intolerance that have recently marked many American schools. And what students learn about human genetic variation, teachers said, can lead to misguided conclusions: ‘They know DNA causes differences in skin color,’ said a teacher from Washington State, ‘and they make the logical jump that DNA causes ‘race.’” To read the complete article, click here.
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