Author(s):
Need. Essentialist ideas about race—that racial groups are meaningfully determined by biology—are both common and harmful. Students who incorrectly believe that racial groups are based in biology have a harder time grasping genetics concepts (Lynch et al. 2018). Further, they are less inclined to interact with others they perceive as different from them (Keller 2005), are less motivated to address inequality (Donovan 2017) and are more likely to agree with racial stereotypes (Bastian et al. 2006). Instructors can address these incorrect ideas about genetics and race through curricular changes. However, developing effective interventions requires both understanding how students conceptualize race in a biology context and being able to assess those beliefs to measure the impacts of teaching (AERA 2014). While there are some existing tools in the literature, these focus on populations outside of undergraduate biology classrooms, are not built on robust validity evidence, or have no cohesive theoretical basis underpinning student beliefs. We seek to develop an instrument that addresses these gaps. Guiding questions. Our process has been grounded in three guiding questions: 1) what beliefs about race are students bringing into the biology classroom?, 2) what cognitive resources are they drawing on to support and justify those beliefs?, and 3) how can we assess those beliefs to guide the improvement of classroom instruction? Outcomes. Using existing surveys, literature on student race conceptions, and interviews with students, we have developed a theoretical model of student beliefs of genetic essentialism. To synthesize this model, we analyzed 20 theoretical frameworks in the literature and identified over 15 distinct theoretical belief components of interest. These were integrated through multiple iterative rounds of mind-mapping and expert feedback. With this model as our basis, we are developing a psychometrically tested instrument to better understand student thinking. Semi-structured interviews with students have shown examples of different ways students build and justify their belief systems, informing further revisions to our model and highlighting examples of essentialist beliefs in action. We used this data to build a comprehensive set of possible assessment items, and we are currently in the process of testing and revising them to create a full instrument. Broader impacts. This assessment will help instructors to better understand how students think about genetics and race and to evaluate the efficacy of course changes or targeted interventions at addressing specific incorrect ideas.
Coauthors
Joel R. Schneider, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; Jaron M. Magstadt, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; Allison R. Blaskowski, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; Annika K. Pokorny, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; Alyssa N. Olson, University of Nebraska, Lincoln; Katherine L. Furniss, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; A. Kelly Lane, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
