The Influence Caused by Users’ Preconceptions on Learning Materials of Science Education—An Example of Assessment Study for Genome Editing—

Abstract

In this study, we analyze how preconceptions regarding genetic modification affect the benefits/risk assessment for genome editing. We considered that negative prejudices against genetically modified technology would affect the understanding about genome editing, which is a similar technology. Further, we measured learners’ evaluation of genome editing using the difference in the teaching information of the relationships between genome editing and genetic modification. We conducted two experiments under the following two hypotheses: 1) preconceptions about genetic modification are reflected in the evaluation of genome editing; 2) prejudice against genetic modification affects the learning of genome editing. As a result of the experiments, hypotheses 1) and 2) were supported. The group that was rejective of genetic modification showed higher negative scores for genome editing than the group that was affective, despite learning little about the benefits/risks of genome editing. We proved that learning effects for genomic editing evaluation cannot be obtained unless it is taught that genetic modification is different from genome editing. It is advisable to grasp users’ preconceptions and to change learning materials accordingly.