A. DE SÁ FREIRE ET AL.
the time, they tried to answer the survey and the questions in
the interviews with “guesstimations” because they did not
really know what they were discussing, especially concerning
the Genome Project and genetic engineering of medicines.
Discussion
Many pieces of information concerning concepts in Bio-
technology are present in the daily news as well as in TV shows
and movies, such as the use of DNA in criminal justice cases or
paternity identification; and human cloning in films and in the
press (Jensen et al., 2008), for example, are generally perme-
ated with dangerous ideas and hope (such as finding the cure to
some genetic diseases just by concluding the Genome Project).
Also, there are contradictory views in the media and in movies
in relation to transgenics. All this misleading information usu-
ally creates confusion to the population in general. Most films,
for example, portray only the negative, the unethical and the
immoral aspect of human cloning, while the media points out
the fact that it can be used to save lives of people with genetic
diseases (Jensen et al., 2008). In spite of that, students have
clear opinions on a few matters. The results of the survey show
an approval of paternity tests (82%) and a rejection of human
cloning (62%), indicating that highly covered issues generally
follow the dominant and polar “good and bad” ideologies. Thus,
our data had internal “positive controls” that helped us analyze
the second set of answers.
The results seem to have been influenced by a popular Bra-
zilian soap opera, The Clone, exhibited a few years earlier
(2002). It emphasized the negative aspects of cloning, espe-
cially human cloning, and showed the possibility of human
cloning as something relatively easy to be done. A study using
a focal group of high schools students in Brazil analyzed this
soap opera corroborating our data indicating that, in fact, few
issues in Biotechnology and Molecular Genetics could be de-
bated properly and analyzed by students (Moreira & Mas-
sarani, 2008). Indeed, in the past years in Brazil, popular TV
shows have exhibited situations where families discuss the
paternity issue, and DNA test is the motif of these TV programs.
In addition, news programs frequently show paternity and
criminal cases were DNA tests could be applied to solve such
cases. Although such discussion has been raised by mass media,
scientific issues tend to show too superficially, leading to an
oversimplified view of Biotechnological issues (Massarani,
2005). In addition, the media often portrays a bias point of view
about scientific discoveries. Such approach does not allow peo-
ple in general to develop critical thinking about Biotechnology
(Jensen, 2008; Lind-Balta, 2006; Harms, 2002).
In this regard, it is clear that students were able to identify
some concepts linked to biotechnology a n d genet ic engineering,
such as transgenic food and DNA diagnostic tests. However,
this ability was restricted to these two themes while, for other
topics, the students’ ideas were limited to abstract and errone-
ous conceptions about issues like the Genome Project. Al-
though we did not ask this question explicitly, it was possible to
notice from the interviews, that the students acquire their notion
on biotechnology information through the media more often
than from school classes. It is assumed that school is probably a
better place to discuss these issues in-depth; that the educa-
tional institution has the most important role in individual de-
velopment and should provide an environment for the students
to develop understanding about new concepts and technologies.
But that is not what can be noticed most of the times schools do
not provide adequate infrastructure, classes have much more
students than it should, there is not sufficient time to teach what
is in the school program, and due to many issues (which will
not be discussed here) teachers are not well prepared to work
with the new issues concerning concepts in Biotechnology.
Other studies corroborate to this view. Ramón et al. (2008)
analyzed students’ knowledge about Biotechnology issues, and
Šorgo and Dolinšek (2009) focused his work on teachers’
knowledge about these topics. Both articles identified the need
of discussing the new issues in Genetics and Molecular Biology
in school, and teachers’ lack of fluency concerning Biotech-
nology issues. Our data endorse the conclusions of these previ-
ous publications. Possibly, the introduction of more Genetics
and Molecular Biology issues in school books could help stu-
dents and teachers cope with this new area.
Some basic concepts presented to students in the first year of
high school are necessary for the understanding of Genetics and
Evolution. Also, other Biotechnological issues need to be dis-
cussed in the third year. Assuming that the student learns from
what he knows about, it is necessary to present and discuss
objectively students’ difficulties about the concepts in Bio-
technology. Such difficulties are well exemplified in the stu-
dent’s speech: “Can we express ourselves sincerely? … we an-
swered based on what we could deduce here.” It is clear that
they have never discussed the new Biotechnologies properly.
So, they have no way of having concepts in Biotechnology
settled.
Unfortunately, the learning-teaching process is still based on
outdated educational books and mostly solely on lecture classes,
which tends to lead to a shallow notion of important Biotech-
nological concepts. It would, therefore, be a difficult task for
these students to behave as critical and active citizens in a con-
stantly changing society.
It was also noticed that students often mentioned that scien-
tific language sounds unfamiliar. This occurs because they have
not been in contact with scientific terminology. Thus, they
cannot understand some important relationships between some
Biotechnological advances, such as the Genome Project, ge-
netically engineered medicines and Genetic Vaccines. The su-
perficial level of students’ knowledge in such matters became
clear as they get in touch with the scientific language. It is
properly exemplified when a student expresses their miscon-
ception about genetically engineered medicine, making it a
synonym of designed-medicines in drugstores.
Teachers were questioned about their sources of information
for class planning (Xavier et al., 2006) and it was verified that
their major source was the school textbook, which is used by
students for classes as well as for studying for tests. The text-
book, as told previously, does not present up-to-date and con-
textualized contents.
Finally, we understand that our approach have limitations
since we studied only three schools, although in different loca-
tions in Rio de Janeiro state. However, it is difficult to extrapo-
late our results to other states in Brazil and even other munici-
palities in Rio. Also, we tried to better comprehend differences
between public and private schools and, in our hands, we did
not capture such differences that could also be accounted for
small sample size we used specially concerning the number of
private students enrolled. Nevertheless, our data are consistent
since we used different methodologies and have been corrobo-
rated by others in Brazil (Massarani, 2005).
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