Longitudinal twin study of early literacy development: Preschool through Grade 1

Grade 1 literacy skills of twin children in Australia (New South Wales) and the United States (Colorado) were explored in a genetically sensitive design (N = 319 pairs). Analyses indicated strong genetic influence on word and nonword identification, reading comprehension, and spelling. Rapid naming showed more modest, though reliable, genetic influence. Phonological awareness was subject to high nonshared environment and no reliable genetic effects, and individual measures of memory and learning were also less affected by genes than nonshared environment. Multivariate analyses showed that the same genes affected word identification, reading comprehension, and spelling. Country comparisons indicated that the patterns of genetic influence on reading and spelling in Grade 1 were similar, though for the U.S. but not the Australian children new genes came on stream in the move from kindergarten to Grade 1. We suggest that this is because the more intensive kindergarten literacy curriculum in New South Wales compared with Colorado, consistent with the mean differences between the two countries, means that more of the genes are “online” sooner in Australia because of accelerated overall reading development.     

“金课”背景下“遗传学”课程建设的探索与思考

“遗传学”是农林类高等院校农学类专业最重要的专业基础课程之一,对培养学生的实践及创新能力、提高其综合素质具有重要作用。经过多年的教学发展,湖南农业大学“遗传学”课程取得了良好的教学效果,但在实践教学中仍然存在一些突出问题,有待进一步改革和完善。因此,通过分析湖南农业大学农学类专业“遗传学”课程的教学现状及当前教学过程中面临的问题,提出了相应的解决方案,旨在进一步提高“遗传学”课程的教学质量和水平,为建设一流学科奠定基础。     

“It’s the X and Y Thing”: Cross-sectional and Longitudinal Changes in Children’s Understanding of Genes

Studies from different theoretical traditions investigating children’s inheritance and genetics concepts have adopted a cross-sectional method. This paper is the first to examine both cross-sectional and longitudinal changes in children’s basic genetic concepts. It forms part of a larger investigation into the development of intuitive inheritance and genetics concepts in childhood. Four age cohorts (4–5 years, 7–8 years, 10–11 years, 14–15 years) were interviewed individually at two measurement occasions (T1, N = 182; T2, N = 164) separated by a 1-year interval. Cross-sectional analyses revealed an increase in children’s knowledge of genetics by 10 years. Between 10 and 14 years, there were fewer changes in the content of children’s knowledge, especially at the level of scientific genetic understanding. There was little evidence of longitudinal changes over the 1-year period. Overall, children may hold an understanding of genetics that is tied to knowledge of inheritance within families. This may pose challenges for acquiring more abstract and formal concepts of genes.     

高职生物类课程科研促进教学的探索--以细胞生物学和医学遗传学为例

以细胞生物学和医学遗传学为例,将教师的科研范例、查新前沿适当引入教学,带领学生利用课余时间参与教师的科研课题,激发学生主动学习的热情,培养其科研思维与创新意识,促进高职生物类课程教学质量提升。     

从遗传学一题多解中培养学生的能力

通过对遗传学一题多解,探讨解题的思路和方法,以利于学生巩固和融会贯通所学知识,全面掌握遗传学的基本概念、规律、理论和基本研究方法,培养学生分析问题和解决问题的能力。     

Lost Choices and Eugenic Dreams: Wrongful Birth Lawsuits in Popular News Narratives

The discourses of wrongful birth lawsuits can provide important insights into the ways in which genetic models of health and responsibility are manifesting themselves in the twenty-first century. These lawsuits emphasize the concept of individual choice in ways that largely elide a significant narrowing in our understandings of what it means to be healthy. By placing the focus on the individual, the discussions of disability and the lack of social support for those with disability disappears from the conversation, making abortion seem like the only moral, and responsible, choice for families facing the possibility of a disabled child.     

Race and Genetics from a Modal Materialist Perspective

Prevailing idealist and materialist theories of rhetoric fail to account for the continual circulation and recirculation of “racism” as a scientific discourse. An alternative theory of modal materialism addresses this problem by suggesting that the properties of all being are constituted through three distinguishable forms of matter that include the “physical,” the “biological,” and the “symbolic.” A sufficiently lush and nimble conceptualization of human action requires consideration of the interaction of all three modes in theory and in practice. The theory of modal materialism is illustrated through a consideration of the discourse of race and genetics as it was recirculated and modified in 2005 and 2006 by publications in the journal Science, and which were amplified for a larger reading public through circulation in the New York Times.     

Reconsidering conceptual change from a socio-cultural perspective: analyzing students’ meaning making in genetics in collaborative learning activities

In the learning sciences, students’ understanding of scientific concepts has often been approached in terms of conceptual change. These studies are grounded in a cognitive or a socio-cognitive approach to students’ understanding and imply a focus on the individuals’ mental representations of scientific concepts and ideas. We approach students’ conceptual change from a socio-cultural perspective as they make new meaning in genetics. Adhering to a socio-cultural perspective, we emphasize the discursive and interactional aspects of human learning and understanding. This perspective implies that the focus is on students’ meaning making processes in collaborative learning activities. In the study, we conduct an analysis of a group of students’ who interact while working to solve problems in genetics. In our analyses we emphasize four analytical aspects of the students’ meaning making: (a) the students’ use of resources in problematizing, (b) teacher interventions, (c) changes in interactional accomplishments, and (d) the institutional aspect of meaning making. Our findings suggest that students’ meaning making surrounding genetics concepts relates not only to an epistemic concern but also to an interactional and an institutional concern.

“问卷星”在医学遗传学随堂测验中的应用

本文对"问卷星"的应用及研究现状进行了概述,并完美地应用到了《医学遗传学》的随堂测验中,对掌握学生学习情况及学生平时成绩的评定起到了至关重要的作用。