Abstract:

In this communication, I will describe how incorporation of electronic survey in teaching especially on themes that are controversial such as ‘Genetic Discrimination’ can enhance receptiveness and increase participation as well as making learning active and relevant to a large class consisting of students from various disciplines and different academic backgrounds. This will engage students with contemporary issues and potential problems that require critical thinking and to allow them to voice out their collective opinions as a class. It also simulates representative opinions of the society since the students are from diverse academic backgrounds. To learn about genetic discrimination using information obtained elsewhere is one thing but to be involved in generating the data and to observe genetic discrimination happening before the class takes learning into a higher level. It allows students to experience the complexity of some issues at the societal level in the real world as we go through conflicting opinions, and also think of possible solutions. I will present data collected over three years, spanning six academic semesters involving more than 1500 students. The findings suggest that discrimination based on personal genetic information can occur and it is important that public are educated and regulation are in place to prevent, if not minimize, such discrimination if access to personal genetic information are made available to the public.

Keywords:

Active Laerning, Electronic Survey, Genetics, Society.