Students' Knowledge of, and Attitudes towards Biotechnology Revisited, 1995-2014: Changes in Agriculture Biotechnology but Not in Medical Biotechnology

Modern biotechnology is one of the most important scientific and technological revolutions in the 21st century, with an increasing and measurable impact on society. Development of biotechnology curriculum has become important to high school bioscience classrooms. This study has monitored high school students in Taiwan on their knowledge of and attitudes towards biotechnology for nearly two decades. Not surprisingly, knowledge of biotechnology of current students has increased significantly (p < 0.001) and most students have learned some definitions and examples of biotechnology. There was a positive correlation between biotechnology knowledge and attitudes toward biotechnology for current students who study Advanced Biology (AB). However, for current students who did not study AB, there was a negative correlation.The attitude results showed that students today expressed less favorable opinions toward agricultural biotechnology (p < 0.001) despite studying AB or not. However, there is no significant difference between students today and 18 years ago in opinions towards medical biotechnology. In addition, current students showed a greater concern involving environmental risks than former students. Interestingly, the high school curriculum did affect students' attitudes toward genetically engineered (GE) plants but not GE animals. Our current study also found that the students' attitude towards GE animals was influenced more by their limited knowledge than by their moral belief. On the basis of findings from this study, we suggest that more materials of emerging animal biotechnology should be included in high school curriculum and recommend that high school teachers and university faculty establish a collaborative framework in the near future. © 2016 by The International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 44(5):475–491, 2016.

genetic engineering; students' attitudes; GE animals; agricultural biotechnology; medical biotechnology

Modern biotechnology, involving genetic engineering, genomics and its associated technologies, is one of the most important scientific and technological revolutions in 21st century [1] . However, this technology also raises many controversial issues regarding the risk, ethics, and usefulness of its products [2] , [3] . It is essential that young pupils can learn basic concepts of this technology in school so that they can contribute public debate and make personal decision in the future [4] . To achieve this goal, science education has to adapt to the development of biotechnology.

People usually hold different beliefs and opinions about new technology. Since the last two decades, many researchers have investigated students' perceptions of biotechnology. Some reports confirmed a positive correlation of knowledge and attitudes [5] , [6] , [7] while others found that being knowledgeable about biotechnology did not always affect attitudes [8] , [9] , [10] . Fonseca et al. [7] suggested that high school education determines perceptions and behaviour toward biotechnology instead of gender. As well, non‐science students have some knowledge of biotechnology. Most students were found to have positive attitudes toward different applications of biotechnology except for animal manipulation.

Even though the research of GE animals has increased significantly in these years, the negative attitudes are not only present among students but also among some teachers. The researchers showed that genetic modifications (GM) microorganisms and plants are more acceptable by Slovenian teachers than GM animals. They accepted the GMO products which are not directly used for consumption [10] .

The reason that students have more negative attitudes toward GE animals is not clear. One of the purposes of this study is to evaluate students' attitudes toward transgenic animal and try to know their reasoning in Taiwan high school. This study will help teachers prepare their class materials according to their students' current understanding.

In our previous study from 1995, we compared students' knowledge and attitudes of biotechnology and genetic engineering in Taiwan with those in the United Kingdom [11] . Taiwan high school students' understanding of biotechnology and genetic engineering was poorer as compared with those in UK. At that time, school teachers may not have updated their biotechnology knowledge. We also found a large gap between school science education, industry and research institute publications in many countries [11] , [12] . Some approaches to bridge the gap between research practices and science education were performed in a number of countries [12] .

The educational policy in Taiwan has changed greatly over the last few decades, so is the high school curriculum. New textbooks (current General Biology) include a lot of materials about gene technology including application of genetic engineering, recombinant DNA technology, GMO, and ethical issues (Table [NaN] , Appendix I) while textbooks (old General Biology) at 18 years ago did not include any information about gene technology.

Comparison of the textbooks in the past and the present

1 Key: General Biology is a required course for all of high school students.

2 Advance Biology are taken only for the second or third year of students who enrolled science and biology program.

Furthermore, Advanced Biology is only required for students who enrolled science and biology program in their second or third year in high school. Current Advance Biology textbooks mention much more gene technology than those of 18 years ago. For example, current Advanced Biology textbooks (current AB textbooks) mention disease, and pest resistant crops, herbicide tolerant crops, salt‐tolerant plants, DNA vaccination, gene therapy, gene cloning, reproductive cloning, genomics, and many ethical issues; while the official Advanced Biology textbook (old AB textbooks) at 18 years ago described that the development of genetic engineering may played a great contribution to mankind, but did not cover any materials about applications of genetic engineering and their accompanied ethical issues (Table [NaN] , Appendix I).

Lumpe et al. [13] reported the textbooks played a major role in science teaching and the textbooks should be designed very deliberately. Especially, the education system in Taiwan is exam oriented, teachers instruct their students according to textbooks [11] . Although Taiwan high school biology textbooks have changed greatly, we are interested how the current high school curriculum affects students' attitudes toward genetic engineering. Since not similar investigations of Taiwan students were undertaken, the aim of this study is to compare students' knowledge of and attitudes towards biotechnology in two different periods (1995 vs. 2014).

To create the curriculum with up‐date genomics knowledge, we try the collaboration of high school teachers and university faculty. The teaching activity helps us to see whether the students' attitude towards biotechnology would be changed or not. We aim to provide some suggestions to high schools teachers in designing a better biotechnology curriculum.

The questionnaire adapted from Chen and Raffan [11] included 2 open ended questions and Likert type attitude scale with 17 statements, which was intended for the age group between 17 and 18 years old. Students' levels of knowledge to biotechnology are based on the answers of open ended questions in the questionnaire (Appendix A). Before the survey, a pilot test was conducted on eight students in November 2013 to see if the students can complete the survey in 15 min. The questionnaire was then distributed to two schools in the south of Taiwan. The subjects of the test were students despite of taking Advance Biology or not. Data were analysed using t‐test with 5% significance. The relationship between students' knowledge and attitude was examined using Pearson's and Spearman's rank correlation. In all statistical analyses, a p‐value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

A total of 382 students with 183 students in 1995 and 199 students in 2014 from 6 different public high schools which are ranked top 12% level in Taiwan participated in this study. These students including vegetarian and not vegetarian come from different social and cultural backgrounds. To obtain representative and unbiased samples, we chose males and females who studied AB or not.

The questionnaire includes 17 closed questions and 2 open questions as described by Chen and Raffin [11] . Two open questions were used to examine students' knowledge of gene technology. The 17 closed questions which were concerning students' attitudes were divided into 5 parts: (1) general attitude; (2) plants; (3) animals; (4) risk, and (5) medicine (Appendix A).

The two open‐ended questions are as follows.

What does genetic engineering mean?

Please give some examples of genetic engineering that you aware of.

The purposes of this study aim at the following:

What are differences between students now and those at 18 years ago in their knowledge of genetic engineering? Have students' attitudes towards genetic engineering and biotechnology changed? Does the high school curriculum affect students' attitudes about genetic engineering?

The appropriate biology curriculum for high school students is proposed.

There are three major reasons for this study. First, there is limited research on students' knowledge of and attitudes towards biotechnology in Taiwan. Second, biotechnology has become an important part in Taiwan high school biology curriculum. It is important to know if students have access to appropriate emerging biotechnology content. This study tries to assess if the knowledge from new curriculum can provide students with enough information so that they are able to make right decisions in modern society. Third, modern biotechnology is one of the most important scientific and technological revolutions in 21st century. Inclusion of this important technology in curriculum is essential in high school education. Although this study was only conducted within Taiwan, the findings in this study will help us to modify the materials in the future curriculum and provide possible solution of science education to other countries.

For the first open question, students were asked to write down the meaning of genetic engineering, which was then used to analyse students' knowledge about biotechnology (Appendix B). The results showed that current students were more knowledgeable than those at 18 years ago (p <0.001, Table [NaN] ). As compared with the score of former students, the score of current students' was much higher despite of studying AB or not. Current students gave more detailed information to question 1. Students' answers include transformation, ligation, changing characteristics of organisms, gene or DNA recombination technology, and inserting target genes in plasmids and transferring to other species (Table [NaN] , Appendix C).

Students' knowledge of genetic engineering (Question 1: What does genetic engineering mean?)

• 3 Comparisons between levels attained by current students and former Students in each groups; sem = standard error of the mean; n= number of pupils in each group; t= value of a t‐test; p= value of significance. B= Studying Advance Biology; NB= Not Studying Advance Biology.
• 4 We calculate only those students who answered the question.

For the question 2, “Give some examples of genetic engineering that you aware of”, 84% and 74% of current students studying and not studying AB were able to give examples of biotechnology. In addition, we found that genetically modified foods dominated students' responses (61% and 74% studying and not studying AB, respectively) (Appendix D). In our study from 1995, we reported limited understanding of biotechnology: in students not studying AB, only 30% of pupils were able to give examples of genetic engineering [11] . Moreover, using E. coli to produce insulin dominated former students studying AB responses (22%: Appendix D) [11] .

The question 2 was used to measure students' awareness of genetic engineering. The mean examples, which current students were able to present is 13.9. However, at 18 years ago, the mean number of examples is 0.35 (Appendix E). The results showed that former students were less knowledge than current students on the concepts of GM foods, gene cloning and GE animal. For example, many current students were able to refer the applications of biotechnology to cold‐resistant crops, insect‐resistant crops and more nutritious crops, but only 9% of students at 18 years ago were able to refer the application of biotechnology to the improvement of food quality. Although current students had been exposed to more information of biotechnology than those at 18 years ago, their knowledge in some specific field is limited. For examples, current students can only refer nothing but fluorescence fish in transgenic animals (Appendix D and E).

For former students, there are positive correlation between knowledge and attitudes whether they study AB or not. In Appendix J, all Pearson's and Spearman's rank correlations were found to be positive correlations between knowledge and general attitude (Pearson's r = 0.955, p < 0.01), GE plants (Pearson's r =0.625, p < 0.01), GE animals (Pearson's r = 0.655, p < 0.01), risk (Pearson's r = 0.698, p < 0.01) and medicine biotechnology (Pearson's r = 0.747, p < 0.01).

There was also a positive correlation between biotechnology knowledge and attitudes toward biotechnology for current students who study AB. However, for current students who did not study AB, there was a negative correlation. For students who study AB, Pearson's and Spearman's rank correlation revealed significant positive correlations between knowledge and general attitude (Pearson's r = 0.887, p < 0.01), GE plants (Pearson's r = 0.949, p < 0.01), GE animals (Pearson's r = 0.944, p < 0.01), risk (Pearson's r = 0.890, p < 0.01), medicine (Pearson's r = 0.957, p < 0.01). In contrast with students who study AB, the correlations between knowledge and attitudes were significant negative among the students who do not study AB. Pearson's and Spearman's rank correlation were found between knowledge and general attitude (Pearson's r = −0.879, p < 0.01), GE plants (Pearson's r = −0.813, p < 0.01), GE animals (Pearson's r = −0.897, p < 0.01), risk (Pearson's r = −0. 817, p < 0.01), medicine (Pearson's r = −0.802, p < 0.01) (Appendix K).

Current students showed much more unfavorable attitudes toward genetically engineering than did students 18 years ago (Fig. [NaN] ; Appendix F and G). These findings suggest that former students showed more support for agricultural biotechnologies than current students, who had more “not sure” answer than former students. Furthermore, as for disease resistance, growth enhancement and better quality in crop improvement were judged more negatively by current high school students than former students (Fig. [NaN] , Appendix F and G).

In this study, there is no significant difference in opinions about medical biotechnology between students today and those 18 years ago no matters of studying AB or not. Both groups agreed that genetic engineering research for human development like making transgenic mice to study cancer was acceptable. (Fig. [NaN] , Appendix F and G).

In the study, current students expressed more concern about the risk of biotechnology to human health or the environment than former students (p < 0.01). In total, 76% of current students and 39% of former students considered that new medicine or vaccines development may involve some risks to human health. Both groups expressed their concern about the risk of transgenic “bacteria” (89% and 74%, respectively). (Fig. [NaN] , Appendix F and G).

The students studying AB did improve their positive attitude about GE plants but not GE animals. Positive attitudes about GE plants were more common among current students studying AB than those who do not studying AB. For the three out of four statements revealed significant differences in opinions of disease resistant, growth, and taste improvement between current students studying AB and those not studying AB, (p < 0.01). The acceptance of GE plants was slightly increased for students studying than those not studying AB at 18 years ago (Appendix H).

For the 4 questions about GE animals in the issues like disease resistant, cold resistant, growth enhancement, and taste improvement using biotechnology, there is not significantly different in opinions between students studying AB and those not studying AB (Fig. [NaN] , Appendix H).

This long term study has found that current Taiwanese students with a higher knowledge of biotechnology and genetic engineering express a greater diversity of opinions on biotechnology than the same age group Taiwanese students dated 18 years ago. A possible reason could be that old textbooks were almost uniform in stating the benefits of genetic engineering without reference to possible ethical issues that might arise from their use (Appendix I). This limited view gave former students the impression that on‐going developments in genetic engineering were solely beneficial. Students of 18 years ago consequently had greater faith in technology to solve problems and benefit mankind. Comparatively, now a day, 0.5% of the current textbooks discuss ethical issues (Appendix I), enabling current students to grapple with the difficult issues expressed. In addition, students could access more information routes than before due to the global internet revolution and the establishment of diverse free knowledge banks such as Wikipedia. Thus more discussions about ethical issues from within or outside classroom are available. Therefore, current students are more informed and better able to express a greater diversity of opinions of the benefits of biotechnology than students of 18 years ago.

The proportion of mean responses for all current students was high whether they studied AB (84%) or not (74%). However, current students not studying AB hold negative attitudes about some aspects of biotechnology. The relationship between knowledge and attitudes toward biotechnology is complex. Developments in biotechnology received coverage not only in textbook but also in newspaper, internet and films with varying degrees of reliability [14] . Here, we reported that genetically modified foods dominated current students' responses. Recently, these students have had personal experience of this science as Taiwan has recently banned GM foods from school menus [15] . All these developments and information may change students' perception of GMO. All these on‐going developments and available internet information may bias students' attitude toward GMO. Thus we suggest that correct and scientifically solid information provided through internet and other multimedia exposures should be very important to re‐educate the students and even our society with correct attitudes towards biotechnology.

Our study showed that students' attitudes toward Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) are significantly different from those toward medical biotechnology which did not differ significantly, even though current students perceived more risk of medical biotechnology than former students (Fig. [NaN] , Appendix G). It would seem that for current students, the use of transgenic technology for medical applications was found to carry a higher acceptance rating than its use in agriculture. Our study showed 91% of the current students support biotechnology on medicine/vaccine development but only 23% of the current students support GMO tomatoes. In our previous study we found that students in Taiwan and the UK seem to only hold more positive attitudes towards the area of biomedical technology [11] . The controversial opinion regarding “desirable” biomedical (RED) and “undesirable” agri‐food (GREEN) biotechnology reflects the findings reported in the UK [16] . These results suggest that many people around the world hold mixed feelings or contradictory ideas toward food and medical biotechnology.

Our study showed that studying the course of AB affected students' attitudes toward GE plants but not GE animals. Furthermore, according to our previous research [11] , students studying AB, both current Taiwan students and UK students of 18 years ago, all showed more optimistic attitudes about transgenic plants than students not studying AB (Fig. [NaN] , Appendix H). When students take formal biology classes, they tend to construct new ideas about plants and start to take more notice of up‐to‐date knowledge on transgenic plants. In contrast to GE plants, regardless of what the students were studying and their level of education, their opinions did not differ between the groups on the subject of GE animals. Perhaps students fear use of the products of GE animals, because they have not been provided with as much information about them. Another possible reason is that students have a moral obligation to animals. Students notice mobile objects and are introduced to animals in everyday life during their childhood [17] , [18] . Their naïve concepts of animals are already deeply formed before they began taking formal classes [19] , [20] . Thus, as a result, most current Taiwanese students develop a negative attitude to animal biotechnology. More recently, the researches have designed an emerging biotechnology curriculum which includes GE animals (a genetically engineered Atlantic salmon) as well as GE plants. The curriculum was designed and developed collaboratively by high school teachers and university faculty. After teaching activities, it shows an obvious change of attitude among 187 high school students, not only on GE plants but also GE animals (Appendix L). We suggested that, if he students know what is being done and how to do it, they get a much better understand of the risks and the potential benefits from the process; they may therefore give a higher approval rating for some of the on‐going developments in biotechnology research.

Biotechnology is a rapidly advancing science with huge amounts of information. Biotechnology education becomes very important since today's citizens have often to make decisions about the products of gene technology. The study of AB (Advanced Biology) did not significantly affect Taiwanese students' attitude towards animals. It has been suggested that greater scientific knowledge would induce favorable attitudes toward genetic study [21] . Our finding could be because genetic engineering is not adequately covered in current textbooks. It is incumbent on teachers to help students develop their scientific perception and extend their understanding of transgenic animals. Students tend to show negative attitudes toward genetic engineering because of limited knowledge and their fear of accepting new technology products.

The aim of science education is to facilitate students' understanding of emergent technology. The collaboration of high school teachers and university faculty can create the curriculum including GE plants as well as GE animals with up‐dated biotechnology knowledge. Our example of collaboration showed improved genetic education in Taiwan's upper‐secondary education. We expect that our initiative in collaboration can inspire other Universities to also help local high schools in designing emerging biotechnology curriculum and up‐to date biotechnology education. On the basis of findings from our study, we suggest that more teaching materials of the emerging animal biotechnology should be included in high school curriculum. To create a curriculum with up‐to‐date biotechnology knowledge, we recommend that high school teachers and university faculty establish a collaborative framework to implement such ideas.

It is also essential to develop students' logistics and critical thinking for decision making when facing such issues. Students should be provided with the latest developments in biotechnology. The information should be broad and deep enough to enable students to form considered opinions and make appropriate decisions. Critical thinking should be encouraged and actively implemented by high school teachers in the class so that students could be given the confidence to make right decisions without fear of making mistakes. We therefore propose to high school teachers that ethical issues related to scientific discovery and biotechnology should be provided when designing the curriculum.

The authors would like to thank the teachers and many students who helped to complete the questionnaires and whose comments have help to improve the research. We would also like to thank the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Science and Technology of the Republic of China for financially supporting this research.

The questionnaire about biotechnology and genetic engineering processes (#, counter question)

What does genetic engineering mean?

Please give some examples of genetic engineering that you aware of.

The system used to score students' knowledge of genetic engineering from open question one

(Question 1: What does genetic engineering mean?)

Question 1: What does genetic engineering mean?

5 Data are percentage of total no. of students. B, studying advanced biology; NB, not studying advanced biology.

Question 2: Give some examples of genetic engineering that you aware of.

6 Data are percentage of total no. of students.

Students' knowledge of genetic engineering. (Question 2: Please give some examples of genetic engineering that you aware of)

• 7 Comparisons between levels attained by current students and Students 18 years ago in each groups;
• 8 n, number of pupils in each group; Key: B, studying advance biology; NB, not studying advance biology.
• 9 We calculate only those students who answered the question.

Effect of studying or not studying advanced biology on students' attitudes toward biotechnology or genetic engineering

10 B, studying advanced biology; NB, not studying advanced biology; SA, strongly agree; A, agree; N, not sure; D, disagree; SD, strongly disagree.

Compare the attitudes of Current High School Students with High School Students who were 18 years ago

*= Signiant difference; 1= strongly disagree, 5= strongly agree.

The high school curriculum (Advanced Biology) affect students' attitudes about GE plants but not GE animals

Comparison of the biology curriculum in the past and the present

Correlation between knowledge about and attitudes toward among Taiwan high school students 18 years ago

11 ⋆Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2‐tailed).

Correlation between knowledge about and attitudes toward among current Taiwan high school students

• 12 ⋆⋆Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2‐tailed).
• 13 *Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2‐tailed).

“A well‐designed biotechnology curriculum and DNA technology experiment for students” Comparing attitudes about biotechnology for current high school students pretest and post‐test

Graph: Compare the attitudes of Current High School Students with High School Students who were 18 years ago. Key: *= Significant difference; 1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree.

Graph: Compare the attitudes of Current High School Students with High School Students who were 18 years ago (perceived risk of GE). Key: *= Significant difference; 1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree.

Graph: Current high school curriculum (Advanced Biology) affect students' attitudes about GE plants but not GE animals. Key: * = Significant difference; 1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree.