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. 2022 Oct 10;23(3):e00093-22.
doi: 10.1128/jmbe.00093-22. eCollection 2022 Dec.

Mendelian or Multifactorial? Current Undergraduate Genetics Assessments Focus on Genes and Rarely Include the Environment

Kelly M Schmid  1 , Dennis Lee  2 , Monica Weindling  2 , Awais Syed  2 , Stephanie-Louise Yacoba Agyemang  1 , Brian Donovan  2 , Gregory Radick  3 , Michelle K Smith  1
Affiliations

Mendelian or Multifactorial? Current Undergraduate Genetics Assessments Focus on Genes and Rarely Include the Environment

Kelly M Schmid et al. J Microbiol Biol Educ. .

Abstract

Undergraduate genetics courses have historically focused on simple genetic models, rather than taking a more multifactorial approach where students explore how traits are influenced by a combination of genes, the environment, and gene-by-environment interactions. While a focus on simple genetic models can provide straightforward examples to promote student learning, they do not match the current scientific understanding and can result in deterministic thinking among students. In addition, undergraduates are often interested in complex human traits that are influenced by the environment, and national curriculum standards include learning objectives that focus on multifactorial concepts. This research aims to discover to what extent multifactorial genetics is currently being assessed in undergraduate genetics courses. To address this, we analyzed over 1,000 assessment questions from a commonly used undergraduate genetics textbook; published concept assessments; and open-source, peer-reviewed curriculum materials. Our findings show that current genetics assessment questions overwhelmingly emphasize the impact of genes on phenotypes and that the effect of the environment is rarely addressed. These results indicate a need for the inclusion of more multifactorial genetics concepts, and we suggest ways to introduce them into undergraduate courses.

Keywords: assessment; curriculum; environment; genes; genetics; undergraduate.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

FIG 1
FIG 1
Breakdown of assessment questions that were coded into each of the categories. (A) Percentage of the total number of questions that were coded into each of the broad categories of inheritance, causality, and excluded. Percentage of inheritance (B) and causality (C) questions that were further characterized into single gene, many genes, environment (E), genes and the environment (G+E), and gene by environment (G×E) interactions.
FIG 2
FIG 2
Breakdown of assessment questions by each of the three question sources as follows: end-of-chapter genetics textbook questions (A), concept assessments (B), and CourseSource lesson questions (C). For each source, the pie chart depicts the percentage of the total number of questions that were coded into each of the broad categories of inheritance, causality, and excluded. The bar chart depicts the inheritance and causality questions further characterized into single gene, many genes, environment (E), genes and the environment (G+E), and gene by environment (G×E) interactions.
FIG 3
FIG 3
Example of gene-focused questions from “Why do some people inherit a predisposition to cancer? A small group activity on cancer genetics” lesson published in CourseSource (57).
FIG 4
FIG 4
Graphical representations of multifactorial genetics concepts, including the effect of genes only on a phenotype (A), the effect of mostly the environment only on a phenotype (B), and the effect of genes and the environment on a phenotype (C). Panels D and E show examples of two different gene by environment interactions.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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