Non-teachers sometimes have the impression that we teachers do nothing but transfer knowledge. As if the pupil were a tabula rasa, a blank slate, waiting to be written on. If only that were the case. The slate already bears a multitude of general ‘knowledge’, assumptions, prejudices, and misinformation, which makes our work considerably more difficult. Thanks to social media, this has only gotten worse. On TikTok and Instagram, videos appear of influencers swearing by injecting peptides for muscle growth and the power of sea moss for better gut health.
Anyone who thinks we in the Netherlands are too down-to-earth for this is mistaken. As early as 2016, Arjen Lubach made an episode about misinformation surrounding the topic of nutrition. Among other things, the magazine The Green Happiness was discussed. One of the creators of that magazine claimed, unhindered by any knowledge of the subject, that an egg is a chicken’s menstruation. Ten years have now passed, and the speed at which misinformation can be spread has only increased.
In my lessons, I devote attention to this. I ask my students to answer based on their biological knowledge. That is difficult, because I actually want them to be able to use general knowledge and prior knowledge from other disciplines, as that leads to more insights. Furthermore, I do not want them to rely solely on what I say as a teacher or what the book says. After all, I want to teach them to engage critically with multiple sources.
After my explanation of retroviruses, I confront my students with the claim: ‘You have to be careful with the coronavirus vaccine, because it is an mRNA vaccine and that mRNA is incorporated into your DNA.’ They must first use a fact from my explanation to support the claim, and then use a fact from the same explanation to refute the claim. It was quite difficult for my 5 VWO students to find the counterargument, but with guiding questions from my side, they figured it out. There is hope.
Until a student calls out: ‘Yes, but your DNA changes every seven years anyway!’ I have work to do.
Amina El Ouati studied biomedical sciences, works as a biology teacher at College Hageveld in Heemstede, and is the mastermind behind Juf Aminozuur on YouTube.