Effects of the Training in Biotechnology on the Attitude, the Behavior and the Knowledge Levels towards Genetically Modified Products

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of the biotechnology education on the knowledge, the attitudes and the behaviors of individuals. For this purpose, a survey, consisting of 28 questions in three separate sections, was conducted with 134 students who had already taken a Course on Biotechnology and GMO Products for one semester, and with 130 students who had not taken that course. When the results of the survey were evaluated, a significant difference was determined in 7 out of the 11 questions prepared to measure the level of knowledge in the topic in favor of the experimental group, who had already taken the course (p<.05). In the experimental and control groups, the frequency (n: 223, 84.5%) of the idea that health problems, especially the digestive system, will arise due to the consumption of transgenic products was found to be quite high. This negative attitude / thought is statistically significantly higher in the control group than in the experimental group (p = 000). When the answers to the questions about determining the behaviors of wanting to use gene transfer technology were compared, no significant difference was found between the groups (p> .05).

Keywords: Biotechnology training, GM products, Knowledge level, Attitudes, Behaviour

DOI: 10.7176/JSTR/6-07-06