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Genes, Environment and Education: Nature and Nurture in Literacy Development
Semester II 2006
(Paul Barratt Lecture Theatre, 1 September 2006, 1 pm)
Abstract
Educational researchers and practitioners are interested in, among
other things, different rates of response to instruction by different
children. This question can be couched as an example of the classic
Nature-Nurture problem, identifying how much variability can be
attributed to genetic differences and how much to environmental
differences. Studying twins is one of the research designs available
for contributing answers to this problem. In this presentation, I
outline results from an ongoing international study of young twins as
they develop in literacy. Although the environment does influence
variability in literacy and language, especially among younger
children, the dominant influence on literacy in our sample is
genetic. Genes that affect learning processes appear to be
particularly important. There is also cross-national evidence of
gene-environment interaction. Data such as these have implications for
educational practice and policy, and there will be opportunity to
discuss these implications.
