Image credit: Alberto G. (CC BY 2.0)
The way that people learn in school and other educational settings differs from person to person for a wide range of reasons. Over the past 15 years there has been a shift in the way that children are taught in the UK and some other countries. Education has become more focused on the students as individuals, recognising that different people learn in different ways and at different speeds. This has led to the idea of ‘personalised education’, a way of tailoring students’ learning to suit their individual needs and differences.
One way that individuals differ is in the genetic material they inherit from their parents. Except for identical twins, no two people have completely identical genomes. It is now easier and cheaper to study the genetic material of individuals than ever before. This has led to a lot of research investigating how our DNA relates to our health, education and other aspects of life.
Some researchers and politicians are now suggesting that individuals’ genetic data should be routinely collected by organisations so that their education or health care can be personalised. However, it remains unclear whether this genetic personalisation would be more useful than demographic or socioeconomic data – such as sex, age and family background – that is already available.
To investigate whether an individual’s DNA could be used to predict how well they will perform in school, Morris et al. combined genetic data and school test results from a group of 3,500 UK children born in the early 1990s. This revealed that the genetic data did not predict how the children would perform throughout their time at school as accurately as more general information about their family background and other socioeconomic factors.
The findings of Morris et al. suggest that knowledge of students’ DNA is unlikely to help educators who want to identify individuals who need extra help or will be at the top of the class. More research is needed on larger groups of children from a broader range of backgrounds, but it is unclear whether a student's DNA will ever be useful for tailoring their education. Currently, it appears that DNA would be less useful for personalising education than easily measured information like test results taken in primary school, education of the child's parents and other social data.
