Consideration of socioscientific issues (SSIs) promotes the development of moral and sociocultural perspectives that encourage a rich understanding of the nature of science. The use of moral reasoning to approach SSIs is known to influence how students justify arguments and persuade others; less is known about how student moral reasoning is influenced by both content knowledge and demographic identities. We performed an exploratory study to investigate how students use moral reasoning when considering an SSI about the use of CRISPR/Cas9 technology for nonmedical enhancement in humans. Using content analysis, we examined written responses from 279 undergraduate students from three content knowledge levels and a variety of demographic populations (socioeconomic, gender, and first-generation status). We identified instances of consequence and principle-based moral reasoning and categorized commonly employed moral considerations under these broad themes. Students opposed nonmedical enhancement with CRISPR/Cas9 technology and perceived it as fraught with moral controversy primarily related to eugenics, equity, diversity, risk, and the authority of nature. Content knowledge level, gender, socioeconomic status, and first-generation status influenced which moral considerations were employed by students and these carried interaction effects that indicate complex relationships between content knowledge level and demographic variables. We suggest more explicit instruction about complex societal issues linked to the history of science and genetic engineering, such as eugenics and inequity, and further investigation of moral perspectives for students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and underrepresented groups so that these perspectives can be integrated into curricula to foster diverse classroom environments.

中文翻译：

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内容知识和社会因素影响学生对人类 CRISPR/Cas9 的道德推理

对社会科学问题 (SSI) 的考虑促进道德和社会文化观点的发展，从而鼓励对科学本质的丰富理解。众所周知，使用道德推理来处理 SSI 会影响学生如何证明论点并说服他人；关于学生道德推理如何受到内容知识和人口特征的影响，我们知之甚少。我们进行了一项探索性研究，以调查学生在考虑使用 CRISPR/Cas9 技术进行人类非医学增强的 SSI 时如何使用道德推理。使用内容分析，我们检查了 279 名本科生的书面回复，他们来自三个内容知识水平和各种人口统计人群（社会经济、性别和第一代身份）。我们确定了基于后果和基于原则的道德推理的实例，并在这些广泛的主题下对常用的道德考虑进行了分类。学生们反对使用 CRISPR/Cas9 技术进行非医学增强，并认为它充满了道德争议，主要与优生学、公平、多样性、风险和自然权威有关。内容知识水平、性别、社会经济地位和第一代地位影响学生采用哪些道德考虑，这些具有交互作用，表明内容知识水平和人口统计变量之间的复杂关系。我们建议对与科学和基因工程历史相关的复杂社会问题进行更明确的指导，例如优生学和不平等，