ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces teachers and educational neuroscience students to how behavior genetic research has contributed to our understanding of the genetic contributions to individual differences in educationally relevant traits and outcomes. The purpose of education is to prepare students for adult life by equipping them with the knowledge, character, and skills required to contribute to society and navigate their way in the world. Encouragingly, a study of UK-based primary school teachers demonstrated that teachers intuitively understand the importance of genetic factors in explaining differences in intelligence and educational performance between children. Conversely, in a uniformly ‘bad’ educational environment no one is able to reach their potential and heritability estimates will be lower. Polygenic scores that account for a proportion of heritability allow the identification of individuals with extreme scores, which may in turn be of practical use in an educational setting.
