Classroom Pets in Primary School Education: Benefits and Welfare Concerns (original) (raw)

Classroom Animals Provide More Than Just Science Education

Keeping classroom animals is a common practice in many classrooms. Their value for learning is often seen narrowly as the potential to involve children in learning biological science. They also provide opportunities for increased empathy, as well as socio-emotional development. Realization of their potential for enhancing primary children’s learning can be affected by many factors. This paper focuses on teachers’ perceptions of classroom animals, drawing on accounts and reflections provided by 19 participants located in an Australian primary school where each classroom kept an animal. This study aims to progress the conversation about classroom animals, the learning opportunities that they afford, and the issues they present. Phenomenographic analysis of data resulted in five categories of teachers’ perceptions of the affordances and constraints of keeping classroom animals. Herbert S & Lynch J 2017 (Online First, 25/02/2017), Classroom Animals Provide More Than Just Science Education, Science and Education, DOI 10.1007/s11191-017-9874-6 Online first: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11191-017-9874-6?wt\_mc=Internal.Event.1.SEM.ArticleAuthorOnlineFirst wt_mc=Internal.Event.1.SEM.ArticleAuthorOnlineFirst

Human–Animal Interaction Research in School Settings: Current Knowledge and Future Directions

AERA Open, 2017

The involvement of animals is almost commonplace in many schools, although actual data documenting the extent and nature of human-animal interaction (HAI) in these settings are sparse. We provide an overview of the existing research and argue that the inclusion of animals in classroom settings can have an indirect effect on learning by directly affecting motivation, engagement, self-regulation, and human social interaction through those activities in which the interaction with animals is embedded. We support this theory with examples from the growing body of work indicating that, under specific conditions, with proper safeguards, HAI activities can benefit both typically developing children and those with developmental disabilities by reducing stress and anxiety and improving social interactions and by enhancing motivation, engagement, and learning. Nonetheless, a more comprehensive evidence base is needed to support this theory and to inform policies and practices for HAI in education settings, activities, and interventions.

Editorial: Children and Companion Animals: Psychosocial, Medical and Neurobiological Implications

Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 2018

Editorial on the Research Topic Children and Companion Animals: Psychosocial, Medical, and Neurobiological Implications This Research Topic presents experiences with companion animals provided to children in varied settings. Methods include monitoring of the ongoing interaction of children with companion animals, or conducting interviews or surveys, as well as experimental interventions where changes occurring with the presence of the animal are assessed. Children in Austria, Germany, Jamaica, Japan, and the United Kingdom, as well as a minority from the United States, are represented in these studies. aNiMals iN EduCatioNal CoNtExts Nakajima contrasts two approaches: incorporating animals into school curricula or employing them in interventions to facilitate specific learning. Animal-rearing is a Japanese educational tradition, specified by the Japanese government in the course of study for formal elementary education. Matsuda (1, 2), a science educator, laid the theory and methods showing the value for children of rearing animals; it thus became a method of teaching. "Education through assisting animals, " embeds animalrearing within formal education as an educational tool. Koda et al. describe how some classrooms integrate rearing goats into instruction at urban schools in Japan. Children share responsibility for feeding, cleaning, and caring for the goats, while working with teachers. Teachers view experience with goats as beneficial to the children. Challenges during holidays and weekends require cooperation among faculty and parents. Some teachers would be cautious about recommending goat-keeping to other schools unless they were very well-prepared. More conventionally for animal-assisted education, Schretzmayer et al. tested an intervention using a dog to facilitate reading performance and physiological relaxation of third graders lacking reading proficiency. Although a calming effect of the dogs might have been expected due to an oxytocin effect (3), the presence of a dog was associated only with short-term improvements in reading performance, and small changes in cortisol and behavior, for these children with low reading skills. PEt aNiMals for ChildrEN Although most exposure of children to pets is at home, exactly how children interact with the pets at home is unknown. Westgarth et al. employed a large database to assess dog-walking by children

Multiple Evaluation Perspectives of the Animals in the Classroom Workshops

1991

The purpose of a study was to demonstrate the value of multiple evaluation perspectives in the development, implementation, and revision of a series of workshops conducted for inservice teachers. In the Animals in the Classroom Program, the content of the workshop concerned a highly charged issue: the appropriate and humane care and use of aninals in the precollege classroom and in student research. To evaluate the program's implementation and impact, qualitative and quantitative information were combined to capitalize on strengths and address the weaknesses of each source of data and converged on a comprehensive picture of the program, rlch in details about the participants' knowledge about the use of animals in education. With the assistance of the Advisory Committee, the workshop coordinator modified the content of the workshop to be appropri?tr., for classroom teachers. The resulting workshops were successful from several perspectives: (1) teachers rated them highly; (2) teachers' comments were very favorable; (3) teachers' knowledge snd classroom practices changed following their participation in the workshop; and (4) knowledge was gained on teachers' and students' attitudes toward animals. Comments from teachers corroborated quantitative results from the rating scales. Analysis of pre-and post-workshop classroom practices included both quantitative and open-ended questions that documented changes of practical significance in how animals were used in the classroom and in student research. The teachers' questionnaire is alp-ended. (KR)

Effects of Keeping Animals as Pets on Children's Concepts of Vertebrates and Invertebrates

International Journal of Science Education, 2008

Looking after pets provides several benefits in terms of children's social interactions, and factual and conceptual knowledge about these animals. In this study we investigated effects of rearing experiences on children's factual knowledge and alternative conceptions about animals. Data obtained from 1,541 children and 7,705 drawings showed very strong bias towards rearing vertebrates and a general ignorance of invertebrates. Experiences with rearing animals significantly contributed to children's knowledge about animal's internal organs. Children who reported keeping two or more animals acquired better scores in our study than children keeping only one or no animals. Moreover, the misclassification of invertebrates was not influenced by children's experiences of keeping animals. Although girls showed better knowledge about the anatomy of animals and actually kept more animals than did boys, they also more frequently misclassified invertebrates by drawing bones inside the bodies of the animals, hence allocating them to the vertebrates. We propose that science activities with animals should be more focused on rearing invertebrates and improving children's attitudes and knowledge about them.

An in-class, humane education program can improve young students' attitudes toward animals.

All 8 first-grade classes of an elementary school participated in a study of the efficacy of an in-class humane education program that incorporated regular visits from therapy animals. The study also investigated the relative efficacy of a popular, printed humane-education publication, although it was not possible to use this printed material in its optimal manner. The in-class humane-education program—but not the printed material—significantly increased students' self-reported attitudes toward nonhuman animals as compared to those of students who did not participate in the program. However, neither the in-class program nor the printed material affected student scores on another, self-report measure of interactions with one's nonhuman animal companions. Therefore, the results suggest that such an in-class approach can change young students' attitudes toward animals for the better; not surprisingly, actual interactions with one's pets may be somewhat less tractable. [ABSTRACT FROM ME]