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Selected Works

Dissection

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Full-Text Articles in Education

Animal Dissection And Evidence-Based Life-Science And Health-Professions Education, Nathan Nobis Mar 2015

Animal Dissection And Evidence-Based Life-Science And Health-Professions Education, Nathan Nobis

Nathan M. Nobis, PhD

Balcombe’s (2000, 2001) case for replacing learning methods that require pain, suffering, and death for animals with methods that do not (computer-assisted learning, three-dimensional models, videotapes, and other alternatives) can be seen as motivated by this evidentialist perspective. Balcombe provided a wealth of empirical evidence from educational studies to show that in most contexts animal dissection is not necessary—and even counterproductive—to achieve valid educational goals, especially higher order goals (concept learning and problem solving). He demonstrated that no sound defense of dissection has been given.


Dissection: The Scientific Case For Alternatives, Jonathan Balcombe Jun 2014

Dissection: The Scientific Case For Alternatives, Jonathan Balcombe

Jonathan Balcombe, PhD

This article presents the scientific argument that learning methods that replace traditional nonhuman animal-consumptive methods in life science education—so-called alternatives to dissection—are pedagogically sound and probably superior to dissection. This article focuses on the pedagogy, a learning method’s effectiveness for conveying knowledge.