Humane Education Commons^™

Increasing Student Engagement Through Animal Welfare Education And Service, Stephanie Itle-Clark

Education Collection

Student engagement is for the most part driven by three factors, “underlying need for competence, the extent to which students experience membership in the school, and the authenticity” of the task they are given. Animal welfare education and correlated service‐learning can address all three of these factors. In addition, for the many students who have traditionally written‐off school and school sponsored functions, personal and authentic learning can assist in rebuilding trust in the educational system. Authentic learning built around animal welfare education and animal welfare topics that impact the real world or personal neighborhoods of students encourages brain growth and …

The Effects Of A Summer Camp Program In China On Children’S Knowledge, Attitudes, And Behaviors Toward Animals: A Model For Conservation Education, Sarah M. Bexell, Olga S. Jarrett, Xu Ping

Education Collection

This summative evaluation, conducted in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China, studied whether participation in a conservation education camp positively changed 8–12-year-old children’s (a) knowledge of how to protect animals, (b) care about animals, (c) propensity for environmental and wildlife stewardship, and (d) compassionate behavior toward animals and nature. Influenced by conservation psychology, social learning theory, empathy and moral development, constructivism, and conservation biology, 5-day overnight camps were conducted at 2 zoological institutions. Activities were designed to help children form bonds with animals and care enough to positively change their behavior toward animals and nature. Mixed methods, using pre- and post-visit surveys, …

Humane Literacy And Formal Educators, Stephanie Itle-Clark

Education Collection

Formal educators (those with formal education degrees versus informal educators who may work in shelters or nature centers) in the K-12 system are tasked with facilitating academic, character, and social and emotional learning in the classroom. As part of this learning, the teaching of critical thinking revolving around and reinforcement of “kindness . . . care and compassion towards” people, animals, and the environment and the interconnection among the three can work to prevent needless suffering and create community building attitudes (Selby, 1995, p. 7). Based upon knowledge of state mandates involving humane education, the Humane Literacy Coalition (HLC) was …

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

Education Collection

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.

Fetal Pig: The High School Dissection Experience, Gracia Barr, Harold A. Herzog

Education Collection

Using qualitative methods, we observed a series of fetal pig dissection sessions in a high school biology course and interviewed 17 students in the class. The students' responses to dissection varied considerably. Most felt that dissection was a positive experience, but a substantial minority viewed it primarily in negative terms. Almost all the students had some ambivalence about aspects of the fetal pig lab and believed that alternatives should be provided for students who object to the practice. We argue that dissection remains a viable educational tool but should be an optional rather than compulsory component of the curriculum.

Animals & Society Courses: A Growing Trend In Post-Secondary Education, Jonathan Balcombe

Education Collection

A survey of college courses addressing nonhuman animal ethics and welfare issues indicates that the presence of such courses has increased greatly since a prior survey was done in 1983. This paper provides titles and affiliations of 67 of 89 courses from the current Survey. These courses represent 15 academic fields, and a majority are entirely devoted to animal issues. The fields of animal science and philosophy are proportionally well represented compared with biology and wildlife-related fields. An estimated 5000 or more North American students are now receiving instruction in these issues each year. While the availability of courses in …

Alternatives To The Use Of Animals In Higher Education, Jan Van Der Valk, David Dewhurst, Ian Hughes, Jeffrey Atkinson, Jonathan Balcombe, Hans Braum, Karin Gabrielson, Franz Gruber, Jeremy Miles, Jan Nab, Jason Nardi, Henk Van Wilgenburg, Ursula Zinko, Joanne Zurlo

Education Collection

No abstract provided.

Student/Teacher Conflict Regarding Animal Dissection, Jonathan Balcombe

Education Collection

No abstract provided.

No Pain Infliction By Untrained Youths, Christine Stevens

Education Collection

Outlined are the efforts of the Animal Welfare Institute (AWl) for the last twenty-five years to end abuses to animals in high school biology programs. After concluding that the AWl's two brief rules prohibiting painful experimentation were not well understood by students even after years of effort, the AWl adopted the rules of the Canadian science fairs, which are similar to the Westinghouse Talent Search in that they simply prohibit experimentation on vertebrate animals. The presentation includes reference to the AWI manual, "Humane Biology Projects."

Learning From Animals: Models For Studying Physiology And Disease, W. Jean Dodds

Education Collection

Animals can serve as valuable educational tools for elementary and high school students. By teaching young people reverence for all forms of life at an early age, it is possible to instill in them a proper perspective concerning the welfare and humane stewardship of animals. Exemplary subjects include the various aspects of evolutionary and embryological development; normal physiological processes, the mechanisms and pathology of naturally occurring infectious, metabolic, genetic and neoplastic diseases and aging; and an appreciation of the inevitability of death. Such studies can serve as learning models for students because these processes parallel or closely resemble those of …

Secondary And Elementary School Use Of Live And Preserved Animals, Marvin B. Emmons

Education Collection

The broad use of living animals in elementary and junior school programs that are currently in vogue will be discussed as well as their use in biology classrooms at the senior high level. A comparison will be made of the present use of animals in the biology curriculum at the high school level, both living and preserved, with the use levels some ten and fifteen years ago. The implications of wildlife habitat encroachment and subsequent depletion of native species of classic animal models as well as some alternatives will be reviewed.

The Vertebrate Animal In High School Biology, Alan M. Beck

Education Collection

Live vertebrates afford opportunities to capture student interest and develop important educational experiences. Humane care and handling of the animals can be one of the most significant aspects of the lesson.

The study of classroom animals could include a wide range of observational and experimental protocols that do not compromise humane or conservational standards while providing background on the basics of science that encourage and prepare the student for continued education. Basic attention to detail and careful supervision will insure humane care of the animals and minimize the possibility of injury to students from bites and infection or discomfort from …

Animals In British Schools: Legal And Practical Problems, Jennifer Remfry

Education Collection

Well-managed, healthy animals can be useful and beneficial aids to the emotional and intellectual development of young people at the primary and secondary levels of education. In Britain, vertebrate animals are not used in schools for experiments which might cause pain, distress or disease. The laws protecting animals are comprehensive but at present it is the Health and Safety at Work Act (1974) which is having the most impact on the keeping of animals in British schools. The practical skills most needed by teachers are in the handling, sexing and humane killing of animals. Training of teachers should include instruction …

Reverence For Life: An Ethic For High School Biology Curricula, George K. Russell

Education Collection

Ethical and pedagogical arguments are presented against the use of animals by high school students in experiments causing pain/suffering/death of the animal. No justification is seen for such experimentation when perfectly valid alternatives, using noninvasive techniques, exist or could be developed. An important concern is the emotional and psychological growth of young people. An overall objective of high school biology curricula must be to assist students in making viable connections with living biological processes and the natural world.

Humaneness Supersedes Curiosity, F. Barbara Orlans

Education Collection

Ethical considerations need to be addressed with respect to educational use of animals. Society extends greater latitude in what is permissible to do to an animal in the name of science to a professional research worker than to a high school student. A balance needs to be made of the significance of the expected experimental results, on the one hand, which the ethical costs, (in terms of pain or death to the animal), on the other. A reasonable boundary can be drawn, based on ethical as well as on practical considerations, to exclude invasive procedures on vertebrate animals in high …

Student (And Animal) Welfare, Leonard M. Krause

Education Collection

Adolescents exhibit affection for numerous vertebrates and appear to sympathize and to identify with traumas these animals experience. Therapeutic benefits students attach to nurturing and breeding certain vertebrates are evident; destruction of these same creatures produces clearly negative attitudes by students toward the science course and the instructor. "Case histories" documented while teaching high school students working with vertebrates are reviewed and are related to specific techniques (e.g., pithing) utilized by numerous instructors. Motivation, increased attention span, sustained interest, involvement with community issues and other desirable educational goals are demonstrated to be resultants of student involvement with living vertebrates studied …

Objectives Of Animal Use In Biology Courses, William V. Mayer

Education Collection

To confine discussion of educational use of animals to experimentation is to focus on only part of the animal use problem. To focus on use of animals in the classroom solely is to negate the value of field and community resource areas such as zoos, animal parks, nature trails, etc. The primary objective in dealing with living organisms is to inculcate a respect for all life. Objectives that focus on use of living animals for experimental purposes can, at best, be secondary and may in many cases be contrived. An understanding of animal life requirements and animal contributions is an …

The Challenge And Motivation Of Students Through Live Animal Projects, Thurman S. Grafton

Education Collection

The subject of use of live animals by secondary schools either in classroom work or science fairs is a very controversial and often emotional issue. The author emphasizes the dedication to humane treatment of animals while at the same time explaining the process by which rules have been formulated to provide for the appropriate use of live animals. The difference between permission and mandate is clarified for the purpose of explaining the need to provide for the more effective challenge and motivation of the high achiever while still allowing for more modest undertakings by the average student The perils of …

Science Youth Activities And Animal Experimentation, E. G. Sherburne Jr.

Education Collection

Science youth activities (extracurricular science activities) involve millions of young people at the elementary and secondary school level. Such activities are popular with young people and with teachers because they offer values different from those provided by classroom work and the required laboratory. National science youth activity programs include science fairs and the International Science and Engineering Fair, the Science Talent Search, and a number of other programs. For activities involving research, animals have been increasingly used because of the increased sophistication of the students doing the work. While some projects using vertebrates may be done poorly, it is suggested …

Understanding And Attitudes Derived From The Use Of Animals In Schools, Peter J. Kelly

Education Collection

A general review of the variety of activities involving the direct use of animals which are undertaken in secondary schools. An assessment is made of their value (positive and negative) in terms of knowledge and attitudes (including ethics) which are, or might be, derived from them. Alternative methods also are reviewed with an assessment of their value in relation to live animal studies.

High School Science Fairs: Evaluation Of Live Animal Experimentation--The Canadian Experience, Harry C. Rowsell

Education Collection

When the Canadian Council on Animal Care was established in 1968, the Council, together with representatives from the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association in concert with the Youth Science Foundation, recognized the importance of well-conceived science fair projects involving live animals. It was recognized as well that poor science encouraged poor attitudes toward the animals involved, as well as a misunderstanding of scientific investigation. Numerous schemes were tried in an effort to ensure development of proper scientific investigational attitudes as well as a respect for living things. These will be discussed, outlining where such schemes failed.

In May, 1975, Regulations for …

Fundamental Criteria For Determining The Educational Value Of Live Animal Experimentation In High School Science Fairs, David H. Neil

Education Collection

The author contends that great and very detailed attention to one minuscule facet of experimental animal biology, particularly if it requires the skilled and uniform alteration of a significant number of animals, is of no real educational value to a high school student. This type of work, the necessity for it and the full understanding of its significance to the furtherance of human understanding must be the province only of those who are intellectually prepared. The suggestion is made that projects, which develop a more complete understanding of common and profoundly important elements in life (as we know it), should …

The Misuse Of Animals In The Science Classroom, Richard K. Morris

Education Collection

At The HSUS Conference held in Washington in 1961, Dr. James T. Mehorter of the University of Vermont declared " ... our historic failure in humane education revolves about two points: (a) a philosophy, and (b) a psychology." Seven years later, as moderator of a panel discussion on humane education, I pointed out that there was a need for research leading to a defensible philosophy of humane education and research into the psychological effects on young people of violence on television, gun clubs in the schools, and of elementary and secondary school experiments on living animals. This "historic failure" is …

Humane Education Programs For Youth (Panel Discussion), Virgil S. Hollis, Sherwood Norman, Jean Mcclure Kelty

Education Collection

Part I - Dr. Virgil S. Hollis

Developing the number of school administrators who are increasingly becoming interested in humaneness and the humane society members who are interested in education, I think, means that all of us must keep close touch with each other although we know very little of each other's field. This exposure to you and your programs in meetings such as this will surely result in a united attack on a mutual problem We need your help. And you need our help. You need help from the group that I represent in education because the many programs …

The National Humane Education Center And The Welfare Of Animals, Mel L. Morse

Education Collection

The role of all humane organizations is the prevention of cruelty and, in order to do this, we must be prepared to show a better way. We cannot stand back saying "no" or "you can't do that" unless we are prepared to show why. We must understand that cruelty is not always a sadistic act and one whose perpetrator needs the attention of a psychiatrist. I am sure that there are many cruelty cases that should be handled in such a manner, but not very many of them get or deserve this distinction. Usually we move to correct the problem …

Humane Education Of The Next Generation Of Americans, Stuart Westerlund

Education Collection

In the process of education, three major aspects stand out sharply: philosophy, psychology, and evaluation. It is through philosophy of education that we establish goals and objectives. In other words, where are we going? What do we want? What is really important? Without a philosophy we wander aimlessly in the vast desert known as "no man's land." Psychology speaks of methodology, the means whereby we might achieve our goals; it is the instrument by which we hope to achieve our objectives. Without a methodology we are like a ship without a rudder. We may know where we want to go, …

Humane Education Programs For Local Societies, Frank J. Mcmahon

Education Collection

Although definitely I am not an educator, I believe that I still may be able to report usefully this afternoon some of what is being done in the field of humane education by some of our best local humane societies.

In the years that I have worked in and for The HSUS I have visited several hundred local humane societies-big and little, good and not so good, new and old, rich and poor, in all parts of the country. I have spent many days on analysis of the philosophy, policies, equipment, programs and personnel of those societies.

When I visit …