Animal-Related Activities and Appreciation of Animals Among Children and Adolescents

ABSTRACT

Five hundred and sixty-two children and adolescents, aged between nine and 15 years, from one urban and three rural areas in Southern Norway, completed a questionnaire in which they expressed their degree of preference for various animal species, participation in animal-related activities, and the presence of pets at home. The results showed that a majority of the respondents had an animal at home (71%), and participated in animal-related activities such as fishing (72%), feeding birds (74%), and reading about animals (66%). Participation in most animal-related activities decreased with increasing age. Pet owners liked farm and wild animals more than did respondents without pets. Positive associations were found between the liking of animal species and participation in animal-related activities. Gender differences were largest for horseback riding (girls most) and for fishing and hunting (boys most). Those who reported allergic reactions to animals, or had been injured by an animal, liked animals as much as, or more than, did the other respondents.     

Pendulums: A Hands-on Way to Experience Resonance

In this integrated inquiry, students in an elementary teaching methods class investigate a real-world problem outside the classroom. The students use the Cognitive Research Trust (CoRT) thinking strategy to find the causes of, impact of, and possible solutions to the problem. They present their findings and then discuss implementation of this activity in elementary classrooms. The activity is followed by a whole-class discussion about the activity and its application to the elementary classroom. This is an open-ended inquiry that future teachers will be able to do with their elementary school students.     

Do You Really Want to Know? Elementary Music Personnel and Potential in Utah

This is the second of two articles reporting the results of a study by the author regarding the status of elementary music education in the state of Utah. This article focuses on the qualifications of Utah's elementary music teachers (music certified, elementary classroom certified, artists-in-residence, volunteers, and paraprofessionals) and the conditions under which they teach. Interactions among teacher qualifications and teaching status are explored. Paraprofessionals play a significant role in Utah's elementary music programs. While over 90 percent of elementary schools in the United States provide regular music instruction taught by certified music specialists, less than 10 percent of Utah's elementary population receives such instruction. Nearly half of the elementary students in the state receive no designated music instruction beyond that provided by their regular elementary classroom teacher. The influence of school funding, No Child Left Behind and other accountability measures, high-stakes testing, urban/rural populations, and leadership are highlighted. Policy considerations are discussed.     

Do You Really Want to Know? Elementary Music Programs and Potential in Utah

This is the first of two articles reporting the results of a study by the author regarding the status of elementary music education in the state of Utah. This article focuses on how elementary music programs are structured (regular instruction with a music specialist, truncated programs, delegated programs, no formal music instruction, no music instruction). Factors that shape those structures are also addressed. While over 90 percent of elementary schools in the United States provide regular music instruction taught by certified music specialists to over 90 percent of their student populations, less than 10 percent of Utah's elementary population receives such instruction. Nearly half of the elementary students in the state receive no designated music instruction other than that provided by their regular elementary classroom teachers. The influence of budget constraints, school funding policies, No Child Left Behind, other accountability measures, high-stakes testing, urban/rural populations, and demographics are highlighted. Policy considerations are discussed.     

A virtual bird’s eye view: Live streaming nest boxes to continue outreach in the era of COVID‐19

COVID‐19 created a host of challenges for science education; in our case, the pandemic halted our in‐person elementary school outreach project on bird biology. This project was designed as a year‐long program to teach fifth‐grade students in Ithaca, New York, USA, about bird ecology and biodiversity using in‐person presentations, games, activities, and outdoor demonstrations. As a central part of this effort, we set up nest boxes on school property and planned to monitor them with students during bird breeding in the spring. Here, we describe our experiences transitioning this program online: we live streamed nest boxes to the students’ virtual classroom and used them as a focal point for virtual lessons on bird breeding and nestling development. In an era of social distancing and isolation, we propose that nest box live streaming and virtual lessons can support communities by providing access to the outdoors and unconventional science learning opportunities for all students. Instituting similar programs at local schools has the potential to increase equitable learning opportunities for students across geographic locations and with varying degrees of physical access to the outdoors and nature.     

“活动导学、自主互助”教学模式在中学生物教学中的初探

推进课程改革的关键是实现课堂教学的高效,而高效课堂来自于课堂教学过程中师生双方主观能动性的充分发挥,通过教师课前设计学生学习活动方案(活动单),学生在课堂上开展"自主学习、活动探究"式学习,可以实现教师的主导性和突出学生的主体地位。通过实施"活动导学、自主互助"课堂教学模式,取得了一点认识,希望能为当前普通高中生物课堂教学改革提供一点借鉴。     

Anthropomorphism in Japanese Women's Status Terms used in Talk to Potential Guide Dogs

Abstract

We surveyed residents' attitudes toward common urban animals and their participation in animal-oriented activities in the city of Trondheim, Norway. The results show that people most like small birds, squirrels, butterflies, hedgehogs, ducks, geese and dogs, and dislike bats, snails, invertebrate species, mice and rats. Birds of prey, foxes, cats, bumblebees, magpies, pigeons, badgers, gulls, grasshoppers and crows received a neutral ranking. Generally, females more than males liked the popular and neutral species, while males more than females liked the less-preferred animals. A negative association was found between age of respondents and preferences for birds of prey, dogs, cats, badgers, bats, mice and rats. This relation was positive for some invertebrate species, and small and medium-sized birds. A positive correlation was found between educational level of the respondents and preference scores for most of the species listed. Watching television programs about nature (59% often/very often) and watching/feeding birds (41%) were the most frequently reported animal-related activities. When walking in the neighborhood, important animal-related motives for doing this were to observe birds (42%) and to observe mammals (34%). Interest in bird observation and television programs about nature increased with increasing age. Few respondents reported experiencing problems with wildlife, but dogs and cats were more often (36%) considered to create problems. These results indicate that wildlife plays an important role in shaping urban residents' daily experiences, and that both animals and their habitats should have a higher priority in urban planning and management.     

Teachers’ civic socialization practices and children’s civic engagement

We examined the degree to which civic learning activities and civic discussion in the classroom were associated with children’s civic engagement in the upper elementary grades. We also explored the types of civic activities used by teachers during middle childhood. Survey data were collected from 359 ethnically and economically diverse 4th–6th grade students (M age?=?10.56, 56% female), their parents, and teachers (n?=?20) from six public schools in Southern California. The results of path analyses showed that teachers’ greater use of civic learning activities was associated with higher levels of social responsibility to people and civic values in students. However, general civic discussion was not associated with any indicators of children’s civic engagement. Additionally, teachers reported using numerous types of civic activities, thus showing the diversity in “civic learning” across classrooms. Practical implications for elementary civic education are discussed.     

Assessing the professional development needs of arts instructors working in multi-age classrooms

This article presents the results of a national survey conducted with 223 arts teachers working in public schools that feature mixed-age classrooms rather than traditional grade levels. The purpose of the survey was to identify the professional development needs of arts teachers working in these unique environments and to offer suggestions for policymakers who might provide appropriate training or foster the development of multi-age school sites. The results showed that most respondents (73.1%) were in favor of developing new multi-age training for arts teachers and revealed their preferences for workshop content related to organizational strategies, collaboration with colleagues, assessment, integrated curriculum, collaborative student work, research, and thematic instruction. The results also revealed respondents' preferences for venues, formats, and the scheduling of such professional development experiences. The implications of these findings provide a number of options for policymakers to weigh in planning optimum training opportunities for multi-age arts instructors.     

“Sharks in Your Hands”—A Case Study on Effects of Teaching Strategies to Change Knowledge and Attitudes Towards Sharks

This study was designed to exemplify how hands-on based teaching strategies enhanced students’ knowledge and positive attitudes towards sharks. Hands-on activities for sharks’ biological and morphological features were carried out. Eleven elementary school students from a remote area in Taiwan were recruited and assigned to the hands-on condition. They were encouraged to draw pictures of sharks before and after the instruction as the main data for pre- and post-test comparison. Two years later, the retention test and attitude inventory towards sharks were implemented. The results revealed that large effect size emerged for both the post-test and retention test. In regards to attitude inventory, students involved in hands-on activities also significantly outperformed the baseline group. Many of them have taken notice of television programs and books about sharks or marine ecology since the hands-on activities, indicating the instruction had a beneficial impact on their extracurricular lives. Empirical findings of this study suggest hands-on instruction is a powerful strategy for learning, both for immediate and prolonged effects on improving students’ knowledge and attitudes toward sharks.     

Connecting ecology to daily life: how students and teachers relate food webs to the food they eat

This study used sociocultural learning theory to better understand how middle and high school environmental science and biology students and pre- and in-service science teachers connect the daily life activity of eating to the food web model learned in school. We sought to understand how student and teacher perceptions of the environment and their experiences influenced their responses to interview questions regarding this topic. Findings, based on transcribed interviews with 54 study participants, indicate that three quarters of teachers and students were unable to connect the food they eat with ecosystem food webs. Even so, many respondents particularly those from elite public schools, did not demonstrate common food web misconceptions identified by other researchers, instead showing a sophisticated understanding of food web interactions. These findings indicate that even though participants were proficient in their school science understanding of food web interactions, they did not readily think about how their everyday out of school activities, like eating, relate to those interactions. This may be representative of a more general disconnect between formal ecology instruction and daily life activities. We provide several recommendations for how this disconnect can be remedied in our classrooms.     

Sharing science: characteristics of effective scientist-teacher interactions

Despite national guidelines to reform K-12 science education, our students are not learning science any better. Conducted under the auspices of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a symposium examined several programs where professional scientists interact with classroom teachers to improve science education. Symposium participants described their projects and discussed the factors that contribute or detract from each project's success. The events of this symposium are critically analyzed. Four themes emerged as issues that affect the successful implementation and continuation of science education reform projects: scientific literacy as a primary goal, personal characteristics and commitment of project partners, curricular change built on social and developmental goals, and the incentive/reward structures in universities and school systems. This review of the emergent themes places the opinions of the symposium participants into the larger context of a growing science education research literature to inform others about synergy between professional scientists and classroom teachers. Our aim is to help others learn about the characteristics of effective partnerships to improve science education.     

Effects of a story-based strategy to enhance pupils’ ability and motivation to read bio-technical texts

This paper reports the results of a survey of the opinions of UK school teachers on the use of living organisms in secondary school science. A total of 285 respondents completed a questionnaire circulated to all members of the Institute of Biology. It was found that the last few years have seen a variety of constraints on the use of living organisms in schools. These include the pressures of time and finance, other effects of the introduction of the National Curriculum (England and Wales), a shortage of skilled technicians and a shift in pupils' perceptions about the ethics and value of the use of animals in schools. Despite all these, most respondents strongly favoured the appropriate use of living materials as an integral part of genuine biology education.     

Caught in the Middle: Evangelical Public Elementary Educators

The tensions that arise between private beliefs and teaching in the public school are examined in a case study of three evangelical elementary classroom educators who support constructivist pedagogy. This study involves teachers at differing points in their careers who strongly advocate a transactional curriculum in their professional community while existing in a theologically conservative community that often supports a return to traditional forms of educational practice. The article informs us that such teachers do exist, describes the range of challenges they face, and examines the roles of school, church, and family in mediating such challenges.     

Butterflies & wild bees: biology teachers’ PCK development through citizen science*

Citizen science is a rapidly growing emerging field in science and it is gaining importance in education. Therefore, this study was conducted to document the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of biology teachers who participated in a citizen science project involving observation of wild bees and identification of butterflies. In this paper, knowledge about how these biological methods can be taught to students is presented. After two years in the project, four teachers were interviewed and their PCK was captured in the form of content representations (CoRes) and Pedagogical and Professional-Experience Repertoires (PaP-eRs). These results can help future citizen science projects to link their activities to the school curriculum. But not only success can be reported: although one of the project team’s aims was to make the Nature of Science accessible to the teachers and students in the course of the project, the teachers did not take this aspect into account. This paper discusses the possible reasons and proposes various strategies for improving citizen science in the context of school biology learning.     

Stress management with adolescents at the junior high transition: an outcome evaluation of coping skills intervention

This paper reports an outcome study of coping skills intervention to help adolescents manage stress associated with the transition from elementary school to junior high. In a randomized design, sixth grade students from four elementary schools were pretested, then two schools each were assigned to an intervention condition and to a control condition. Intervention condition subjects received eight sessions of instruction and practice in coping skills intervention. Following intervention, all subjects were posttested. At posttest and relative to control condition subjects, intervention condition subjects scored more positively on measures of problem solving, assertive direct refusals, adequacy of information about junior high school, ability to handle stress, ability to deal with peer pressure, and general readiness for junior high school.     

Teaching in nature? Naturally!

Elementary school children spend less and less time outdoors in nature. In this way they will neither become familiar with plants and animals in their environment, nor will their environmental awareness develop. The solution for them would be to spend more quality time outdoors. In this work 170 teachers from Hungary and 170 teachers from Serbia shared their experiences and opinions about outdoor education. The aim was to determine whether they thought that outdoor classes were an effective method to bring pupils closer to nature. The research showed that teachers from both countries found teaching in a real environment vital but could not always implement it. They need help in the form of ideas, teaching programs and professional development courses to be confident and motivated to hold more outdoor classes.     

Attitudes toward Animals among German Children and Adolescents

ABSTRACT

This is the first study about attitudes toward animals among German children and adolescents. A sample of 543 pupils (261 boys, 282 girls) aged 11 to 17 (mean age = 13.37 ± 2.01 years) completed a questionnaire based on different established scales, for example, the Animal Attitude Scale (AAS) and the Intermediate Attitude Scale (IAS). Several aspects of attitudes toward animals and various dimensions of human–animal relationships were measured, including gender, age, grade, pet ownership, animal-related activities, meat consumption, and fear of and disgust toward animals. Gender and age were important factors in determining attitudes toward animals: pro-animal attitudes decreased with age and girls showed more positive attitudes compared with boys. Pet ownership and animal-related activities were associated with more positive attitudes toward animals, whilst meat consumption was related to lower pro-animal attitudes. There were no correlations between fear and general attitudes toward animals. The correlations between disgust and attitudes toward animals were weak. We found significant correlations among the different scales and subscales in animal attitudes.     

“Do Octopuses Have a Brain?” Knowledge,Perceptions and Attitudes towards Neuroscience at School

The present study contributes to the question of school literacy about the brain, with an original survey conducted on Italian students from the 3^rd to 10^th grades (n = 508). The main goal was to test student''s knowledge, attitudes, and interests about neuroscience, to assess needs, prospects, and difficulties in teaching about the brain from elementary to high school. A written questionnaire, maintaining anonymity, asked 12 close-ended multiple choice questions on topics related to human and animal brains, plus one facultative open-ended question about interests and curiosities on brain topics. The results show that respondents have a fragmentary level of basic knowledge about the brain, with aspects related to brain functions and consciousness the most challenging. As expected, degrees of performance improve with school level; elementary school students answered correctly an average number of 5.3 questions, middle school 6.5, and high school 7.4. Overall, students show great interest in the brain, as shown by the large number of questions gathered through the open-ended question (n = 384). Other topics are addressed, mostly related to brain structure/functions and the role of the brain in the everyday life. The survey indicates the need of more thorough school programs on this subject, reinforced by interdisciplinary teaching where comparative anatomy and evolutionary aspects of brain development are covered.