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17 pages, 764 KB

Open AccessArticle

The Impact of a School Dog on Children’s Social Inclusion and Social Climate in a School Class

by Mona M. Mombeck and Timm Albers

Eur. J. Investig. Health Psychol. Educ. 2024, 14(1), 1-17; https://doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe14010001 - 19 Dec 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 4548

Animal-assisted pedagogy is well known in classroom practice, but scientific evidence of its impact on teaching and learning conditions is still lacking. At the same time, the biggest challenge in education systems worldwide is the social inclusion of students. In a pre–post design, 30 heterogeneous students (16 f/14 m) from four different school classes (grades 5–8) of two secondary schools and one grammar school were interviewed (in a problem-centered interview) about their social inclusion and their social climate in class before and after being taught selected subjects with a school dog for one school term. At the second measurement point, participants were also asked about their perception of animal-assisted pedagogy. The qualitative data analysis (Kuckartz) showed that the presence of a dog leads to an improved social climate, more social integration and to a change in social roles; therefore, we discussed our findings in the context of role theory (Krappmann). In addition, we found that the mutual perception of the other students and the teacher changes to a more positive and friendlier image. Through animal-assisted pedagogy, a new social role is added to the classroom, where caring and bonding are prioritized. Social interaction and norms are influenced and stereotypical and individual roles can be changed. Therefore, animal-assisted pedagogy can be key to promoting social inclusion in the school environment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Impact of Animals on Children’s Health, Development and Wellbeing)

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13 pages, 3198 KB

Open AccessArticle

Developing Key Skills as a Science Communicator: Case Studies of Two Scientist-Led Outreach Programmes

by Samuel M. Illingworth and Heidi A. Roop

Geosciences 2015, 5(1), 2-14; https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences5010002 - 16 Jan 2015

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 9828

Abstract

Outreach by scientific researchers in school classrooms often results in widespread benefit for learners, classroom teachers and researchers. This paper presents a consideration of these benefits using two case studies in the Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences (GEES). In each case, different school classroom-based activities were designed by scientists, but were improved by input from educational professionals, which helped to maximize the mutual learning experiences and to ensure the quality of the content and its delivery. Each case study suggests an improvement in scientist’s working knowledge of best practices for classroom-based outreach activities, which can translate to improved practices for University-level teaching, among other tangible career-relevant benefits. Despite these benefits, these projects highlight the well-established need for improved training for researchers in effective outreach practices, increased value on programme evaluation, and the growing need for meaningful professional recognition for researchers involved in these important, and ever-growing, outreach activities. Full article

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21 pages, 288 KB

Open AccessArticle

Rethinking the Thinking on Democracy in Education: What Are Educators Thinking (and Doing) About Democracy?

by David Zyngier

Educ. Sci. 2012, 2(1), 1-21; https://doi.org/10.3390/educ2010001 - 21 Dec 2011

Cited by 20 | Viewed by 9910

Abstract

This paper examines perspectives and perceptions of democracy of pre- and in-service teachers as well as teacher-education academics in Australia in order to develop a robust and critical democratic education. Using data from an on-line survey the paper presents the quantitative analyses, and the qualitative responses of contrasting understandings of democracy, citizenship and the role of education in the promotion and development of an active and thick democracy the paper critiques the neo-liberal (thin) democratic discourse of contemporary Australian academic research that suggests that the Civics and Citizenship Education project only requires some augmentation highlighting issues like sustainability and globalization while ignoring social justice issues. It begins by outlining the concepts of thick and thin democracy, and revisits the state of civics and citizenship education (CCE) in Australia. It is argued that while the pre-service teachers in this study may have a more critical and thicker understanding of democracy that is mirrored in the views of their teacher-education professors, the practicing teachers, on the other hand, have largely adopted the mainstream neo-liberal discourse, presenting a tendency to view democracy in a very narrow or thin way that may impact on their classroom practice. The paper concludes with recommendations related to what a thick democracy might actually look like in school education. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Civics and Citizenship in Its Global Context)

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