Animal-Assisted Education: Exploratory Research on the Positive Impact of Dogs on Behavioral and Emotional Outcomes of Elementary School Students.
For some students, school success is not a simple matter. A growing, innovative approach that supports students' functioning at school is programs in which animals are involved in education. The involvement of animals, especially dogs, in education is known as animal-assisted education (AAE). A lite...
| Published in: | Children Vol. 10; no. 8; pp. 1316 - 1333 |
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
| Format: | research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Published: |
MDPI
Aug2023
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=170738589&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 170738589 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 22279067 LW6K jtl: Children issn: 22279067 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Aug2023 vid: 10 iid: 8 pid: 97109 pub: MDPI artinfo: ui: 170738589 170738589 170738589 10.3390/children10081316 170738589 ppf: 1316 ppct: 17 formats: tig: atl: Animal-Assisted Education: Exploratory Research on the Positive Impact of Dogs on Behavioral and Emotional Outcomes of Elementary School Students. aug: au: Verhoeven, Riki Butter, René Martens, Rob Enders-Slegers, Marie-José affil: Institute of Ecological Pedagogy, University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, 3584 CH Utrecht, The Netherlands sug: subj: Students, Elementary Student Attitudes Child Behavior Emotions Dogs Health Behavior Therapy Animals Pet Therapy Education Human Child Male Female Quasi-Experimental Studies Pretest-Posttest Design Quantitative Studies Questionnaires Data Analysis Software Outcome Assessment Child: 6-12 years Male Female ab: For some students, school success is not a simple matter. A growing, innovative approach that supports students' functioning at school is programs in which animals are involved in education. The involvement of animals, especially dogs, in education is known as animal-assisted education (AAE). A literature review of AAE indicated a positive influence of AAE programs on the quality of learning and social emotional development in children. This study explored whether AAE positively impacts the social and emotional outcomes of elementary school students aged between 8 and 13 years through mixed methods. The methods used were a survey and an observational study. The survey section of the study showed that students participating in the program with the dogs rated themselves, after the intervention period, significantly higher in terms of self-confidence and had a more positive score for relationships with other students after the intervention. As rated by their teachers, after the intervention period, students scored significantly higher in relation to work attitude, pleasant behavior, emotional stability, and social behavior. In the observational study, we analyzed the video material of students who participated in an AAE program with dogs. We concluded that all verbal and non-verbal behaviors of the students increased, except eye contact. The current study indicates future directions for theoretical underpinnings, improved understanding, and the empirical measurement of the underlying variables and mechanisms. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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