Authors: Pooja Kumari and Dr. Mitanjali Sahoo
Journal: Pedagogy of Learning
Volume: 8; Issue: 1
ISSN: 2395-7344
Pages: 19-27
Publication Date: 2022/10/30
Animal science, as a branch of biology that studies animals, is a fascinating subject that requires hands-on experience with live animals for better understanding. However, the use of live animals in teaching became controversial due to ethical, legal, environmental and practical reasons leading to ban on use of animals for education purpose in various countries. Various alternatives emerged to fill this gap by replacing the use of animals in teaching of animal science courses. In this study, the alternatives to the use of animals and their effectiveness in enhancing student’s learning in absence of live animals in animal science courses will be studied. Also, various issues and concerns related to use of alternatives in the teaching of animal science courses in providing adequate replacement to the use of animals will be examined. Our findings suggest that various alternatives are providing effective replacement to the use of live animals in teaching of animal science courses. Their effectiveness depends on several factors such as their quality, engagement of student, their benefit over traditional dissection practices, mindset of the educators etc. Some issues and concerns identified in implementation of alternatives were the lack of adequate alternatives according to course requirement, difficulty in procuring alternatives due to their high cost and insufficient funding, teachers’ reluctance and awareness, limitations of alternatives, technical/ technological issues faced during their implementation, difficulty faced by teachers in locating suitable resources etc. There is requirement of proper funding and institutional support to implement suitable alternatives and to increase awareness among teachers regarding the availability of suitable and affordable alternatives by conducting meetings and workshops on alternative approaches.
alternatives, animals, teaching, animal science course
Animal science is a subject which conducts scientific study of animals. Teaching animal science courses has traditionally relied on the use of live animals to provide students with hands-on experience and a deeper understanding of animal behavior and physiology. Live animals have been widely used in animal science practicals in education field as far as time goes back. However, the use of live animals in teaching has raised concerns about animal welfare, ethical considerations, environmental impact and practical issues such as availability, cost, and safety of animals (Dewhurst & Kojic, 2011). One of the major concerns associated with the use of live animals in teaching is their potential impact on animal welfare. Animals being sentient beings deserve moral and ethical consideration from humans (Ladwig, 2023). They should not be used as means to a goal, and should not be unnecessarily exploited for human gain. Picking animals from natural environment for education or research purpose may disrupt food web including that particular animal and due to interdependency of various animals on each other (Calizza, Costantini & Rossi, 2015) may cause adverse impact on environment. Excessive use of few varieties of animals for various human use may cause these animals or the animals dependent on these animals for food to be endangered or extinct. Many animals are bred in laboratory for education and research purpose which have its own moral and ethical dilemma. Animals bred in laboratory are not kept in humane condition causing them stress. This stress is inevitable and is brought on by a variety of factors, including imprisonment, transportation, restraint, noise and other processes involved in handling of the animals, as well as the experimental methods used on the animals (Balcombe, Barnard & Sandusky, 2004; Bailey, 2018). The use of live animals for teaching purpose can cause suffering, stress, injury, lifelong harm or even death to the animals, and can also perpetuate the belief that animals are disposable objects for human. It is also inhumane practice. The fact that laboratory animals undergo considerable and recurrent stress is widely acknowledged (Bailey, 2018). Advancement in technology has provided scope for humane education. Using digital alternatives have proved to have equal or more effectiveness than live animals and allow students to repeat the virtual dissection with no additional instructional cost (Lalley et al., 2010) or harm to animals. Animal ethics is equally important as the human welfare. Due to these concerns, many governments around the world have banned the use of live animals for the teaching purpose in various disciplines including the field of biological sciences. Now, the goal of laboratory curricula is to foster in students a sense of responsibility for the welfare of animals as well as an appreciation and respect for life (Pokale, 2019). Educators and students do not prefer hands-on dissection due to variety of reasons like ethical, moral, and physiological reasons (Elmali, 2022). Only researchers are allowed to use animals in scientific researches but only if they follow stipulated ethical protocols regarding the use of animals for study purpose. Currently, all over the developed world, ethical regulations are in the place to govern the use of animals in education and research. Due to these reasons, many alternative approaches emerged to replace the use of live animals in teaching of Animal Science courses and to improve the quality of science education (Pokale, 2017). Some of these alternatives are plastic modals, videos, preserved specimen etc. while other advanced alternatives include use of computer-based alternatives. We are now at a point where we can evaluate a wide range of alternatives to using animals in education and training due to the growth of technology (Cheluvappa, Scowen & Eri, 2017). However, their effectiveness in enhancing student learning of animal science and their potential impact on animal welfare are not well understood. In this paper, the different alternative approaches in the teaching of animal science without live animals has been studied. The aim of this research paper is to study the alternatives to the use of animals in teaching of Animal Science courses. Following are the main objectives of this study: a) To study about the alternatives to the use of animals in teaching of animal science courses. b) To study about the effectiveness of alternatives of animals in teaching of animal science courses. c) To study the issues and concerns of the alternatives of animals in teaching of animal science courses.
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Kumari, P., & Sahoo, M. (2022). A study on alternatives to the use of animals in teaching of animal science courses. Pedagogy of Learning: International Refereed/Peer Reviewed Journal of Education, 8(4), 19-27. E-ISSN 2395-7344.