Abstract
High school agriculture teachers often incorporate live animals into the curriculum to enhance educational experiences, increase student interest, and motivate students to learn about animal topics (Phipps, Osborne, Dyer, & Ball, 2008). As a component of classroom instruction, livestock or companion animals may be housed at a school and routinely used as a teaching aid (Talbert, Vaughn, & Croom, 2005). Live animals have provided opportunities for students to develop career skills, including caring for and safely handling the animals as well as managing an animal production operation. Beyond the classroom, students can also develop animal–related skills through livestock exhibition programs, supervised agricultural experience projects, and work–based learning programs (Bailey, Hughes, & Moore, 2004;Robinson & Haynes, 2011). While agriculture teachers utilize animals to enhance teaching and learning, the social and emotional benefits of regular animal interaction has not been well documented for high school students.
Highlights
High school agriculture teachers often incorporate live animals into the curriculum to enhance educational experiences, increase student interest, and motivate students to learn about animal topics (Phipps, Osborne, Dyer, & Ball, 2008)
The study of how animals are utilized in an agricultural program can be viewed as a singular curriculum focus in Career and Technical Education (CTE)
Students learned valuable technical skills through daily instruction facilitated by live animal interaction
Summary
High school agriculture teachers often incorporate live animals into the curriculum to enhance educational experiences, increase student interest, and motivate students to learn about animal topics (Phipps, Osborne, Dyer, & Ball, 2008). While agriculture teachers utilize animals to enhance teaching and learning, the social and emotional benefits of regular animal interaction has not been well documented for high school students. CTE often goes beyond traditional agricultural programs’ use of animals as a teaching tool by utilizing immersive strategies. These strategies are linked to CTE topics that engage students in complex skills and knowledge which involve prolonged experiences in experiential and laboratory settings as well as community partnerships in particular fields (Scott & Sarkees-Wircenski, 2001). When we explore the emotional and affective benefits of students’ interactions with animals in an agricultural classrooms, we envision that these benefits could apply to other CTE immersion activities
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