Abstract
It is important to determine the ethical sensitivities of teachers who have high potential to work with experimental animals due to their branches. With this purpose the current study aimed to determine science and biology teachers’ ethical opinions about the use of experimental animals. In order to collect data, the Questionnaire of Opinions about the Use of Experimental Animals developed by Yiğit, et al. (2015) was employed. The collected data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, percentages, frequencies, mean values and t-test (N=70). While the science and biology teachers approached to the sixth item “Animals can be used in experiments in which they experience some pain for the benefits of humanity” with higher ethical sensitivity, the female participants were found to be more sensitive towards the second item “Alternative methods should be the first methods to be employed by researchers”. In light of the findings of the current study, it can be suggested that science and biology teachers who are more likely to be involved in experiments in which animals are used (according to the science and biology course contents published by YÖK) should be subjected to trainings during their pre-service and in-service years to raise their ethical sensitivities about the issue; thus, they can help their students more to recognize the value of animals. Keywords: Teachers’ sensitivity, ethics, animals, laboratuary experiments