PRE-SERVICE BIOLOGY TEACHERS’ REPORTED FEAR AND DISGUST OF ANIMALS AND THEIR WILLINGNESS TO INCORPORATE LIVE ANIMALS INTO THEIR TEACHING THROUGH STUDY YEARS
Open Access
- 25 June 2017
- journal article
- Published by Scientia Socialis Ltd in Journal of Baltic Science Education
- Vol. 16 (3), 337-349
- https://doi.org/10.33225/jbse/17.16.337
Abstract
In this research, the self-reported fear and disgust toward animals of pre-service biology teachers and their willingness to incorporate live animals into their teaching were assessed with a questionnaire. An entire generation of pre-service biology teachers (N = 128) participated in this research. The results show that students are mostly afraid of animals that are potentially dangerous to humans such as large predators and are disgusted mostly by animals that are small and wet looking, like a slug. The students were less willing to incorporate animals that they reported to be most fearful or disgusting into their teaching. Considering that throughout their study years, there was practically no change in students’ levels of fear, disgust and willingness to incorporate live animals into their teaching calls for an improvement of the biology teacher education study programme in order to train teachers that are skilled and willing to use live animals in their teaching. One of the solutions could be offering pre-service teachers as many first-hand experiences with live animals as possible either in a formal learning environment, such as the university or, in case of large animals (predators), in informal learning environments, like a zoo or a national park. Keywords: disgust of animals, students beliefs, fear of animals, pre-service teachers.Keywords
This publication has 34 references indexed in Scilit:
- Health Is Associated With Antiparasite Behavior and Fear of Disease-Relevant Animals in HumansEcological Psychology, 2010
- Health and the avoidance of macroparasites: a preliminary cross-cultural studyJournal of Ethology, 2009
- Frequency and recency of infection and their relationship with disgust and contamination sensitivityEvolution and Human Behavior, 2009
- Disgust as a disease-avoidance mechanism.Psychological Bulletin, 2009
- Evidence that disgust evolved to protect from risk of diseaseProceedings. Biological sciences, 2004
- Intersection of disgust and fear: Normative and pathological views.Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 2000
- Hands On or Hands Off? Disgust Sensitivity and Preference for Environmental Education ActivitiesThe Journal of Environmental Education, 1999
- Assessment of childhood phobiasClinical Psychology Review, 1997
- Plants or animals—which do junior high school students prefer to study?Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 1986
- Phobias and preparednessBehavior Therapy, 1971