“A research study on the values gained from dissection of animals in secondary school biology”

Perceived Disgust and Personal Experiences are Associated with Acceptance of Dissections in Schools

“…Oakley 2012) due to ethical and environmental concerns regarding the killing the animals (PETA 2004) and ignoring of animal welfare standards (Bishop & Nolen 2001, Hug 2008, Oakley 2009. A result, a debate over alternatives to dissection, such as various anatomical models (real or virtual), has started (Fowler and Brosius 1968, Balcombe 2001, Predavec 2001, Franklin et al 2002, De Villiers & Monk 2005, Khalil et al 2005, Maloney 2005, DeHoff et al 2011). On the one side, alternatives to dissection bring some advances, such as low time/payment costs, high flexibility of the use of alternatives and/or better visibility of animal internal organs (Predavec 2001, DeVilliers & Monk 2005.…”

Systematic review of comparative studies examining alternatives to the harmful use of animals in biomedical education

“…Eleven of the studies appeared to be randomized, parallel-group trials, [20][21][22][23][24][25]27,[30][31][32],c 4 involved comparative groups to which participants were not randomly assigned or for which the randomization process was not clear, 26,28,29,33 1 was a 2-period crossover study, 14 and 1 involved a retrospective review of grades. b…”

“…[36][37][38][39][40] Importantly, studies included in the present review had some limitations. Some studies 20,28 included small sample sizes, and some measured outcomes of individual students when groups or teams were used for randomiza-tion purposes, 20,21,31,33 included only vague descriptions of methodology and testing methods, 25 provided insufficient information about the extent of use of conventional methods in the alternative teaching group, 27 or provided limited head-to-head comparisons of alternative with conventional groups. 14 The 2 studies b,c published only in abstract form were difficult to assess because of the limited amount of information provided.…”

Dissection: The Scientific Case for Alternatives

“…In 7 of these studies, measurable student learning performance was equivalent between the compared learning methods. In 2 cases (Fowler & Brosius, 1968;McCollum, 1987), students performed better using the alternatives. In only 1 case (Matthews, 1998) was the alternative (MacPig, produced by the now defunct company Intellimation for the Macintosh computer) found to provide inferior learning to the dissection.…”

“…Downie & Meadows, 1995 2,913 first-year U.K. biology undergraduates Cumulative examination results of 308 students who studied model rats were the same as those of 2,605 students who performed rat dissections. Fowler & Brosius, 1968 456 U.S. high school students…”