Teaching Kindness: The Promise of Humane Education

Abstract

Although the popularity of Humane Education Programs (HEP) as a method of teaching compassion and caring for all living beings is increasing, there is a need for rigorous, methodologically sound research evaluating the effi cacy of HEP. Recent calls for the inclusion of HEP within broader humanistic, environmental, and social justice frameworks underline the importance of HEP beyond a simple "treatment of animals" model. Lack of methodological rigor in the majority of published HEP studies (e.g., absence of a control group) and dispersal across disparate fi elds (with diff ering indices of effi cacy), however, means that there is a potential for the popular use of HEP to outstrip our understanding of the variables that impact effi cacy. Th e current study discusses some of these issues and presents a pilot study of a literature-only HEP intervention. Comparisons with an age-matched control group indicated that the four-week HEP resulted in an increase in measures of empathy and treatment of animals, although only the increase in empathy levels was signifi cant. Th is paper discusses the implications of the current results and areas in need of future consideration.

Protecting Life on Land and Below Water: Using Storytelling to Promote Undergraduate Students’ Attitudes toward Animals

“…Through depicting the quality/value of life, the artistic representation neutralizes the boundary between humans and wild animals, thereby channeling the common intrinsic values of life. The study also finds that the use of the artistic work of animal photographs in humane education has generated empathy, increased the perceptions of animal individuality and fostered human-animal kinship [11,40,41].…”

Animal Education Berbasis Animasi Sebagai Media Belajar Interaktif Dengan Pendekatan Tematik (Implementasi Pendidikan Karakter Dalam Kurikulum 2013)

“…Urgensi pendidikan manusiawi adalah mengajarkan anak-anak mengenai kebaikan kepada hewan. Hal ini mampu menghasilkan empati yang diarahkan pada manusia dan pengurangan perilaku kekerasan dan agresif (Signal & Taylor, 2009). Pada usia sekolah dasar, anak mulai berempati dengan memikirkan perasaan dari persepektif lain.…”

Humane Attitudes and Empathic Tendencies in Chinese Young People: Implications for Humane Education

“…Over the past two decades, some studies have suggested that humane attitudes toward animals are positively correlated with empathy to humans (Daly & Morton, 2009;Preylo & Arikawa, 2008;Signal & Taylor, 2007;Taylor & Signal, 2005). Recent studies have also evidenced that HE programs are positive interventions in promoting students' humane attitudes toward the treatment of animals (Ascione, Latham, & Worthen, 1985;Cameron, 1983;Nicoll, Samuels, & Trifone, 2008) and human-directed empathy (Arbour, Signal, & Taylor, 2009;Ascione, 1992;Ascione & Weber, 1996;Fitzgerald, 1981;Paul, 2000).…”

“…The current promising findings of HE programs, however, mainly emerged from the studies of elementary school students (Arbour et al, 2009;Ascione, 1992;Sprinkle, 2008). Ascione (1992) assessed the impact of a year-long school-based HE program on first, second, fourth and fifth graders' attitudes toward the treatment of animals as well as human-directed empathy.…”

“…The results indicated that the HE program had a positive effect on normative beliefs about aggression and levels of empathy in elementary school students. Arbour et al (2009) evaluated an eight-lesson HE program for fourth graders. It was found that the human-directed empathy of the male fourth graders was significantly increased after their participation in the HE program.…”