Teaching With Dogs: Learning About Learning Through Hands-on Experience in Dog Training

Abstract

This paper summarizes a pilot study of an experiential learning technique that was designed to give undergraduate students a greater understanding of the principles and theories of learning and behavior, which is traditionally taught only in a lecture-based format. Students were assigned the role of a dog trainer, and they were responsible for designing and administering empirically and theoretically based training regimens to shelter dogs to teach them new behaviors that would make them more adoptable. Results from student feedback and their performance on assessments suggest that this activity was well-received by the students both for the learning benefit and enjoyment aspect, and this translated to a moderate level on their assessments. Details about how the learning and behavior class was made into an experiential learning course, the outcomes of this experience, and suggestions for improving the educational benefit of this experiential activity are discussed. This hands-on program offers a new alternative for teaching learning and behavior. Future offerings of this course and others like it present ideal opportunities for researching the effectiveness of more experiential methods of teaching and learning.

Avaliação de professores sobre a participação de animais em atividades didáticas de Análise Experimental do Comportamento

“…A simples ausência de opções em práticas alternativas para o ensino de Psicologia não é um argumento válido há bastante tempo (e.g., Gallup & Suarez, 1985). No âmbito do ensino de ciências comportamentais há proposições de diversas práticas alternativas, seja incluindo a participação de animais não criados especificamente para esse fim -como pombos livres (Cohen & Block, 1990), cachorros de abrigo (McConnell, 2016), ou mesmo de baratas (Proctor & Jones, 2020) -, seja com métodos de fato alternativos, como softwares (Acker et al, 1990;Cihon et al, 2018;Goodhue et al, 2019;Graf, 1995;Hyten, 1989;Mulick, 1992;Ray & Miraglia, 2011;Shimoff & Catania, 1995) ou práticas com humanos (Epting & Green, 2011;Hodge & Nelson, 2002). Entretanto, a ideia de que tais alternativas são mal fundamentadas e/ou ainda não permitem alcançar os objetivos pretendidos parece ter permanecido entre parte expressiva dos professores de ciências em geral e de ciências comportamentais especificamente (Zemanova, 2021).…”