The coordinator of the project titled “Effective Implementation of Animal Assisted Education” is United Kingdom and its partners are Spain, Turkey, Greece and Slovenia. Recently, benefiting from animal support in education has become popular all over the world. Because animal supported education and learning improves students’ mental, physical, social and emotional functions with the help of animals. Students interact with animals and a bond is formed between them. There are students in need of special education, low academic success, low self-confidence, and hyperactivity and concentration disorders in our schools. Every student should benefit from education equally and be supported with different and more effective pedagogical methods. Therefore, teachers need to learn different practices, new approaches and effective methods and increase their professional capacities. Cooperation and project partnership with schools in different countries of Europe, especially the basic skills (math, reading, science, writing) will improve the knowledge, skills and attitudes of students who have low achievement, restore physical, mental and social aspects, and provide them with a better quality of learning. Our objectives are:
- To find the best experiences and tools for animal assisted training used in European countries for the development of students with low academic success, lack of motivation, physical, social and psychological questions.
- Collaborate with experts and prepare educational materials that can be used in the curriculum to develop optimal assisted practices.
- Making the results of the partnership available not only for partner organizations but also for professionals and the public in Europe and potentially beyond.
- To provide teachers with the necessary knowledge and skills to successfully use human-animal interaction in our schools.
- Finding and implementing the best practices by exchanging good practices and exchanging professional knowledge with colleagues in schools.
A total of 76 staff mobility will take place in two years.The main activities are; human-animal interaction practices, presentation of ethics in animal assisted activities, participation in the application of hamster-human interactions, hamster-assisted teaching practices in mathematics lesson, parent+animal assisted lesson practices, developing basic skills using animals, rquines-facilitated learning, a seminar on human-animal interaction, reading and writing practices with dogs and experts, story-time lesson with the dog, cat-assisted teaching, language skills development practices with fishes, visiting a farm, interviewing with expert farmers on the effect of farm animals in the improvement of students with low motivation and disadvantaged, improving problem solving skills using farm animals, opening/closing ceremonies and eTwinning online seminar.
Expected results:
- Animal-human interaction programs will provide longer-term life results for students.Students’ participation, motivation, attention and focus, communication with their peers, especially mathematics, reading, writing, expression, science knowledge and skills will increase, motor skills will improve, and mood will improve.
- Teachers will learn best practices in partner schools, gain new knowledge and skills, and discover potential advantages, practices, ethical issues and limitations of including animal-supported education in classroom settings.The competencies of teachers will be strengthened in the integration of animals into the educational process.
- Project results can encourage other schools at local, national or international level to use animal assisted education.
- We will report the project results to the education politicians. Educational politicians can include animal-supported educational practices in existing programs or recommend them to schools.
- The quality standard of our institutions will increase and our cooperation with stakeholders will improve. The participating staff will gain the experience and privilege of learning, teaching, training mobility at the European level. Teachers will learn how to improve skills, new pedagogical approaches and strategies for students with low basic skills, disadvantages and lack of motivation.