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Animal-assisted education (AAE) for primary school children in the time of COVID-19
Date Issued
2021
Conference
Citation
Chau, K. K. Y., Ngai, J. T. K., Lee, C. Y., Yu, R. W. M., & Wong, P. W. C. (2021 Sep 16). Animal-assisted education (AAE) for primary school children in the time of COVID-19. In One Welfare (Ed.). Proceedings Book of One Welfare World Conference 2021. One Welfare World Conference 2021 (pp.87/109).
Type
Conference Paper
Abstract
The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) disrupted our regular but
significant social life with adverse effect on our mental well-being. This
presentation describes the development of an online alternative to an Animalassisted education (AAE) programme in Hong Kong called Competence in Active
Resilience for Kids curriculum (CARing Kids), which aimed at teaching primary
school students humane and social-emotional learning over 6 sessions.
To continue the programme with minimal interruption, CARing Kids was converted
to online learning with some changes, e.g. (1) self-developed storybooks were
converted into e-books, (2) handlers of reading canines were asked to pre-record
videos showing their canines’ recent activities, (3) using reading canines’ photos
to create videos and teach students how to maintain personal hygiene and healthy
lifestyle amid the pandemic. At the end of each online session, sufficient time was
given for students to chat with handlers and understand more about the reading
canines.
Several challenges were found in online over face-to-face CARings Kids
programme; for example, students with lower socioeconomic status often lacked
electronic devices that enable mutual interaction, and certain activities such as
patting and brushing the canines could not be performed in online AAE.Yet, online
AAE is no longer contained in classroom settings and could be more engaging to
participants from a systemic perspective. During school suspension, participants’
family members were often in the same home setting with the participants, which
facilitated discussion about humane education and animal welfare with the
students. Besides, online AAE often took place with the reading canines either at
home or at school without students around, which not only kept their stress level
at minimum level, but also ensured both parties’ safety by maintaining social
distancing.
The preliminary results showed that the intervention group (who received
6-session online AAE) reported a significant reduction in emotional problems, t(34)
= -3.88, p 〈.01. Although there was main effect of time on participants’
hyperactivity, F[1,65] = 7.20, p 〈.01, only control group had significant increase
over time, t(31)= 2.88, p 〈 .01. The results indicated that both groups of students
were adapting to new lifestyle during the pandemic, yet the programme helped the
intervention group better navigate uncertainty.
Although online AAE is not as ideal as the face-to-face programme for teaching
children humane and social-emotional learning, it is an alternative that ensures the safety of participating students and reading canines (as well as their handlers) and
engages isolated individuals in such unprecedented time.
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