animal welfare

This paper presents an evaluation of the use of contextualised problem-based learning (PBL) in the context of the law and animal welfare. Generally, law is taught through the transmission of information, however in PBL, discussions and analyses are integral rather than conclusory to learning. As a curriculum approach, it is becoming increasingly common to use problem scenarios in facilitating awareness of legal issues and to engage interest by highlighting the real-world ramifications. Furthermore, such an approach allows students to become active in their own learning and promotes the development of decision-making abilities through the identification and analysis of real problems. This may be particularly apposite in developing skills for addressing certain kinds of seemingly intractable policy problems. Such an approach was adopted as part of a teaching session during a ‘One World’ festival event at a UK university. The application of legal precedence to authentic problems such as animal welfare takes place across subject-matter domains and therefore allowed interdisciplinary and translational methodologies to be explored with groups of interdisciplinary graduate students.

A designed characteristic was the facilitation of evaluation and such prescience allowed multiple opportunities for observation, focus group discussion and the deployment of questionnaires. The results were generally positive in relation to student learning with a significant appreciation of the difficulties of making decisions in complex ethical contexts. However, while students reported a meaningful learning experience, the specific, identified, outcomes varied significantly. This may reflect the difficulties around focussed learning outcomes relative to such messy-problems, suggesting that the complexity of the issues promotes an allied complexity of emergent learning. It is suggested that within this deeper, complex appreciation of problems, such as those associated with animal welfare and legislation, is where PBL both fosters and facilitates the development of authoritative and ethical decision-making skills in young people.

In Western industrialised nations, within the domain of education and training, digital is now the default, where emerging technologies have increased connectedness to such a degree that they have driven a significant transformation in pedagogical methodologies. This is primarily due to the ease of access to smartphones and other connected personal devices. As a result, the constraints of location and time are no longer great barriers to learning, with learning possible to access in any mode and almost in any place and at any time. For geographically large countries such as China, these technologies can link the national to the international, connect city to city and the urban to the rural.

This paper will review existing blended learning approaches and how technology has influenced pedagogical approaches to teaching and training around animal welfare. A key component in the design of online learning resources is that it facilitates active design, production and of content. This can be shared in numerous formats, including text, images, sound, video, and online seminars and discussions, all of which are easily disseminated to potentially huge audiences. Such a ‘connected pedagogy’ also relies on establishing an environment that is characterised by meaningful engagement, problem-based learning, and peer-evaluation. The paper will review the approaches to be adopted by the Donkey Sanctuary on its learning platform and will demonstrate the design and implementation of and learning and training resources with specific reference to animal welfare and biosecurity.

The presentation concludes by placing animal welfare within the context of formal, moral education in China and how the philosophical and historical influences of Confucianism and Socialism have presented, as a key component, the maintenance of harmony between living and natural environments. This has made China an active promoter of sustainable development, an aspiration to which blended learning has much to contribute.