EDUCATING ABOUT ANIMAL BEHAVIOR: A Broad Perspective: Introduction

Dr. Penny L. Bernstein
Kent State University Stark Campus
Canton, OH 44720

Welcome to this symposium. I organized this set of talks, in cooperation with the Education Committee, in an effort to highlight the wide range of educational initiatives being undertaken by members of the Society. In this opening talk, I would like to accomplish two things. First I would like to give you a little bit of background about where this symposium came from, why we felt we needed it, and what we are trying to accomplish. Second, I would like to give an overview of the talks coming up.

First, let me explain about the title. I chose the active verb “educating”, instead of the noun, “education”, to emphasize the fact that we would be discussing an active process, rather than a passive concept. (I have to admit I was probably borrowing a bit from W. John Smith: I was his graduate student when he was writing his book, The Behavior of Communicating, and we used to give him a hard time about using the verb rather than the noun, communication. But he argued persuasively that it was necessary to use the verb in order to emphasize the active nature of the process).

The second part of the title – “A Broad Perspective” – was meant to convey two ideas. First, in the Animal Behavior Society, when we say “educating” we are usually talking about undergraduate and graduate students. These are very important groups, but this is not the only population we DO educate or SHOULD educate. So we wanted to broaden the discussion. The second idea is that educating about animal behavior is also an excellent way to educate about science in general – how science is done, the importance of observing and asking good questions, and so on. So again, we wanted to emphasize thinking about educating in a broad sense.

There are both good and bad reasons to be educating various groups about animal behavior. Some of the “good” reasons include the following:animal behavior is inherently interesting; it appeals to all ages; it ties in easily with human behavior; people find it relevant – it helps explain things they see around them, their own social interactions, and interactions they have with other animals, such as their pets; and, finally, nature shows and magazines have helped promote interest. All of these reasons lead us to conclude that animal behavior is something people want to know about and is something we should educate about.

But there are also “bad” reasons why we should be educating about animal behavior. For example, periodically we see or read things that suggest that academic findings have not filtered down to pre-college students or the general public very well, that ethology or animal behavior is not well recognized by the general public as a field of study, and that the Animal Behavior Society, and academic professionals in the field in general, are not well known. Ohio newspapers several years ago, soon after I moved there, had an article about a person counseling pet owners about pet problems. The person was quoted as saying “It’s wonderful – anyone can be an animal behaviorist – no degree or formal training is necessary. I just do it!”Several things bothered me about this quote and the article. First, there was no recognition that the Animal Behavior Society existed. Second, there was little awareness of the academic field or discipline “animal behavior”. Third, the person had co-opted our name! “Animal behaviorist”. Anyone could be that! I suddenly found myself wishing we hadn’t more or less abandoned the term ethologist – not everyone could be that! But apparently anyone could be an “animal behaviorist”. Reading this article really made me feel that WE – both the discipline AND the Society – were invisible.

There are other problems, as well. I have worked with K-12 teachers for 15 years. They confess to me that they often skip the behavior chapters in their textbooks. They explain that they never had animal behavior courses, so they are unsure what to do. Also, behavior just doesn’t seem as important, somehow, as teaching students about weather, photosynthesis, magnetism, or ecology, even though they themselves like the subject and so do their students. Many teachers also have trouble knowing how to engage their students in field work; knowing how to keep animals in class; and, perhaps most importantly, knowing what the process of science is and how animal behavior can be used to help students engage in that process, and “do” science. Similar problems occur even at the college level, where animal behavior is not always covered in introductory courses for majors.

So here is a situation where there is great interest in a topic, but a lot of misunderstanding -- there is a feeling that it is easy to “do” animal behavior (don’t need a degree, you can watch TV and learn all about it!), and educators who don’t know how to teach about it. In addition, there is little understanding or knowledge of academic animal behavior research or animal behavior researchers.

But there is hope. This situation is rapidly changing as members of the Animal Behavior Society become increasingly involved in a diverse array of education initiatives. They are educating students, teachers, pet owners, the general public and even funding agencies about who we are, what we do, and what animals do.

Today’s symposium, then, will look at some of these initiatives. I know there are many of you in the audience and others in the Society who are also involved in important, interesting initiatives as well. This symposium group is not an exhaustive list. But the participants today illustrate some of the range of initiatives, that broad perspective, we were trying to examine. I encourage all of you attending today to stay for and participate in the discussion/sharing session at the end of the symposium and to fill out the survey from the Public Relations committee that seeks to find out and catalog what other things are being done.

The group of participants today will give us a sense of what is being done now. Hopefully, after today’s session, we can begin, as a Society, to decide where we should be headed next.

The next part of my talk, then, will focus on solutions to the problems I outlined above. I’ll start by talking a little bit about some of my own work, to set the stage. My work in educating about animal behavior has taken many forms. But today I wanted to mention some of the recent work I have been involved in. Project Discovery was a Statewide Systemic Initiative in Ohio, funded by the National Science Foundation. It was designed to improve the teaching of Life Science, Physics, and Mathematics throughout the state. I was the Life Sciences educator for a 15-county region, and worked with two teams of 2 middle school teachers each to develop courses. The focus of the program was on middle school, and eventually it was extended through grades 4-12. The goal was to train teachers in inquiry approaches. I think you all have some idea of what this involves – instead of lecturing, you have students explore concepts, and learn by being actively involved. The problem in Ohio, as well as in many other states, is that few teachers are trained well in science, much less in animal behavior, and as a result, they have difficulty teaching science to their students.

In our courses we had the teachers doing some cool things. They observed human behaviors such as tongue showing, smiles, mirroring and synchrony to develop an understanding of these nonverbal communication signals. They did short behavior field studies of animals around their homes or schools (for example, one teacher lives near Hinckley, OH, a town famous for celebrating the return of the turkey vultures every spring. He observed how the vultures came out of their roost in the morning near his school, and gathered data about timing, numbers and order of individuals, orientations, and other behaviors).

They took field trips armed with worksheets and observation goals – models of ways to provide students with things to do on trips, rather than simply turning them loose to run through exhibits without any guidance or opportunities for insight. For example, teachers were amazed when they undertook focused observations of individual animals at Sea World – individuals in an active group of jellyfish was a big hit – and found themselves quickly asking lots of questions and wanting more information. They were surprised how a simple “scavenger hunt” at the Cleveland Zoo (looking for particular behaviors, displays, badges, camouflage patterns) could turn that trip into a learning adventure. When teachers and their students focus on animal behavior in these simple ways, animal behavior and science in general comes alive, and we as researchers and as a Society become more visible.

The rest of the speakers will elaborate on these kinds of activities and approaches. They will discuss a variety of initiatives that are helping improve science learning in general and an understanding of animal behavior in particular.

We will not be able to cover today some of the other important programs that are providing excellent solutions to the problems of visibility and the enhancement of science understanding, for example, those offered by the Laboratory of Ornithology at Cornell. The “Lab of O.” has been a pioneer in involving students and the general public in science research. Through programs such as Classroom Feeder Watch and a variety of field trips, they have enlisted students and the public in gathering data as well as in observing the ecology and behavior of birds.

But we will cover the following:

Martha Chaiken, of Rutgers University Psychology Department, a member of the former Institute of Animal Behavior, will talk about initiatives in animal behavior labs for undergraduates, and the importance of inquiry approaches to science teaching.

Ben Hart, of the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California, Davis, will address changes in the veterinary school curriculum over the last 10-20 years and the uneven nature of animal behavior research and training in veterinary medicine today.

Joanne Oliva-Purdy, of the Baltimore Zoo, will talk about educating undergraduates using a zoo setting.

David Shepherdson, of the Oregon Zoo, will talk about special programs at the zoo that involve teachers, school classes, and general zoo visitors in animal behavior studies and in learning how to “do” science.

Kelly Lewis and Bob Matthews will each talk about their work with K-12 teachers and students. Bob, from the University of Georgia, will focus on his development of the WOWBUGS project. This was an NSF-funded program in which Bob used his research organism as a means to help teachers develop inquiry-based science exercises focusing on animal behavior. Kelly will highlight the programs she developed as part of her combined science and education graduate program at Coastal Carolina University. Her programs emphasized inquiry approaches to teaching science to students at various grade levels.

Lynette Hart, director of the Center for Animals in Society at the University of California, Davis, will talk about companion animals but from an international perspective, demonstrating how culture can affect views of animal behavior and how we educate about it.

Trish McConnell of the University of Wisconsin, who has her own applied ethology practice, will also talk about companion animals. She will educate us, the members of the Society, about applied ethology. She will also demonstrate how she must educate clients about the behavior of their pets and, in some sense, educate pets about the behavior of their owners. She will use guest dogs to illustrate how humans and dogs can improve their communication. Please note that she will be giving a different talk tonight, with a different emphasis and with new dogs. [Trish gave an evening presentation open to the public]

Mike Renner, chair of the Education Committee, will talk about the initiatives being undertaken within the Animal Behavior Society itself.

And finally, last but not least, Chuck Snowdon will sum up for us. He will pick up on the theme of “invisibility” that he warned us about several years ago when he was President of ABS. He will give us some real examples of why these efforts are necessary and how they can pay off in terms of recognition, funding opportunities, and inclusion in decision-making processes. He will also give us direction for the future – what we must do next to capitalize on the growing awareness of animal behavior research and our role in it.

That’s the program [several time changes were mentioned at this point]. Please note that there will be time for discussion after each speaker, if they choose to leave time, but we will also have time for discussion at the end of the symposium. We hope you will participate in these discussions. The Society is seeking input so we can expand upon the current initiatives. For example, is it time to add “education” to the list of paper/poster conference topics? Is it time for the annual meeting to include special sessions dedicated to education topics?

Thank you. And now here is our first speaker, Dr. Martha Chaiken of Rutgers University, on “ Designing laboratory courses to address critical needs in undergraduate education”.