Connecting the Science of Animal Cognition and Emotion With Ethical Reasoning in the Classroom

• In Event: Animals in Environmental Education: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Curriculum and Pedagogy

Abstract

The moral status of non-human animals and human-animal relationships is rarely foregrounded in environmental education, even in work focused upon conservation or ethics (Spannring, 2017). Yet, questions about the moral status of animals provide opportunities to connect science with the humanities in the study of environmental ethics, exposing students to the power of interdisciplinary thinking and potentially leading to a shift in worldview promoting a more inclusive environmental ethics (Chawla, 2009). We developed an interdisciplinary course focused on connecting the science of animal behavior with ethical reasoning about animals for the inquiry-based general education curriculum at Roanoke College. The concept of the course could be applied to teaching in other settings and educational levels.

In the beginning of the course, students consider familiar animals, their pets, by examining impressions of emotions, cognitive abilities, and their relationship with these animals, while reading Bekoff’s (2007) The Emotional Lives of Animals. Students then choose another animal species and research cultural influences on human-animal relationships. We encourage students to choose species from across a broad phylogenetic range, including invertebrates. Learning about animals with widely varying sensory and cognitive physiologies allows us to break down the monolithic category of “animal” in the classroom. Next, students use their chosen animal to examine the scientific understanding of animal behavior, reading studies of problem-solving, symbolic communication, moral decision-making, emotion, and cultural transmission of behavior. We use Morrell’s (2013) Animal Wise, a writer’s account of interviews conducted with leading ethologists at their laboratories and field-sites. Students then progress to work with peer-reviewed scientific journal articles demonstrating cognitive and emotional capacities in animals, abilities historically viewed in Western culture as limited to humans (e.g., tool use by ants: Banschbach, Brunelle, Bartlett, Grivetti, & Yeamans, 2006; sense of fairness in monkeys: Brosnan & de Waal, 2003; pessimistic bias in honeybees: Bateson, Desire, Gartside, & Wright, 2011). We ask students to apply knowledge from these studies to their ethical reasoning about animals used for food, companionship, entertainment, research, and security, using a worksheet methodology from Traer’s Doing Environmental Ethics (2013).

To assess student outcomes, we surveyed students (n = 89) in six offerings of the course taught over two years. We used a general inductive approach to evaluating the survey data, identifying and categorizing themes in student responses (Thomas, 2006) and tallying frequencies. Students reported that their reasoning about the moral status of animals changed as a result of study of ethical reasoning traditions combined with exposure to scientific research findings. Students reported being more impacted by learning about scientific findings of high-level cognitive abilities in animals than from reading about scientific demonstrations of emotional capacities in animals. According to the students, this difference related to being already well-attuned to animal emotions and, therefore, having no need to rely on science to gain that awareness. Students noted feeling “a duty to protect animals due to their cognition” and reported that “knowing the extent of animal intelligence was a fantastic way to inform ethical reasoning.”

Authors

• Valerie Banschbach, Roanoke College

• Marwood Larson-Harris, Roanoke College