Frontiers in Psychology (Nov 2013)
Socio-emotional correlates of a schooldog-teacher-team in the classroom
Abstract
A growing number of teachers in Europe regularly take their dogs with them into the classroom. Limited research points at positive socio-emotional effects of this practice. In this study the effects of a schooldog-teacher-team on socioemotional experiences in school, depression and emotion regulation strategies were investigated in a classroom of third-graders (male n=12, female n=13), which had a schooldog present for one day per week in comparison with a control class (male n=11, female n=10). In contrast to the control class, the dog-class students reported a stronger improvement with regard to positive attitude towards school (repeated measures ANOVA; F=10.769, df=1, p=.002) and positive emotions related to learning (F=4.479, df=1, p=.042) over the course of the year. Since a prerequisite of all kinds of effective learning is a positive attitude and mood towards school and learning, the presence of a schooldog-teacher team thus has the potential to support learning.
Keywords
