The First Shared Online Curriculum Resources for Veterinary Undergraduate Learning and Teaching in Animal Welfare and Ethics in Australia and New Zealand

Animals

Jane Johnson³  Teresa Collins¹  Christopher Degeling⁶  Anne Fawcett³  Andrew D. Fisher⁹  Rafael Freire²  Susan J. Hazel⁵  Jennifer Hood³  Janice Lloyd⁷  Clive J. C. Phillips⁸  Kevin Stafford⁴  Vicky Tzioumis³  Paul D. McGreevy³ 

[1] School of Veterinary and Life Science, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA 6150, Australia; E-Mail:;School of Animal and Veterinary Science, Charles Sturt University, Sutherland Laboratories, Wagga Wagga, NSW 2650, Australia; E-Mail:;Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia; E-Mails:;Institute of Veterinary, Animal and Biomedical Science, Massey University, Palmerston North 4442, New Zealand; E-Mail:;School of Animal and Veterinary Science, University of Adelaide, Roseworthy, SA 5005, Australia; E-Mail:;Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia; E-Mail:;College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Science, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia; E-Mail:;School of Veterinary Science, University of Queensland, Gatton, QLD 4343, Australia; E-Mail:;Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia; E-Mail:

关键词: animal ethics;    animal welfare;    online curriculum resources;    learning and teaching;    scenarios;    quality of life assessment;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ani5020362

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

There is a need for teaching Animal Welfare and Ethics in veterinary schools and we are developing online resources to meet this need. In this paper we describe how we prioritized the development of these resources by polling experts in the field.

The need for undergraduate teaching of Animal Welfare and Ethics (AWE) in Australian and New Zealand veterinary courses reflects increasing community concerns and expectations about AWE; global pressures regarding food security and sustainability; the demands of veterinary accreditation; and fears that, unless students encounter AWE as part of their formal education, as veterinarians they will be relatively unaware of the discipline of animal welfare science. To address this need we are developing online resources to ensure Australian and New Zealand veterinary graduates have the knowledge, and the research, communication and critical reasoning skills, to fulfill the AWE role demanded of them by contemporary society. To prioritize development of these resources we assembled leaders in the field of AWE education from the eight veterinary schools in Australia and New Zealand and used modified deliberative polling. This paper describes the role of the poll in developing the first shared online curriculum resource for veterinary undergraduate learning and teaching in AWE in Australia and New Zealand. The learning and teaching strategies that ranked highest in the exercise were: scenario-based learning; a quality of animal life assessment tool; the so-called ‘Human Continuum’ discussion platform; and a negotiated curriculum.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.