A review of the application of active learning pedagogies in undergraduate animal science curricula

Abstract

With most of the student attrition occurring early in undergraduate educational programs (Braunstein et al., 1997) it is necessary to interest and motivate students early on. The demographics of animal science students have shifted to students with minimal background in food producing animals. This presents a unique challenge as the current student population represents a diverse array of backgrounds and prior experiences. As a result, students enroll in undergraduate animal science programs with various expectations for their undergraduate degree and a focus primarily on careers in veterinary medicine. To engage all students, interest and motivation need to be generated. This review will use motivational frameworks as outlined by the self-determination theory, expectancy value theory, and interest, to explain the impact of the proposed solutions. Active learning classroom strategies are linked to increased knowledge compared with traditional, passive classrooms (Wells et al., 2019). Active learning shifts from a traditional teaching model to a student-centered model, which transitions instructors to facilitators of learning. This review summarizes current proposed pedagogies that have been researched in animal science classrooms such as experiential learning, flipped classrooms, hands-on animal experience, undergraduate research experiences, mentorship opportunities, capstone experiences, service-learning experiences, team-based learning, and cooperative learning. The limitations of these proposed pedagogies and the future research needed are also discussed.

There are numerous pedagogies that have been implemented in animal science curricula to motivate and spark interest among students. As the student population continues to diversify and grow, it is crucial to understand what literature supports best practices in active learning and future areas of research within animal science teaching programs.

Introduction

Animal science departments have been established for over 100 years, and they remain a prominent department in the college of agriculture due to their role in preparing students to feed growing populations, work with a variety of species, and conduct translatable research (Lugar and Stewart, 2019). Graduates with an animal science degree are afforded diverse and numerous career opportunities (Benson et al., 2020). Animal science curricula present a unique challenge in balancing scientific knowledge, research, and practical knowledge. Furthermore, the animal science student demographics have shifted from predominantly male to female and from rural students interested in food animal production to urban and suburban students entering with an interest in veterinary medicine (Buchanan, 2008; Marshall et al., 1998; Peffer, 2011).

With these changes, it is crucial to continue to update the curriculum and teaching pedagogies. Most student attrition occurs within the first two years, with 75% occurring following the first year (Braunstein et al., 1997). Thus, there is a need early in the program to prepare students for the curriculum, meet their basic needs, and generate interest and motivation. Resiliency and goal setting for animal science students are highest in upperclassmen (Splan, 2013), proving this urgency. There are interventions needed early in the curriculum to improve student resiliency and goal attainment which in turn affects their academic achievement and sense of autonomy (Splan, 2013). Changing prior course material may be necessary to meet the diversified interests of students and support the widely diverse backgrounds of animal science students. Narrowing in on more relevant and applicable course material will help to support student engage and satisfaction (Adcock et al., 2016).

To support this early interest and motivation, students’ expectancies, values, and basic needs must be considered when designing classroom structure and format, as it can enhance or diminish students’ academic experience. This review will examine current efforts within animal science classrooms to better understand how active learning pedagogies can increase students’ interest, motivation, and awareness of food animal production practices.

Motivational Frameworks

Interest is a temporary state which is sparked by tasks, objects, or situations, and can prompt future motivations (Schiefele, 2009). Deliberate pedagogies can be implemented in the learning environment to generate interest in students with diverse backgrounds. When situational interest is sparked in classrooms, it can develop into a prolonged individual interest, which will prompt the student to reengage with content knowledge and its application. Student interest is important to consider as literature has linked students’ interest, enjoyment, and ease with student retention and success in agricultural courses (White et al., 2006; Hoover, 2017). Additionally, interest can impact students’ attention in class, future and current goals, quality of learning, course choices, and college majors (Haraeckiewics et al., 2002; Hidi and Renninger, 2006).

The Expectancy-Value Theory (EVT) explains that students intentionally put more effort into the learning activities that they believe to be valuable and that they can succeed in (Robinson et al., 2019b). Values could be intrinsic such as the student finding enjoyment or satisfaction, utility meaning the task serves a future purpose, or attainment meaning completing the task is important to their identity. These values are impacted by opportunity, effort, and psychological costs (Robinson et al., 2019b). Student expectations and values are useful to consider as they can be used as a predictor of achievement, choice, and task performance (Huellman et al., 2010; Robinson et al., 2019b).

There are several ways EVT can be applied to animal science curricula. For example, if students are interested in pursuing a career in small animal veterinary medicine and only exposed to food animal production concepts, they may not feel motivationally supported as the material does not meet the expectation they had of learning relevant content to their future aspirations. If this continues, their perceived cost value, whether it is opportunity, time, or effort cost, will increase (Robinson et al., 2019a).

The Self-Determination Theory (SDT) explains that for students to be interested in a subject or task, their basic needs must be met. These basic needs are competence, autonomy, and relatedness (Ryan and Deci, 2020). Autonomy describes providing students with experiences that they value and take interest in; thus, it reflects relevancy. It can be fostered in learner-centered teaching environments and is linked to higher retention rates (Ryan and Deci, 2020). Competence describes the mastery experience offered and the student’s ability to grow through feedback and challenges. Finally, relatedness describes the student’s sense of belonging and connection to their environment and community (Ryan and Deci, 2020). This can be fostered through culturally relevant and responsive material (Kumar et al., 2018). When considering SDT, it is beneficial to portray an activity to attain an intrinsic goal, meaning a student engages and participates for their personal satisfaction or enjoyment, rather than using extrinsic motivators such as grades, punishments, or rewards (Vansteenkiste et al., 2006).

Motivating Students Through Active Learning Strategies

Introduction to active learning

Active learning is an umbrella term that encompasses a learner-centered learning environment. This differs from a more traditional, teacher-centered environment, where the teacher provides a lecture and students are passively engaged. Although active learning can take many forms, it can be more narrowly described as an activity that increases student interactions (Lombardi et al., 2021). This learner-centered pedagogy increases student engagement by requiring them to think critically, discuss, analyze, synthesize, and present information (Freeman et al., 2014). Furthermore, active learning grants students control in monitoring, driving, and assessing their learning (Bransford et al., 1999). It shifts the mindset and focus of learning away from the products of a learning experience, instead focusing on the process in which students are learning, which leads to lifelong learners (Michael, 2006).

Active learning can take a variety of forms and has become increasingly popular in college science courses as it can increase students’ situational interest, self-efficacy, value, and motivational climate (Corkin et al., 2017; Cooper et al., 2018). For instance, when case studies, think-pair-share, exam review sessions, laboratory stations, polling questions, and critical reflections were implemented into animal science courses they stimulated interest especially in students with higher curiosity (Erickson et al., 2019a). In another study, review sessions increased students learning and content knowledge (Pool and Moore, 2016). Thus, there is a wide variety of ways to implement active learning.

Experiential learning is included as a component of active learning. This type of learning allows students to engage and interact with real-life simulations to create connections and facilitate learning (Youngs et al., 2012). These experiences are increasingly important as the number of students enrolling in animal science programs lack prior agricultural experience (Karcher and Reid, 2018). For students without prior livestock experience, experiential learning can be a way to improve practical applied knowledge and support students’ autonomy, as it provides unique new experiences that can generate interests and fulfill values (Marshall et al., 1998; Ryan & Deci, 2020). Experiential learning can also improve retention, decision-making skills, and problem-solving skills (Millenbah and Millspaugh, 2003).

Active learning teaching pedagogies that have been researched in animal science undergraduate courses and will be discussed in more detail in this review, including flipped classrooms, team-based and cooperative learning, animal experiences, undergraduate research experiences, mentorship opportunities, as well as capstone experiences and service learning.

Flipped classrooms

A flipped classroom is a course structure, which prepares students by watching lectures or reading notes prior to coming to class. This allows class time for students to focus on and apply their new knowledge to a project, discussion, or problem. When flipped classrooms were implemented at the University of New Hampshire in an Agriculture Management course, students reported gaining a better understanding of health, nutrition, and handling, and an increase in interpersonal skills (Conroy et al., 2019). Overall, it was an effective teaching strategy to provide a general understanding of the dairy industry and alumni reported this course impacted their future careers (Conroy et al., 2019).

When used in an equine science course, students viewed course materials via an asynchronous lecture video and participated in active learning activities during course meeting time (Mortensen and Nicholson, 2015). The active learning activities included paired activities, group activities, and individual activities. Students in this course demonstrated increased academic achievement compared to previous traditional courses, increased critical thinking across the semester, in addition to independence and creativity when compared to traditional classrooms. Course participants also noted increased instructor availability (Mortensen and Nicholson, 2015).

Literature cautions that a flipped classroom is not always effective at fully engaging students. For instance, when animal science lectures are provided prior to class and class time is used for discussion and activities, students did not fully engage with the lecture materials (Radunovich and Acharya, 2018). This study recommended increasing lecture engagement in the future by ensuring students reviewed online content prior to attending class and presenting material in an engaging easy accessible format (Radunovich and Acharya, 2018). Possibilities to ensure that students review content prior to attending class could include content check-in quizzes, reflections, or discussion posts due before class.

Team based and cooperative learning

Team-based learning (TBL) incorporates peer teaching, increases enthusiasm for learning, and emphasizes the importance of collaboration to learn (McCubbins et al., 2019). This strategy especially draws on the feeling of relatedness as described by the SDT. When students engage in TBL, they have a greater ability to apply their knowledge (feeling of competence), hold each other accountable (relatedness), form decisions as a group, and understand the evidence for making their own decisions (autonomy) (McCubbins et al., 2019; Ryan and Deci, 2020). In addition, this can amplify a classroom’s support and enhance the learning environment as students feel a shared sense of responsibility and belonging (Ryan and Deci, 2020). This technique encompasses all the basic pillars of the SDT to support students’ motivation.

When implemented in an animal behavior, welfare, and ethics undergraduate course, TBL replaced traditional lectures. During TBL sessions, students would work together on a test to answer questions and complete application exercises (Hazel et al., 2013). Students cited that they felt more actively engaged in their learning process and students self-reported that it improved their communication skills and test scores on readiness assurance. Students performed higher in teams than they did individually, showing the potential benefit from working with others and teaching others. Furthermore, students preferred TBL to traditional lectures and reported other beneficial themes such as retention/revision, socialization, and revelation (Hazel et al., 2013).

Cooperative learning is an active learning strategy that allows small groups of students to work together to increase their learning, retention, and relationships with their peers (Johnson and Johnson, 2008). Cooperative learning between universities or nations is a promising solution to increase students’ cultural relevance and responsiveness by providing wider ranges of perspectives, which can increase students’ feelings of relatedness (Kumar et al., 2018). The use of cooperative learning within STEM disciplines can increase student performance and learning and the use of critical thinking skills (Karcher et al., 2018). However, despite increases in student performance, challenges have been reported. A collaborative animal science course rooted in problem-based farm evaluations learning between two universities showed that students did not find the trans-institutional collaborative learning environment to increase their knowledge or help their learning process (Karcher et al., 2018). The students noted that there were key differences in philosophies and management practices between the two schools, and students were unprepared to work with others from different schools, despite their initially stated excitement (Karcher et al., 2018). Therefore, more research is needed to refine and examine animal science courses’ ability to host trans-institutional collaborative learning spaces, as this could promote interaction between different geographical locations, and help in preparing students’ communication and leadership skills. Furthermore, additional guidance and increased communication between students and course instructors is advised (Bowling et al., 2017).

Animal experience

Animal handling and management is a skill gap in animal science students hoping to enter veterinary or agricultural education, which can be remedied through course curriculum (Ramsey et al., 2016). The use of live animals in teaching can increase interest in management practices and monitoring of animal wellbeing (George, 2018). For instance, experiential learning can be incorporated into animal science by having students work at production facilities to help in day-to-day operations. This is demonstrated by findings following a course that was offered at a university that provided students with daily responsibilities with livestock species. The course increased student interest and improved students’ concept knowledge (Reiling et al., 2003).

An additional study followed the impact of implementing a course to increase students’ livestock handling experience at Iowa State University. The course lasted eight weeks and was comprised of lectures and hands-on laboratories with live animals. Upon completion, students cited that they felt more comfortable handling livestock, with an especial increase in poultry and dairy. Students also felt that course content had been reinforced in the lab, and they expressed an increased likelihood to voluntarily reengage with livestock (Bundy et al., 2019). Students’ demographics had an impact on pre score averages; however, they didn’t have a significant impact on post scores. This indicates that experiential courses could be an effective tool to reach students from nonrural backgrounds and provide key experiences to increase students’ knowledge on animal handling, safety, and welfare (Bundy et al., 2019).

The presence and type of live animals can affect students’ academic performance, perception and attitude towards the animal, retention of knowledge, and physiological responses such as engagement (George, 2018). For instance, students had increased concern for animal wellbeing towards agricultural and exotic species that were presented in their course at Ohio State University (George, 2018). For courses that cannot offer experiences with live animals, instructors can encourage students to find extracurricular opportunities involving animals. For instance, they can visit career fairs or management services to search for relevant experiences (Youngs et al., 2012). When visits or outside opportunities are unavailable, virtual farm visits can generate interest and provide real-world knowledge (Karcher and Reid, 2018).

Undergraduate research experience

Undergraduate research in animal science is of high demand, according to a study that polled first-year animal science students at Kansas State University (77.9% of students expressed they planned to conduct research; Jones and Lerner, 2019). With this large demand, there is an opportunity and a challenge to provide this personalized autonomous experience; one proposed method is through a research course. In the research course, students were paired with faculty members and the experience increased their critical thinking without any influence from their type of research (Jones and Lerner, 2019). To overcome the challenges with creating opportunities for undergraduates to engage in the research projects, universities can provide financial incentives for faculty, which may include providing funding to support the student’s time and projects (Jones and Lerner, 2019). Additionally, universities can create a system that allows students interested in participating in research to be matched with faculty that are seeking to mentor undergraduate research projects (Jones and Lerner, 2019).

When research courses are unavailable, extracurricular programming is an alternative proposed method that has been researched. Increasing student involvement in clubs outside of the classroom can offer benefits such as students having greater interactions with livestock, connecting with their classmates and faculty, and increased understanding of animal husbandry and the scientific method (Karcher and Trottier, 2014). For instance, when an Animal Science Undergraduate Research Association was created, undergraduate student participants responded by saying this helped them connect course content, increased their interaction with animals, and improved their connection with fellow classmates (Karcher and Trottier, 2014).

Mentorship opportunities

Peer-led group work is a top practice to increase student retention in undergraduate student populations (Amstutz et al., 2010). A study at Ohio State found that attendance in peer-led animal science study groups was positively correlated with course grades, grade point average, and completion of programs. Peer tutors should be selected carefully based on their communication, leadership, and content knowledge. Additionally, greater student participation and attendance will maximize the impact of the program and increase the feeling of relatedness as described by the SDT (Amstutz et al., 2010).

With increasing undergraduate populations and larger classrooms, faculty can utilize undergraduate teaching assistants to increase the quality of instruction (Erickson et al., 2019b). They can create an inclusive, safe, learner-centered environment between the instructor and students and act as intermediaries. Teaching assistants as co-instructors and co-course creators can serve as mentors, intermediaries, co-inquirers, curriculum assessors, and knowledgeable experts (Erickson et al., 2019b). Furthermore, this can help to support students’ sense of relatedness as they feel a connection to the undergraduate teaching assistants that they may not feel with professors (Ryan and Deci, 2020).

Capstone experiences and service learning

In required capstone experiences, which can include formal coursework, students apply their prior content knowledge and this practice aids students in their preparation for their careers. Capstone experiences can range from research, to internships, to study abroad (Hall et al., 2017). When capstone courses were implemented at Virginia Tech, students reported satisfaction with their experiences and were advised that students be required to take a capstone course in the future (Hall et al., 2017). A prior study examined the impact of a capstone farm management course and found a specific subscale of critical thinking (ability to summarize patterns of results within graphical figures) was significantly increased while other subscales were unaffected (Perry et al., 2015). This study advised targeting the development of skills which can be done by providing professional development opportunities to course instructors and analyzing teaching methods (Perry et al., 2015).

Service learning with industry partnerships can improve industry awareness and real-world connections, as well as benefit the industry partners (Waddell, 2018). Student service learning and extension experience can improve students’ soft skills such as critical thinking, teamwork, and organization, as well as provide positive practical knowledge and applied practice (Jones, 2019). Service learning was incorporated at the University of Minnesota Crookston, as part of a senior capstone course and lower division course. Students had to apply their knowledge to provide recommendations to farms and they reported this connected their knowledge with real-world problems, enhanced their communication and problem-solving skills, and increased their awareness of problems within the community (Maiga and Westrom, 2006). These experiences can offer relatedness and meaningfulness to the community and those around them which can spark interest or intrinsic motivation through feeling satisfaction in taking part of the task.

Limitations

Experiential and hands-on activities are time consuming, expensive, and may take more planning for the instructor (Wells et al., 2019). There are competencies that experiential and active learning require such as prior content knowledge, management skills, and leadership/collaborative skills (Swenson et al., 2018). Additionally, experiential learning activities are not always feasible and there is criticism in using animals for teaching (Ruiz-Romero and Vargas, 2022). There are not always animals available to provide each student with a safe experience for the animal and student. Furthermore, there is a concern that forcing students to handle animals in ways that they do not agree with can cause psychological reactions (Ruiz-Romero and Vargas, 2022). Potential alternatives include live demonstrations and online simulations (Ruiz-Romero and Vargas, 2022).

Active learning can also have negative impacts. For instance, teachers can increase or decrease students’ anxiety depending on the implementation. Students being randomly highlighted and called on in class have increased anxiety (Cooper et al., 2018). Other potential negative factors include group experience and peer interaction, student’s fear or negative evaluation, and prior content knowledge (Cooper et al., 2018). Students also may feel hesitant to engage if many of their prior courses have been taught traditionally. Research in an undergraduate biology laboratory course further explains that students may censure faculty on evaluations, especially if there is a variation in the active learning incorporated (Owens et al., 2020). This could be a result from students feeling uncomfortable with the lack of instruction or uncertainty, dismayed by the extra effort required, or uncomfortable with the necessary skills to complete the active learning situation (Owens et al., 2020).

Moving forward, future research should examine the impacts of additional active learning styles in animal science curriculums. There are gaps in the literature examining other teaching pedagogies such as problem-based learning or project-based learning. There is also additional space to examine various variables. For instance, in a study conducted at Iowa State University, students when entering the program were above national norms across majors, but when graduating from the program, animal science students were below norms (Al-Mazroa et al., 2021). This indicates there may be a need for additional critical thinking activities and teaching within the program.

Summary

Actively engaging students in the classroom through these different teaching pedagogies offers benefits such as increased student performance, attitudes, retention, curiosity, motivation, drive, social connection, and engagement (Freeman et al., 2014; Armbruster et al., 2017; Maquivar and Sundarajan, 2017; Erickson et al., 2019a). It helps provide relevancy to students as they see a glimpse of how this practice will prepare them for their future careers. Students feel like these experiences are a crucial part of their education and the experiences are invaluable (Woiwode, 2016) as they increase knowledge beyond what would typically be retained from traditional classroom lectures (Wells et al., 2019). Active learning provides an avenue to increase students’ interest, intrinsically motivate them, and help guide curriculums in meeting students’ expectations and needs. More research is needed to refine how to best implement active learning and continue to transition out of traditional animal science classrooms.

Glossary

Abbreviations

EVT

expectancy value theory

SDT

self-determination theory

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.