Measures of knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about animals The measures/individual questions will be added to the table shortly. Name of measure/scale Reference and/or website Children's Attitudes toward Animal Cruelty (CAAC) (11 items) Hawkins, R.D. and Williams, J.M (2016). Children’s Beliefs about Animal Minds (Child-BAM): Associations with positive and negative child–animal interactions. Anthrozoös, 29(3), 503-519. Children's Beliefs about Animal Minds (Child-BAM) (5 items relating to 8 animals) Hawkins, R.D. and Williams, J.M (2016). Children’s Beliefs about Animal Minds (Child-BAM): Associations with positive and negative child–animal interactions. Anthrozoös, 29(3), 503-519 Knowledge of farm animals' welfare needs Hawkins, R., Ferreira, G., & Williams, J. (2019). The development and evaluation of “Farm Animal Welfare”: An educational computer game for children. Animals, 9(3), 91. (17) (PDF) The Development and Evaluation of ‘Farm Animal Welfare’: An Educational Computer Game for Children (researchgate.net) Knowledge of pet animals' welfare needs Muldoon J.C., Williams J.M. & Lawrence A. (2016). Exploring children’s perspectives on the welfare needs of pet animals. Anthrozoös, 29(3), 357-375. Some key points relating to the measurement of knowledge: It is vitally important that the measures employed to assess whether children’s knowledge has improved following an intervention are directly linked to what has been taught (i.e., if the intervention has only taught children about the needs of a particular species, then the questions must only cover what has been introduced about that species). If children have been introduced to a range of needs in different animals, the questions asked should reflect this. It cannot be assumed that knowledge will generalise either beyond what has been taught, or to species that have not been introduced in the intervention, unless this is a learning goal. Ideally, an intervention would make clear the distinction between ‘universal’ needs of all animals, and species-specific information. The papers included in the table above provide examples of how to word questions that assess knowledge. Details will be provided shortly. Any intervention should make the learning objectives clear and explain why certain animals are being included or excluded. Image
