Livestock Ethics--A Lesson for High School Students

Introduction

"One purpose of the 4-H animal projects is to teach young people how to feed, fit and show their animals. The more important purpose is to provide an opportunity for personal growth and development of the young person" (Hammatt, 1995). People develop and strengthen character by making ethical decisions, just as they build muscles through exercise. According to Goodwin (1996), "Young lives and minds that are moldable can be taught ethics."

According to Kohlberg (1984), moral reasoning develops through a sequence of stages. Moral education consists of promoting change or development through these stages as an individual interacts with his or her environment and makes sense of those experiences. Even at low stages, people are able to make claims about what is right and wrong, but Kohlberg contends that people at higher stages of moral development are more likely to act in accordance with their moral judgments.

For Kohlberg, psychological development of the individual is the primary aim of education and is promoted by engaging in discussions of moral dilemmas--both hypothetical and real. Participating in these discussions helps students to recognize and understand the perspective of others and to have their own reasoning supported at times and challenged at others (Benninga, 1991).

Halbach (2002) maintains that youth who show animals and their parents are constantly confronted with the question of what is and what isn't appropriate in the raising, training, and grooming of their show animals. And Goodwin (2002) explains:

The major reason I have worked on the issue of livestock show ethics since 1993 is for what we are teaching young people. If we teach young people to make good ethical choices in the show ring, there is more of a chance that they will make good ethical choices in everyday life as an adult.

Because of the need for livestock ethics education at the high school level, the authors developed a lesson for Agriculture Education Instructors to use in their high school classrooms. They also wrote a pretest/posttest to determine the effectiveness of the lesson.

Lesson Description

The livestock ethics lesson is a PowerPoint presentation that defines livestock ethics and describes four questions written by Goodwin (1996) that can be used to determine whether practices related to raising, training, and grooming youth livestock projects are ethical or unethical. The lesson describes several hypothetical situations and helps youth to apply Goodwin's test questions:

1. Does the practice violate Food and Drug Administration Law?
2. Is the practice fraudulent misrepresentation of the animal?
3. Does the practice compromise the welfare of the animal?
4. Does the practice relate to real world agriculture?

The primary author taught the lesson to college seniors majoring in Agricultural Education at the beginning of the semester they were going out to student teach in high school classrooms across the state. The author provided each of the student teachers with the same PowerPoint presentation on livestock ethics so that each group of high school students received the same information and results from the various schools could be combined for analysis. The author also equipped the student teachers with the Goodwin video A Line in the Sand (1996). This educational video on livestock ethics reiterates the material presented in the PowerPoint presentation and describes additional livestock practices for students to determine whether they are ethical or unethical.

Pretest/Posttest Description

The pretest/posttest includes five demographic questions related to gender, grade in school, 4-H enrollment, enrollment in 4-H animal project(s), and experience raising animals. In addition, 20 multiple-choice ethics questions related to practices associated with raising, training, and showing beef cattle, dairy cattle, horses, sheep, and swine are included. Each multiple-choice question had five possible answers. To ensure anonymity and to facilitate the matching of pretests and posttests, the students who take the test are asked to list their first, middle, and last initials, along with their date of birth. The pretest/posttest was pilot tested to ensure face and content validity.

Results

Data were analyzed using a matched pairs comparative design to assess the change in knowledge related to animal ethics. A knowledge-based pretest was administered to the students prior to the instructional lesson on Animal Ethics. After completing the program, the students were given the same knowledge based test as a posttest. The n for this study was 68. The data was analyzed using a t test.

The results indicate that the improvement in scores from the pretest to the posttest was significant (t = 3.438, df = 67, p<0.001), with high school students posting an average knowledge increase of 9.9%. The questions resulting in the greatest knowledge gain were related to the following issues:

1. Characteristics of a trustworthy livestock exhibitor,
2. Links in the food safety chain,
3. Percentage of U.S. food animals that come from youth livestock shows, and
4. The most important reason to address the issue of livestock show ethics.

Some of the questions asking students to differentiate between ethical and unethical grooming practices resulted in low scores on both the pretest and posttest. The lesson included both a PowerPoint presentation and the Line in the Sand video. The authors made no attempt to evaluate the educational value of the PowerPoint presentation separate from Goodwin's videotape. The authors plan to expand the lesson in future years to improve student competency and confidence in distinguishing between ethical and unethical grooming practices.

References

Benninga, J. S. (1991). Moral, character and civil education in the elementary school. Teachers' College Press, New York.

Goodwin, J. L. (1996). Ethics in livestock shows: Ethics in our lives. Presented at: National 4-H Congress, Memphis, TN. November 30, 1996.

Goodwin, J. L. (2002). The rules are black and white. Facilitator Guide

Halbach, T. (2002). The rules are black and white and they apply to all breeds. News Release, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI.

Hammatt, D. R. (1995). What is the real purpose of the 4-H livestock projects? (2611). Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA. 2pp.

Kohlberg, L. (1984). The psychology of moral development. pp. 172-177. New York: Harper & Row.