Attitudes of primary school students toward working with animals

Many children and adults have many misconceptions and negative attitudes or prejudices towards animals due to their upbringing, lack of experience and knowledge, incorrect information from the media, and growing alienation from nature. Therefore, it is important to enable students to get to know the animal and thus learn from their own experiences. The teacher has an important role in this, as he can identify prejudices in students and can help to eliminate them with his example and the right approach. In the master's thesis, we investigated the attitudes of fourth and fifth-grade students towards working with animals in the classroom and the attitudes towards three selected animals. We chose two animals that arouse less pleasant emotions (fear, disgust) in students and one that belongs to the beloved animals. We related to the research already done in the field of students' relations and opinions towards animals. In the theoretical part, we first present experiential learning and attitudes and prejudices towards animals that can be observed in students in preschool and primary school. We present in more detail the emotions of fear and disgust that often occur along with negative attitudes toward animals. A questionnaire based on the use of a 5-point Likert scale was used to check student's opinions. We found that previous direct experiences had the greatest impact on student's opinions. By learning science content and with experiences, students improve their attitude towards living and non-living nature, become more respectful, and we also enable them to acquire realistic ideas. In addition, direct experience can help to eliminate prejudices and influence changing attitudes. It is important to back up direct experiences with appropriate examples, which are crucial in eliminating prejudices and misconceptions. The results of the research can serve as a basis for further research in this area. In addition, research can help teachers in planning and designing activities or. activities for students by introducing them to experiential learning and the frequent prejudices and attitudes of fourth and fifth-grade students