AUTHOR=Beetz Andrea 

TITLE=Socio-emotional correlates of a schooldog-teacher-team in the classroom

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=Volume 4 - 2013

YEAR=2013

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00886

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00886

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=A growing number of teachers in Europe regularly take their dogs with them into the classroom. Limited research points at positive socio-emotional effects of this practice. In this study the effects of a schooldog-teacher-team on socioemotional experiences in school, depression and emotion regulation strategies were investigated in a classroom of third-graders (male n=12, female n=13), which had a schooldog present for one day per week in comparison with a control class (male n=11, female n=10). In contrast to the control class, the dog-class students reported a stronger improvement with regard to positive attitude towards school (repeated measures ANOVA; F=10.769, df=1, p=.002) and positive emotions related to learning (F=4.479, df=1, p=.042) over the course of the year.  Since a prerequisite of all kinds of effective learning is a positive attitude and mood towards school and learning, the presence of a schooldog-teacher team thus has the potential to support learning.