A study on the role of zoo keeping professionals in educational programs in zoos and effects of their practices

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 23501226
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Museology
• Research Institution: Sapporo City University
• Principal Investigator: MACHIDA Kayoko 札幌市立大学, デザイン学部, 教授 (40337051)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): KAWAMURA Namiko 大分大学, 医学部, 准教授 (50344506)
• Project Period (FY): 2011-04-28 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 博物館教育 / 動物園 / 会話分析 / 教育実践 / 飼育体験 / 効果検証 / 認識形成

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Zoos have provided various educational programs for citizens about animals and environmental problems the animals are facing. Among them, a program called “Keeper for a Day” has been successful in enhancing participants’ knowledge of and attitudes toward animals. In order to reveal factors of its success, we recorded and conversationally analyzed the talks of keepers during the three-hour-long program. The results found that for young participants, age of 10 to 12, the keepers use a specific type of question sequence which encourages them to explore and find answers by themselves, express feelings of animals as if animals are speaking, correspond participants everyday experiences to animal lives. For adults, the keepers use no such tactics. Instead, they challenge some of the knowledge or expectations the participants already have while confirming other ones. These different ways of practices should contribute to cognitive changes in both young and adult participants.

Free Research Field

コミュニケーション学