TRANS-GENERATIONAL AND MULTIDISCIPLINARY PRACTICAL

COURSES TO BACHELOR VETERINARY STUDENTS :

AN ORIGINAL INTEGRATIVE PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH

C. Diederich1, B. Bihin2, F. Tilquin3, J. Coppine3, E. Depiereux2, J.Y. Matroule3

1 IVRU: Integrated Veterinary Research Unit) 2 UMDB: Unit of Methodology and Didactics of Biology3 URBM: Research Unit in Biology of Microorganims

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Introduction

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- Motivation of Bachelor Veterinary students is their love for animals- Veterinary medicine is at the crossroad of several scientific domains

(Ecology, Agronomy, Psychology, Biology, …)

- The study programme is made of 6 Academic years :Bachelor degree: the ‘Healthy animal’Master degree: Diseases and treatments of animals

- Some courses (e.g. Animal Behaviour) are more attractive than others (e.g. Statistics, Genetics courses)

the Professors in charge of those 3 courses decided to coordinate their practical courses in an …

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Innovative pedagogical approach (Sept. to Dec. 2013): 1) to integrate three courses with no apparent link to address one scientific

question about genetic polymorphism and behavior in one companion dog breed

Ethology – Genetics – Statistics

2) to allow Bachelor Veterinary students to join their forces in a collective experimental protocol

Bac1 students : to collect buccal DNA samples and behavioural data of Malinois Shepherd dogs

Bac2 students : to genotype each sample for one particular target gene encoding the Dopamine transporter

Bac3 students : to determine to what extent the behavioural profiles might be correlated to the genetic profiles

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- Dopamine = neurotransmitter of the brain (synaptic cleft)

involved, among others,in reward motivated behaviours andcontrol of the locomotion

- Dopamine Active Transporter (DAT) pumps back the Dopamine into the original nerve cell, after its release in the synaptic cleft

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- According to Lit et al, 2013, BMC Genetics : i) DAT gene presents 3 possible genotypes (1/1, 1/2, 2/2) ii) allele ‘1’ over-represented within the Malinois dogs population (American sample size = 280 dogs from 26 breeds

among which there were 144 Malinois)

iii) DAT gene polymorphism is associated to behavioural changes :- seizures- higher levels of attention- increased frequency of episodic aggression and of

loss of responsiveness to environmental stimulations- loss of inhibition (biting behaviours)

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- modifications of the teaching practices rely on the teacher’s evaluation of the risk he/she might have to face

(Le Fevre, 2014, Teaching and Teacher Education)

Expertise, technical support (recent technologies) and recent research results from each Professor had been provided to ensure a validated result

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Methodology

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Participants, their respective roles and agenda

Bac1 students (n=178) – October 2013- to recruit one Malinois owner per student- to explain the owner the protocol- to collect dog cheek epithelial cells with a cytobrush (buccal

samples)- to give the owner an identification number (to get individual

results of his/her dog at the end of the protocol)

- to ask the owner to fill in a questionnaire about his/her dog’s behaviour (made of C-BARQ42: Canine Behavioural Assessment and Research Questionnaire (Duffy et al, 2014, Preventive Veterinary Medicine) and MCPQ-R: Monash Canine Personality Questionnaire-Revised (Ley et al, 2009, Appl. Anim. Behav. Sci.)

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Bac2 students (n=68) – November 2013- to process all the buccal samples and to carry out the genotyping of the

Dopamine transporter’s canine gene (according to Lit et al, 2013), during one session of Genetic practical course

Bac3 students (n=59) – December 2013- to receive the behavioural data and the corresponding genotypes, during one

session of Statistics practical course- to test the potential link between behaviour/genetic data

Professors (n=3) – May 2014- debriefing to the Bachelor students and perception test

Professors (n=3) – June 2014- individual results available online

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Data collected

- Dog’s behavioural data about its everyday life (C-BARQ42, Duffy et al, 2014 and MCPQ-R, Ley et al 2009)According to the guidelines of those authors, responses of the owners were joined to get 19 scores about each dog’s behaviours. For example: extraversion, self-confidence, excitability, aggression towards unknown dogs, energy.- Dog genotypes. Three genotypes were possible: 1/1, 1/2 and 2/2.- Perception of the students about this new organisation of the practical courses assessed by 11 assertions (Totally agree, Rather agree, Rather disagree, Totally disagree)

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1. These new practical courses were interesting.2. According to your experience, you would recommend this approach to other students.3. These new practical courses should be used as a model to offer an applied illustration of the theory.4. The collaboration of all the students (Bac1-2-3) around one single goal was motivating.5. The use of state-of-the-art technology was rewarding.6. Each exercise was related to the theoretical content of its respective lecture.7. The final debriefing necessary for a complete understanding of the protocol.8. The online access to the individual results is necessary (webpage of the Veterinary Department).9. These new practical courses help you to connect the 3 courses to each other.10. These new practical courses stimulate your interest about the mechanisms of the research.11. These new practical courses incite you to formulate your own questions of research.

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Results

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To what concerns ICERI 2014’s topics :results about behavioural and genetic data are summarized

Behavioural data Genotypes

N= 424

N= 199

N= 181

N= ?

N= 186

N = 171- Not complete

- Doublesubmission

Genotypedsamples

- Confirmation of the over-representation of allele ‘1’ within the Malinois population

- Not possible to establish a link between the DAT genotype and the behavioural scores as defined with C-BARQ and MCPQ-R questionnaires

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To what concerns ICERI 2014’s topics :results about students perception are fully described (table next slide)

- students were enthusiastic (85% of them agreed), and recommend this approach to other students (75%)- it represented an applied illustration of the theory (71%) - each exercise was related to the theoretical content of its respective lecture (85%)- the collaboration of all the students (Bac1-2-3) around one single goal, and the use of state-of-the-art technology were rewarding, respectively for 76% and 86% of them- the final debriefing was considered necessary for a complete understanding of the protocol, especially for the Bac1 (75%)-Bac2 students (68%), maybe less for Bac3 students (60%)

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- the online access to the individual results was viewed as a necessity for 86% of the students- only 50% agreed with the idea that this protocol helped them to connect the 3 courses to each other- they were just a few more to think that it succeeded at stimulating their interest about the mechanisms of the research (58%)

- there were significant differences in the perception of the students according to their study year, in 8 out of the 11 assertions (n°1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11)- there were 4 out of the 11 assertions (n°2, 9, 10, 11) where less than half Bac3 students agreed (resp. to recommend this new practical course, this new organisation helped the students to connect the 3 courses to each other, to stimulate their interest about the mechanisms of the research and, to incite them to formulate their own questions of research)

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Ass.%

total CI N Chi2p-

value%

Bac1 CI%

Bac2 CI%

Bac3 CI

1 0.85 0.81 0.89 299 39.4 <0.001 0.92 0.88 0.96 0.89 0.81 0.97 0.59 0.46 0.71

2 0.75 0.70 0.80 300 40.2 <0.001 0.85 0.80 0.90 0.77 0.66 0.88 0.44 0.31 0.57

3 0.71 0.66 0.76 291 5.4 0.067 0.71 0.64 0.78 0.80 0.70 0.90 0.61 0.49 0.73

4 0.76 0.71 0.81 296 24.2 <0.001 0.85 0.80 0.90 0.71 0.60 0.82 0.54 0.42 0.67

5 0.86 0.82 0.90 293 16.4 <0.001 0.88 0.83 0.93 0.95 0.90 1.00 0.71 0.60 0.83

6 0.85 0.81 0.89 294 15.2 <0.001 0.83 0.77 0.88 1.00 1.00 1.00 0.77 0.66 0.88

7 0.71 0.65 0.76 292 4.6 0.101 0.75 0.68 0.81 0.68 0.57 0.80 0.60 0.48 0.73

8 0.86 0.82 0.90 291 9.0 0.011 0.90 0.85 0.94 0.87 0.79 0.95 0.74 0.62 0.85

9 0.50 0.44 0.56 291 3.3 0.193 0.53 0.45 0.60 0.52 0.40 0.65 0.39 0.26 0.52

10 0.58 0.52 0.64 289 10.4 0.006 0.62 0.55 0.69 0.65 0.53 0.77 0.40 0.27 0.52

11 0.54 0.48 0.59 294 14.5 0.001 0.62 0.55 0.69 0.50 0.38 0.62 0.33 0.21 0.46

Total percentage of agreement of the students and agreement within each Bachelor studyyear about their perception of the new practical courses.

Ass. : Assertions (for details, see above), % total: Proportion of global agreement within all the respondents (Bac1 + Bac2 + Bac3), CI : Confidence interval of this percentage (two columns), N: Number of respondents, Chi2 : Chi square statistic, p-value associated to each Chi-square test, significant p-value are in bold type, % Bac: Proportion of agreement observed within each Bachelor study year.

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Discussion

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Several pedagogical interests of this project were identified :- Reached objective: to stimulate students’ interest to less attractive courses with the use of a joined experimental procedure- Nice example of adequacy between research and education- Opportunity to discover the role of research in the students’ teaching and learning (Turner et al, 2008, Int. J. Acad. Dev.)

- Absence of apparent results (absence of behaviour/genotype link) is formative to the students- Differences in the students’ perception are questioning- New perspectives occur : to renew the procedure, to assess in several years the students’ perpection of this project

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Several related learning outcomes have be detected but they were not quantified: (i)to be introduced as a participant to one research strategy, (ii)to develop life skills.

For example: - to get in touch with unknown people (the dog owners), - to clearly present the approach to the dog owners,- to be convincing (for the owner to complete the online survey), - to meet deadlines and instructions because other people rely on their quality and

respect to realize their own tasks.

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Conclusions

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New approach of trans-generational and multidisciplinary practical courses :-globally successful at stimulating the Bachelor Veterinary students’ interest, especially in less appreciated matters such as Genetics and Statistics-to reiterate the protocol next academic year, with another behavioural question and new genetic targets-Adaptation: early presentation of the scientific question and description of each other roles, within the 3 Bachelor study years of Veterinary Medicine

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Acknowledgements

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Authors would like to give a special thank to-the owners who allowed their dog to be sampled and who devoted time at completing the questionnaires, -to the bachelor veterinary students of the 2013-14 academic year for their contribution, -to Dr. L. Dumortier (TICE Cell, UNamur) for optical reading of the questionnaire upon students perception of this new practical courses and for implementing the online feed-back to the owners, -to Dr. M. Houart (Technology and Education Department, UNamur) for preliminary discussion about this presentation.