ABSTRACT
Animal-assisted interventions (AAI) are becoming increasingly popular in education settings and the application of pets in the classroom is seen as beneficial to children's learning success and emotional and cognitive development. Many infant and primary schools worldwide keep small animals within their classrooms and school grounds. Animals are brought into schools for targeted interventions and therapeutic use, especially for individuals with special educational needs. Animals are employed in education settings for research purposes, investigating claims about beneficial effects in a growing range of studies and studying how children of various health and socio-economic backgrounds may benefit from animals within their learning environment. A variety of student populations, settings, and methods have been employed with various species of animals. Systematic literature reviews examining the effects of AAI have demonstrated emerging evidence on the benefits of animals in education settings.
