Results
Teacher Practices and Perspectives: Dissection
It was clear that the majority of teacher participants found unparalleled value in traditional
dissection, as 87.5% either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, “Real animal dissection
is important to the teaching of biology,” and more than half (56.3%) agreed or strongly agreed
that “there are no substitutes for real animal dissection.” Further, the majority of participants—
94.1% (144 of 153 teachers)—reported conducting dissections in their classes. While the survey
focused exclusively on secondary school dissections, some teachers indicated that they also
conducted dissections in other grades and courses, including Grades 2, 4, 7, and 8, and in nonbiology
classes including health, forensic science, environmental studies, chemistry, physics, and
at science clubs and camps.