Teachers, pupils and other professional workers in schools are in different interpersonal interactions, in which they exchange knowledge, views, values and beliefs on a daily basis. Fears, distress and problems are a normal, common feature that appears with pupils. Many times, they suppress their fears, do not overcome them, and that is why they remain present in their adulthood. The latter can affect their lives in a negative way, especially when the fears are strong and deep-set. One of the fears that children and pupils have is the fear of animals. According to researchers, it can be either learned or innate. Innate fears are supposed to have their origin in potential danger of an animal, such as predators, snakes. Learned fear can be a consequence of personal negative experiences, classical or instrumental conditioning, learning by observing or negative information. Children learn many things by observing, therefore negative model learning can affect obtained fear, which is completely unfounded. Parents are the first that appear in the role of the model, then educators in kindergartens and later teachers. In adolescence, pupils look up to their peers, whom they can come across on the internet, TV or elsewhere. In the empirical part of my thesis, I researched whether teachers recognize fear of animals in pupils. I also wondered which animal fears they mostly perceive, how they recognized them and in what way they take measures if they sense fear of animals. I also wondered if there is a connection between teacher's and pupils' fear of animals, whether teachers believe that they themselves, parents or peers can perform the role of a model that pupils imitate.
Qualitative research has shown that the teachers recognize fear of animals in their pupils, especially snakes, spiders and insects, whereas the educator in kindergarten does not. Fear of animals is detected by characteristic facial expression, body language and crying, which the educator in kindergarten notices especially in kindergarten. I did not establish a connection between the teacher's fear and those that teachers perceive in pupils. As a good practice in overcoming fear of animals, the teachers and the educator in kindergarten highlighted direct experience, new, positive information and studying the animal behaviour.
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