New Matrix for Education Curricula Comparison in EAS: Application to ERASMUS Associations

Evaluative comparisons were made between different Education Curricula in Equine Assisted Services (EAS) to understand the main content of the education and orientation. An elaboration of an original Matrix which analyses each Erasmus+ 2019-1-FI01-KA202-060805 Partner’s curriculum (Finland, Ireland, Italy, Poland) was created, and definition and evaluation of the Main Topics, and the Disciplines for each Topic, used to analyse the curricula. The comparison between the Education Curricula in EAS of Erasmus Partners was completed with qualitative and quantitative analysis assessing the Topics and their Disciplines according to their importance in Education: members of each Partner organisation assigned a qualitative value to each item on the Matrix to which a mathematical value was assigned. The sum of these values showed the significance of each Topic/Discipline to the Partner’s curricula. The values can be related to the importance of the Topic/Disciplines in Education as follows: Top, Almost the best, Fair, Slight and minimal. Elaboration of data to outline the characteristics of each curriculum was carried out, and the analysis of the results of the Education Curricula revealed the main Topics and the assessment of the Disciplines for each Topic, and the type of curriculum of each Partner and its curriculum orientation. This Matrix then could be applied to other EAS Curricula as well to achieve an understanding of the different Education Curricula.