No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Childhood and the evolution of higher-effort teaching
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 June 2015
Abstract
Kline presents an excellent synthesis of teaching theory and research, with cogent arguments regarding its prevalence. In this, she claims that “active teaching” is human specific, and presents tangible reasons why. But in doing so, she overlooks a critical aspect of the human condition that may have arisen only recently in our evolutionary history: Childhood as a life stage.
- Type
- Open Peer Commentary
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015
References
Beyene, Y., Katoh, S., WoldeGabriel, G., Hart, W. K., Uto, K., Sudo, M., Kondo, M., Hyodoi, M., Renne, P. R., Suwa, G. & Asfaw, B. (2013) The characteristics and chronology of the earliest Acheulean at Konso, Ethiopia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA
110:1584–91. Available at:
http://www.pnas.org/content/110/5/1584.full
Google Scholar
Bogin, B. (1998) Evolutionary and biological aspects of childhood. In: Biosocial perspectives on children, ed. Panter-Brick, C., pp. 10–44. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Delagnes, A. & Roche, H. (2005) Late Pliocene hominid knapping skills: The case of Lokalalei 2C, West Turkana, Kenya. Journal of Human Evolution
48:435–72.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
De La Torre, I. (2004) The Omo revisited: Evaluating the technological skills of pliocene hominids. Current Anthropology
45:439–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
d'Errico, F. & Stringer, C. B. (2011) Evolution, revolution or saltation scenario for the emergence of modern cultures?
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
366(1567):1060–69.Google Scholar
Hopkinson, T., Nowell, A. & White, M. (2013) Life histories, metapopulation ecology, and innovation in the Acheulian. PaleoAnthropology
61:76.Google Scholar
Kaplan, H., Hill, K., Lancaster, J. & Hurtado, A. M. (2000) A theory of human life history evolution: Diet, intelligence, and longevity
Evolutionary Anthropology
4:156–85.Google Scholar
Lepre, C. J., Roche, H., Kent, D. V., Harmand, S., Quinn, R. L., Brugal, J.-P., Texier, P.-J., Lenoble, A. & Feibel, C. S. (2011) An earlier origin for the Acheulian. Nature
477:82–85. Available at: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v477/n7362/full/nature10372.html
CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Locke, J. L. & Bogin, B. (2006) Language and life history: A new perspective on the development and evolution of human language. Behavioral and Brain Sciences
29:259–325.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Machin, A., Hosfield, R. & Mithen, S. (2007) Why are some handaxes symmetrical? Testing the influence of handaxe morphology on butchery effectiveness. Journal of Archaeological Science
34:883–93.Google Scholar
Nielsen, M. (2012a) Childhood and advances in human tool use. Behavioral and Brain Sciences
35:30–31.Google Scholar
Nielsen, M. (2012b) Imitation, pretend play and childhood: Essential elements in the evolution of human culture?
Journal of Comparative Psychology
126:170–81.Google Scholar
Nowell, A. & White, M. J. (2012) Growing up in the Middle Pleistocene: Life history strategies and their relationship to Acheulian industries. In: Stone tools and the evolution of human cognition, ed. Nowell, A. & Davidson, I., pp. 67–82. University Press of Colorado.Google Scholar
Petraglia, M., LaPorta, P. & Paddayya, K. (1999) The first Acheulean quarry in India: Stone tool manufacture, biface morphology, and behaviours. Journal of Anthropological Research
55:39–70.Google Scholar
Powell, A., Shennan, S. & Thomas, M. G. (2009) Late Pleistocene demography and the appearance of modern human behavior. Science
324(5932):1298–301. doi:10.1126/science.1170165.Google Scholar
Robson, S. L. & Wood, B. (2008) Hominin life history: Reconstruction and evolution. Journal of Anatomy
212:394–425.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shipton, C. (2013) A million years of hominin sociality and cognition: Acheulean bifaces in the Hunsgi-Baichbal Valley, India. Archaeopress (British Archaeological Reports).Google Scholar
Shipton, C., Clarkson, C., Pal, J. N., Jones, S. C., Roberts, R. G., Harris, C., Gupta, M. C., Ditchfield, P. W. & Petraglia, M. D. (2013) Generativity, hierarchical action and recursion in the Acheulean to Middle Palaeolithic transition: A perspective from the Son Valley, India. Journal of Human Evolution
65:93–108. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23746433
Google Scholar
Shipton, C., Petraglia, M. & Paddayya, K. (2009) Stone tool experiments and reduction methods at the Acheulean site of Isampur Quarry, India. Antiquity
83:769–85.Google Scholar
Smith, T. M., Toussaint, M., Reid, D. J., Olejniczak, A. J. & Hublin, J.-J. (2007) Rapid dental development in a Middle Paleolithic Belgian Neanderthal. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA
104:20220–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stout, D., Apel, J., Commander, J. & Roberts, M. (2014) Late Acheulean technology and cognition at Boxgrove, UK. Journal of Archaeological Science
41:576–90.Google Scholar
Toth, N. (1985) The Oldowan reassessed: A close look at early stone artifacts. Journal of Archaeological Science
12:101–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wynn, T. (2002) Archaeology and cognitive evolution. Behavioral and Brain Sciences
25(3):389–438.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Target article
How to learn about teaching: An evolutionary framework for the study of teaching behavior in humans and other animals
Related commentaries (38)
Another way to learn about teaching: What dogs can tell us about the evolution of pedagogy
Childhood and the evolution of higher-effort teaching
Clarifying the range of social-cognitive processes subserving human teaching
Cognitive mechanisms matter – but they do not explain the absence of teaching in chimpanzees1
Cognitive universals and cultural variation in teaching
Cooperation in human teaching
Cultural variant interaction in teaching and transmission
Does all teaching rest on evolved traits?
Evolutionary mechanisms of teaching
Eyes on the price: Human culture and its teaching
Human teaching and learning involve cultural communities, not just individuals
Is tolerance really teaching?
Learning about teaching requires thinking about the learner
Learning in and about opaque worlds
Measuring teaching through hormones and time series analysis: Towards a comparative framework1
Mind, brain, and teaching: Some directions for future research
More examples of chimpanzees teaching
Multiple dilemmas of help and counteraction to teaching in complex social worlds
On the persistent gray area between teaching and punishment
Play to learn, teach by play
Robot teachers: The very idea!
Subjectivity may hinder the application of Kline's teaching framework in comparative contexts
Systematic data are the best way forward in studies of teaching
Teacher and learner: Supervised and unsupervised learning in communities
Teaching as an exaptation
Teaching interactions are based on motor behavior embodiment
The active role played by human learners is key to understanding the efficacy of teaching in humans
The benefits of an evolutionary framework for the investigation of teaching behaviour: Emphasis should be taken off humans as a benchmark
The lowest common denominator between species for teaching behaviors
The mutual relevance of teaching and cultural attraction
The parental brain: A neural framework for study of teaching in humans and other animals
The proximate-ultimate confusion in teaching and cooperation
The study of teaching needs an inclusive functional definition
To what adaptive problems is human teaching a solution?
Understanding teaching needs development
Variations in teaching bring variations in learning
What is teaching? A clear, integrative, operational definition for teaching is still needed
“Teaching is so WEIRD”
Author response
Much to learn about teaching: Reconciling form, function, phylogeny, and development