Evolutionary Perspectives on Child Development and Education (eBook)

David C. Geary is currently a Curators’ Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences and the Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program at the University of Missouri. His work spans a broad range of topics from children’s mathematical cognition and development to the evolution of sex differences. He’s written four sole authored books, Children’s Mathematical Development (1994), Male, Female (1998, 2nd edition, 2010), Origin of Mind (2005), and Evolution of Vulnerability (2015), one co-authored book, Sex Differences (2008), and is co-editing a five volume series on Mathematical Cognition and Learning, the first two volumes of which have been released; Evolutionary Origins and Early Development of Number Processing (2015) and  Development of mathematical cognition: Neural substrates and genetic influences (2016). In addition, he has published about 250 journal articles and chapters and has had extensive funding from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation for his empirical research. He served on the President’s National Mathematics Advisory Panel from 2006 to 2008 and chaired the learning processes task group, and was appointed by President Bush to the National Board of Advisors for the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education (2007 to 2010). Geary is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, received a MERIT Award from the National Institutes of Health, is a co-recipient of the G. A. Miller Award from the American Psychological Association, and has been a visiting scholar at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the Institute of Advanced Study, Durham University. Daniel B. Berch is Professor of Educational Psychology and Applied Developmental Science at the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education. Prior to this position, he was Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development at the Curry School, and before that served as Associate Chief of the Child Development and Behavior Branch at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH. His previous federal service included a stint as Senior Research Associate at the U. S. Department of Education, advising the Assistant Secretary for Educational Research and Improvement. Berch has published journal articles and book chapters on the development of numerical cognition, mathematical learning disabilities, and evolutionary perspectives on education. He is senior editor of the book, Why is Math So Hard for Some Children?, and senior editor of the five-volume Mathematical Cognition and Learning series. He is also the lead founder of the international Mathematical Cognition and Learning Society. Among other honors, Berch received the NIH Award of Merit, was elected Fellow of the American Psychological Association’s Division of Experimental Psychology, served as an ex officio member of the U.S. Department of Education’s National Mathematics Advisory Panel commissioned by President George W. Bush, and was elected to the Evolution Institute’s Scientific Advisory Board (and chairs its Education Subcommittee). He is co-author (with David Geary) of an article entitled “Evolutionary Approaches to Understanding Children’s Academic Achievement” published in Wiley’s online reference work, Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences.

Preface 6
Contents 10
About the Authors 12
Part I: Development, Play, and Exploration in Early Learning 14
Chapter 1: The Adaptive Value of Cognitive Immaturity: Applications of Evolutionary Developmental Psychology to Early Education 15
Adaptations of Infancy and Childhood 16
Ontogenetic Adaptations 17
Deferred Adaptations 18
How Young Children Learn 19
Learning Through Watching 19
Learning Through Playing 22
Applying Evolutionary Developmental Thinking to Children’s Education 30
The Video Deficit and “Educational” DVDs and Videos for Infants 31
The Advantages of Thinking You’re Better than You Are 34
Conclusion 35
References 37
Chapter 2: Teaching: Natural or Cultural? 45
Natural Pedagogy? 46
Ethnocentrism as an Impediment to Theory Construction 49
Data and Definition Issues 53
A Working Definition of Teaching 56
Teaching in the Village 57
“Good” Teachers, “Good” Pupils? 62
Natural Pedagogy in the Classroom 63
The First Schools 65
Teaching in the Present and Future 66
Conclusion 68
References 68
Chapter 3: Children’s Natural Ways of Educating Themselves Still Work: Even for the Three Rs 78
The Origin of Modern Schools 79
A Biological View of Education 80
Education in Hunter-Gatherer Bands 82
Self-Education in Today’s World: Democratic Schooling and Unschooling 85
Conditions that Optimize Children’s Abilities to Educate Themselves: How Sudbury Valley Is Like a Hunter-Gatherer Band 89
Learning to Read Without Formal Instruction 92
Studies of Precocious Readers 93
How Sudbury Valley Students and Unschoolers Learn to Read 94
Learning Math Without Formal Instruction 97
An Experiment in Which Less Teaching Resulted in More Learning 97
Learning SAT Math at Sudbury Valley 98
How Children Acquire Basic Mathematical Concepts in Play and Life 99
Conclusion 101
References 102
Chapter 4: Object Use in Childhood: Development and Possible Functions 105
Different Forms of Object Use in Childhood 106
Exploration 106
Play with Objects 107
Construction 109
Tool Use and Toolmaking 111
Putative Functions of Object Use 113
Conclusion 120
References 121
Chapter 5: Guided Play: A Solution to the Play Versus Learning Dichotomy 126
The Education Problem in the US 127
The Existing Dichotomy: Play Versus Direct Instruction 128
What Is Guided Play? 130
Principles for Effective Learning 133
Active Versus Passive Learning 133
Engaged Versus Distracted Learning 135
Meaningful Versus Unrelated Learning 138
Interactive Versus Solitary Learning 140
Guided Play as a Middle Ground: A Recapitulation 142
Conclusion 143
Future Directions 144
References 145
Part II: Social and Moral Development 151
Chapter 6: Eight Myths of Child Social Development: An Evolutionary Approach to Power, Aggression, and Social Competence 152
Myth 1: Evolution Implies That We Are Selfish (or, Genetically Selfish Behavior Is Motivationally Selfish) 153
Prosocial Behavior and Altruistically Motivated Behavior Are Not the Same 153
Evolutionary Definitions of Prosocial and Altruistic Behavior 154
Myth 2: “Nice” Behavior is Altruistic 157
Myth 3: Nice Kids Finish Last 158
Shifting from Form to Function 159
Aggression as Adaptation (vs. Maladaptation) 160
Types of Resource Controllers 161
Nice Kids Don’t “Finish Last” 161
Myths 4a and 4b: “Cheaters Never Prosper” and its Corollary, “Socially Competent Kids are Nice all the Time” 162
Aggressive Youth are Heterogeneous 162
Myth #5a and 5b: “Mean” Kids are Disliked and its Corollary, It Doesn’t Pay to be a Bully 163
Does it Pay to Be a Bully? 164
Myth #6: Status Hierarchies Emerge in Adolescence 165
Myth #7: Power and Social Dominance are the Purview of Males 166
Myth #8: At the End of the Day, Power Doesn’t Matter 167
Conclusion 167
References 168
Chapter 7: Adolescent Bullying in Schools: An Evolutionary Perspective 174
Adolescent Bullying in Schools: An Evolutionary Perspective 174
Components of Bullying 174
Power 174
Harm 175
Goal Directedness 176
Is Bullying Adaptive? 177
School Bullying 179
Prevalence Rates 180
Prevalence of Subtypes 180
Parents and School Bullying 181
Parenting Style 182
Parent–Child Attachment 183
Bullying Educationfor the Educators 183
Bullying in the Peer Context 185
Bullying and School Atmosphere 188
Conclusions 190
References 191
Chapter 8: Fairness: What It Isn’t, What It Is, and What It Might Be For 199
The Difference Between Envy and Fairness Concerns 200
Fairness Does Not Appear Well Designed for Promoting Cooperation 201
Fairness is for Avoiding the Appearance of Partiality 204
Why Would People Care About Other People’s Partiality? 207
The Importance of Developmental and Cross-Cultural Work 210
Avoiding Partiality or Just Selfishness? 213
Conclusions and Implications for Educators 215
References 217
Part III: Evolved Biases and Cognition and Learning in the Modern World 221
Chapter 9: Evolution and Children’s Cognitive and Academic Development 222
Cognitive Development 222
Function of Mind and Brain 223
Folk Domains 224
Folk Psychology 225
Folk Biology 227
Folk Physics 228
Folk Heuristics and Attributional Biases 229
Mechanisms 231
Variation and the Evolution of Domain General Abilities 234
Working Memory, Intelligence, and Evolutionarily Novel Learning 237
Academic Development 238
Learning to Read 238
The Creation of Culture 239
Evolutionary Educational Psychology 241
Implications for Research on Instructional Interventions 243
Which Is Better: Explicit Formal Instruction or Discovery Learning? 243
Toward an Evolutionarily Informed Pedagogical Framework 244
Conclusion 246
References 248
Chapter 10: Adaptive Memory: Fitness-Relevant “Tunings” Help Drive Learning and Remembering 255
Memory Is Functionally Designed 256
The Mnemonic Value of Survival Processing 258
The Survival Processing Paradigm 259
The Mnemonic Value of Animacy 263
The Mnemonic Value of Potential Contamination 265
Conclusions and Implications for Educational Practice 267
References 270
Chapter 11: Adapting Evolution Education to a Warming Climate of Teaching and Learning 274
Barriers to Evolution Understanding and Acceptance 275
The Knowledge-Deficit View 276
The Religious Objection View 278
Folk Biology 279
Misconceptions 281
Complexity/Emergent Systems 283
Academic Topic Emotions 283
Motivation 285
Identity 286
Implications for Evolution Education 287
Conclusions 289
References 290
Chapter 12: Cognitive Load Theory, Evolutionary Educational Psychology, and Instructional Design 294
Evolutionary Educational Psychology and Human Cognition 294
Categories of Knowledge 295
Natural Information Processing systems 297
Cognitive Load Theory and Instructional Design 302
The Importance of Explicit Instruction 302
The Primacy of Domain-Specific Knowledge 303
Some Instructional Effects Generated by Cognitive Load Theory 304
Discussion 307
References 308
Chapter 13: Beyond Academic Performance: The Effects of an Evolution-Informed School Environment on Student Performance and Well-being 310
The Regents Academy 311
How the Regents Academy Was Informed by Evolutionary Theory 314
The Design Principles 314
Program Design 314
The Rooms 316
Teachers and Staff 318
Attitudes and Mindsets 319
Experimenter Participation 319
The Students: Population, Recruitment, and Class Size 321
Small School, Small Class 322
Overview 322
Measuring the Broad Goals of Education at the Regents Academy 323
Methods 323
Study Participants 324
Measures 324
Analyses 327
Results 328
Demographic Analyses Across Experimental Groups 328
Correlations 329
Comparison of Developmental Assets Between School Populations 331
Discussion of Study Outcomes 336
Comparisons of Asset Measures Between Experimental Groups 336
Interpreting Correlations Between DAP Scales 338
Selection Biases and Limitations 339
What Made It Work? 340
Evolutionary Education Science 340
Broadening Curriculum-Instruction-Assessment Practices 342
Cultures Have Curricula 342
An Interdisciplinary Approach to Assessment 342
Conclusion 343
Appendix 13.1: Effects of Covariates on Each Dependent Variable 344
Appendix 13.2: Results of Post-hoc Pairwise Comparisons Between Schools for Each Dependent Variable 346
References 347
Index 352