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Childhood and the evolution of higher-effort teaching

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 June 2015

Mark Nielsen  and
Ceri Shipton
Mark Nielsen
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, 4072 Australia nielsen@psy.uq.edu.au http://www.psy.uq.edu.au/people/personal.html?id=636
Ceri Shipton
Affiliation:
British Institute in Eastern Africa, Nairobi, GPO 00100, Kenya McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3ER, United Kingdom cbks2@cam.ac.uk http://socialscience.uq.edu.au/ceri-shipton
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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.

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Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 38 , 2015 , e52
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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