Development of Teleological Explanations in Peruvian Quechua‐Speaking and U.S. English‐Speaking Preschoolers and Adults

Abstract

However, changes with age were importantly distinct from differences corresponding to cultural variation. Developmental and cultural differences in teleological explanations may reflect causal analysis of the features under consideration.

Is the bias for function-based explanations culturally universal? Children from China endorse teleological explanations of natural phenomena

“…To our knowledge, teleological reasoning has been studied in only one non-Western culture previously (indigenous Quechua-speakers in Peru), but in this culture, participants were expected to show a strong teleological bias due to high levels of explicit teleological and agentic talk about natural phenomena (Sanchez Tapia et al, 2016; Gelman et al, 2015). By contrast, the present research focused on a stronger test of universality: whether broad teleological tendencies develop in a culture that is not only non-WEIRD, but is one of the least explicitly theistic in the world.…”

“…The development of teleological reasoning has been studied in a single non-Western culture (indigenous Quechua-speakers in Peru). In this culture, participants showed a greater bias to endorse teleological explanations when scientifically unwarranted; however, Quechua culture contains high levels of explicit teleological and agentic talk regarding natural phenomena, which could account for this bias (Sanchez Tapia et al, 2016; Gelman, Mannheim, Escalante & Sanchez Tapia, 2015). Thus, data from Quechua speakers cannot answer the question of universality: A key test is whether the teleological bias remains present even in more secular non-WEIRD populations.…”

“We do not know what is the real story anymore”: Curricular contextualization principles that support indigenous students in understanding natural selection

“…Students who use teleological thinking tend to explain natural selection inaccurately in terms of organisms' needs rather than as the change in the frequency of traits within a population due to the comparative advantage that certain traits have over others in a given environment. Other studies, however, have shown that children and adults in Indigenous communities with low educational attainment may not exhibit more teleological reasoning than Western educated individuals (Sánchez Tapia et al, ); yet other authors have proposed that teleological reasoning may indeed indicate knowledge on ecological interactions (ojalehto, Waxman, & Medin, ). Since the extent of teleological reasoning among non‐Western communities is still contended in the published literature, and the Nahua people have been described as harboring deep knowledge of ecological interactions (Rodríguez & Hasler, ), we assessed whether adults and seventh grade students in this community exhibited teleological reasoning and, if so, to what extent.…”

“…Only a few studies in the field of developmental psychology (Evans & Rosengren, ; Kelemen, ; Kelemen, Emmons, Schillaci, & Ganea, ) explore the learning of natural selection with the tools of developmental psychology, but those do not include a social justice perspective oriented to empowering learners from ethnic minority groups. Our approach is innovative, in that we integrate these approaches, building on the traditions of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (Kawagley et al, ; Ladson‐Billings, ) and Border‐crossing (Aikenhead, , ), while adding the dimension of cultural cognition (Sánchez Tapia et al, ; Waxman, Medin, & Ross, 2007). Our integrated perspective accounts for the different factors that influence students' prior knowledge, responding to the learners' worldviews in their cognitive, social, cultural, and historical contexts.…”

“…Furthermore, to account for cultural cognition, we also explored the culture‐specific reasoning patterns people use when making sense of natural categories (e.g., plants and animals) and biological processes, such as variation within populations. Research has shown that reasoning patterns such as teleology pose barriers to understanding natural selection (Kelemen, ), even surpassing in significance the influence of cultural aspects such as believing in a god (Rosengren & Evans, ), but that these patterns vary across cultural and linguistic contexts (Sánchez Tapia et al, ). Taking into account these studies, we explored whether Nahua students exhibited this reasoning pattern (teleology), and used that information to improve the cultural relevancy of the contextualization process.…”