Teaching as a natural cognition and its relations to preschoolers’ developing theory of mind

Abstract

Teaching is an important aspect in people's lives and cultures. We explore it from a cognitive-developmental perspective. Teaching may be a natural cognition that, despite its complexity, is learned at an early age without any apparent instruction. We propose that theory of mind may be an important cognitive prerequisite for teaching. We briefly describe a study that tested relations between children's developing theory of mind and actual teaching. Children at the ages of 3-and 5-years were presented new theory of mind tasks about teaching and then were observed teaching peers a game they had just learned. We found corresponding age-related differences in children's understanding of teaching as manifested in their performance on the teaching-theory of mind tasks and in their teaching strategies. It is suggested that theory and research on theory of mind might need to be expanded to include on-line, interactive situations such as teaching.

The Archaeology of Teaching and the Evolution ofHomo docens

“…There exist many proposals to delineate the meaning of teaching (e.g., Caro and Hauser 1992;Leadbeater, Raine, and Chittka 2006;Strauss, Ziv, and Stein 2002;Thornton and Raihani 2008). In a unifying analysis, Kline (2015) presents an account of three major forms that she calls functional, mentalistic, and culture based.…”

“…The definitions that fall under Kline's (2015) term "mentalistic" present teaching as behavior with the intent to enhance learning in another (Byrne 1995;Moore 2013;Premack and Premack 1996;Strauss, Ziv, and Stein 2002;Tomasello, Kruger, and Ratner 1993). One example is Moore's (2013:897) definition: "minimal pedagogy would require only the ability to judge the incompetence of an action performed in pursuit of a goal, operating in conjunction with an intention to inform, and the ability to address a demonstrated behaviour to its intended audience."…”

“…Teaching is present in all human societies (Csibra andGergely 2009, 2011;Strauss, Ziv, and Stein 2002;Tomasello, Kruger, and Ratner 1993). Even young children have a natural capability to teach (Strauss, Ziv, and Stein 2002).…”

“…Even young children have a natural capability to teach (Strauss, Ziv, and Stein 2002). On the other hand, teaching within other species is very limited (Hoppitt et al 2008;Thornton and Raihani 2008).…”

Knowing, Learning and Teaching—How Homo Became Docens

“…It involves showing somebody else how to perform a task or how to solve a problem. Among humans, it is a ubiquitous form of teaching and children begin to demonstrate at an early age (Strauss et al 2002). When demonstrating, the teacher's intention is that the learner exhibits the right actions in the accurate sequence.…”