An Evolutionary
Theory of Education
Joseph
J. Pear
Department
of Psychology, University of Manitoba,
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3T 2N2
Abstract
The
capacity to learn is a product of evolution, in that it promotes
survival and the perpetuation of an individual's genetic material.
An individual that can learn can be taught. Hence, a next step
in evolution was teaching of the young by caretakers (usually
the parents). Training of the young is carried out in many species
but has evolved to its highest degree in humans. Humans also possess
language, which has enabled them to develop complex cultures.
These cultures perpetuate themselves and compete for resources
and for members. This competition leads to the evolution of cultures
similar to the manner in which species evolve. Education is analogous
to the reproductive system; it is the mechanism by which cultures
perpetuate themselves. Eventually in cultural evolution, education
became institutionalized in some human cultures because of the
evolutionary advantages it provided to those cultures. Educational
techniques, however, have changed very little since ancient times
despite research showing that some educational techniques are
superior to others. Despite this resistance to change, certain
applications of computer-based technology may provide the next
step in the cultural evolutionary process.
An
Evolutionary Theory of Education
The
theory of education with which this paper deals considers evolution
of education and culture as a natural process. Being based on
learning, the evolution of education is based in the evolution
of species. We therefore first consider the evolution of learning.
We then consider the evolution of training, which is carried out
by many species in which parental and other care of the young
is provided. We next discuss how this training is most advanced
in humans, largely because of they have evolved a facility for
complex language. It is this ability that makes human cultures
and institutionalized education possible. The paper concludes
by considering what the next step in educational and cultural
evolution might be.
The
evolution of learning
Along
with other properties of organism, the capacity to learn is a
product of evolution. Learning occurs because it promotes the
propagation of the genetic code of the organism that possesses
the capacity to learn ().
There are several types of learning, including sensitization,
habituation, imprinting, classical or respondent conditioning,
and instrumental or operant conditioning. Of these, it is the
last with which we are concerned here; roughly speaking, operant
conditioning is the modification of behavior by its consequences.
Education is mostly concerned with changing behavior by arranging
for favorable consequences to follow desirable behavior. For example,
when a student's excellent essay receives praise from the teacher,
we expect that the student will write praiseworthy essays in the
future.
Operant
conditioning evidently appeared quite early in evolutionary history.
It exists in the earliest vertebrates. Any one who has kept fish
knows that they swim expectantly to the sight or sound of someone
getting ready to feed them. This is operant conditioning, because
the fish receives the food faster if it is nearer the location
in which the food enters the water. Fish will also learn to push
a response key if this results in food dropping into the fish
tank ().
The operant conditioning of similar responses in rats, pigeons,
and monkeys is well known to every student in an introductory
psychology course. What is perhaps not so well know is the pervasiveness
of operant conditioning; it occurs in organisms whose evolutionary
paths diverge considerably from that of the vertebrates. For example,
it occurs in insects, such as ants ()
and honey bees ).
Since these invertebrates have nervous systems that are quite
different from those of vertebrates, there is a suggestion that
the ability to learn through operant conditioning may have evolved
independently in different genetic lines.
The
evolutionary advantage of operant conditioning is fairly obvious
in a changing environment. A location that once provided food
may no longer do so; an unfamiliar potential prey item may turn
out to provide a nutritious meal or an illness-producing toxin.
Another unfamiliar animal may turn out to be relatively harmless
or a dangerous predator. An animal that is to survive and pass
on its genetic material must adjust to these diverse circumstances,
and learning obviously permits it to do so. What may not be so
obvious, however, is the connection this all has to education.
Physical survival does not usually depend on being able, for example,
to write a commendable essay. However, the same process that enabled
our ancestors learn to how to hunt efficiently can be enlisted
to enable us to learn to write effectively. Both involve small
shaping steps punctuated by positive feedback. In the case of
hunting, the feedback was from the physical environment (a successful
kill) and from other humans (praise for performing actions that
led to a successful kill). In the case of essay writing, the shaping
steps and feedback is from the teacher, who incidentally has been
operantly conditioned to provide this feedback.
Training
of the young
For
many species, the parental function consists simply in reproduction.
For certain others (i.e., those unable to fend for themselves
at birth), however, there is care-giving from one or both parents
and perhaps other members of the social group, until the young
are able to make it on their own. Inevitably, animals learn from
their caretakers and other members of their social group, but
most of this learning occurs incidental to other activities. There
is no deliberate attempt to teach. In some cases, deliberate teaching
appears to occur but can be explained as phylogenetic; e.g., a
mother lion teaching her young to hunt or a bird teaching its
young to fly. Although the teacher may employ sound pedagogical
principles (e.g., shaping, fading, scaffolding), their utilization
has been developed by evolution rather than by learning.
Moving
up the phylogenetic scale we do not find any evidence for deliberate
teaching until we come to the apes, most notably our closest relatives,
chimpanzees. These animals engage in certain complex tool-use
behaviors, such as termite fishing (with a long stem inserted
into a termite hole) and nut cracking using a hammer-and-anvil
technique (using two stones). These are complex skills that take
many years to perfect. There is some evidence of mothers actively
teaching their young (thought physical guidance) proper techniques
in performing these skills ().
Only
humans show clear evidence of deliberate systematic teaching.
The earliest evidence of this is from between 11,000 and 15,000
years ago. The stone chips found around certain stone-age hearths
shows that evidence a master stone chipper encircled by learners
who practiced the master's demonstration of the proper way to
chip out stone tools, such as axes and knives (;
).
Hence, humans carried out classroom-style teaching as early as
11,000 years ago.
Although
there was no permanent record of it, these early teachers were
undoubtedly doing more than merely demonstrating and the students
were not merely imitating. The teacher undoubtedly was providing
verbal instruction and reinforcement, and the students were responding
to that instruction and reinforcement. The human propensity for
speaking and listening – for language – probably evolved
from early social bonding (Dunbar, ,
).
In primates social bonding occurs though physical contact (e.g.,
grooming) and vocalizations. Language developed when humans evolved
the capacity to imbed information more complex than simple "stroking"
(e.g., the equivalents of "how are you?" and "fine, thank you")
in their physical gestures and vocalizations. Language enabled
the development of human cultures.
Cultures
We
may define a culture as a set of learned practices (including
laws, values, ways of doing things) passed on from one generation
to the next. Cultures evolve in a manner similar to the way in
which species evolve (for discussions of cultural evolution and
values, see ;
Pepper, ,
;
Skinner, ,
).
Some cultures are well adapted to their environments and survive.
Others are not well adapted and perish. Part of a culture’s
environment includes other cultures. Hence cultures compete in
a manner similar to that in which species compete. A culture survives
only if it has members that survive and perpetuate it. Hence,
cultures compete for resources and for members.
The
practices of a culture may promote or hinder its survival. Some
practices are more successful in promoting a culture's survival
than others are. Some practices are harmful, and may lead to the
demise of a culture. Some practices are not beneficial, or may
even be harmful, but the culture may nevertheless survive for
a long time because other practices counteract them or because
no competing culture is present to exploit those weaknesses.
Education
If
a culture is analogous to a species, then education is the reproductive
system of a culture. Just as the reproductive system is responsible
for transmitting traits from one generation to the next, education
replicates or transmits cultural practices, including values,
rules, laws, customs, and skills. Also included in the practices
of a culture is its social structure.
Education
mirrors the culture in which it occurs. If the technology and
social structure of a culture is relatively simple, education
is simple. In a "simple" culture, education consists of the young
learning from other members simply by participating in the activities
of the culture. As the technology and social structure become
more complex, special instruction becomes necessary. Chipping
stone tools is a difficult skill but vital to a stone-age culture,
hence classes apparently were required to facilitate members learning
it.
A
number of cultures developed a degree of complexity in which members
are stratified into several strata or classes. These might include
slaves (e.g., ancient Greece, ancient Rome, the United States
before the Civil War), and lower, middle, and upper classes. Slaves
received virtually no education, the lower classes might receive
some sort of vocational training (often in the form of apprenticeships),
the middle classes received training needed to be merchants, government
administrators, and teachers, while the upper classes received
training that enabled them to rule more effectively. Simplifying
somewhat, universities developed to fulfill these last-two mentioned
functions 229).
Complex verbal behavior, including the ability to discuss, reason,
and argue are always useful to the governing and ruling classes.
Even in the upper classes, women throughout all complex (stratified)
societies, up until recent times, received only enough education
to enable them fulfill the roles of mothers and homemakers. It
is clear that education served to maintain the social structure
of these cultures.
As
described above, a culture may perpetuate itself by spreading
its practices to succeeding generations. Another way it may perpetuate
itself is by invading other cultures and attempting to transform
them into replicas of itself (the analogy of a virus invading
a cell comes to mind here). This is imperialism, which has been
practiced so successfully by Western countries. True to its function
as a replicator, education has been critical in the success of
imperialism. The transplanting of the invaders’ educational
systems into other countries (or, alternatively, sending members
of the "host" country to be educated in the invading country)
is analogous to the transplanting of viral DNA into host cells.
That is, largely as a result of the transplantation of the invader's
educational system into the host, the host country becomes more
like the invader. It is interesting to note that this ultimately
works to the disadvantage of the invader, because once the ruling
members of the host are sufficiently educated in the practices
of the invader, the host country tends to declare its independence.
Similarly, the transfer of genetic material through sexual reproduction
does not necessarily work to the advantage of the individual making
the transfer.
In
some cases the educational system of an invading country has been
used to obliterate (or come close to obliterating) an indigenous
culture. A prime example is the forcible removal of Native children
from their parents and the placement of these children in residential
schools, which occurred in Canada. Forced to learn the language
and practices of the dominant culture, the children in these schools
were severely punished for speaking their own language and were
kept from learning anything about their own culture.
Conflict
between dominant and subordinate groups over education
Since
education tend to preserve the social order, members below the
ruling class strive to obtain educational opportunities that would
allow them to move into a higher class. The middle class presses
for access to universities. The lower class presses to obtain
basic education such as instruction in reading. And women press
to obtain the same educational privileges men enjoy.
Cultural
changes also help to bring about changes in the availability of
education. By promoting the idea that each individual should be
able to interpret the Bible for him or herself, leaders of the
reformation successfully diminished the power of the Catholic
Church. However, this idea makes sense only if everyone can read
the Bible. The logical consequence of the change in the culture
brought about through the reformation was that education in reading
should be available to all. For the first time, therefore, government
was in the position of having to provide universal education.
With
the industrial revolution, a skilled labor force was needed. In
addition, to protect the upper classes from social disruption
and mayhem, youthful industrial workers needed to be occupied
during the times that they were not at work. Hence, universal
education was implemented on Sundays, and gradually extended to
other days of week.
In
more recent times, members of minority cultures have successfully
petitioned to right to educate their members in their own culture.
Politicians have responded favorably to this as means of winning
votes and diffusing tensions.
Conflict
between educators and the state
The
state – i.e., the governing or ruling body of a culture
– attempts to use the educational system to preserve itself.
Dissidence is not to be tolerated if the ruling body has any say
in the matter. This can bring the educational system into conflict
with the state, and with the education administration –
the representatives of the state within the educational system.
One way in which this conflict appears is in the struggle within
the educational system between those who favor restrictions on
what can be taught and those who advocate academic freedom. Two
important activities of education, at least as it exists today,
are examining new ideas and questioning the status quo. These
activities, however, can threaten the stability of the culture,
and therefore tend to be resisted by those outside the educational
institution (and often by some within). In the long run, similar
to favorable mutations, the new ideas that are developed and promulgated
in the educational institutions may lead to changes in cultural
practices that strengthen the culture. This is why academic freedom
has become a firmly entrenched value in some cultures, although
it is still suspect in others.
The
Shifting Role of Educators
Ever
since the printing press was invented and books became widely
available, lectures have been largely redundant. This is not to
say that lectures have no value. In many cases they can be very
beneficial. But they are not of equal value for everyone; and
there are some who are able to learn quite well just by reading.
Suppose, however, that a student went to the president of a university
and said, "I have read every book in your library; please have
your faculty test me and if I pass give me a degree." It is highly
unlikely that such a student would have his or her request granted.
At best the student might be granted an exemption from a few classes,
but would have to sit through many more. Educators can rationalize
this requirement in a number of ways; however, a case can be made
that the underlying reason for it is that such a student is seen
as a threat. It represents a loss of power. If you can learn without
having to sit in our classrooms and listen to our lectures, then
we have no power over you.
Some
educators may also see the new technology of web-based instruction
as a threat. Students on line do not have to be in the classroom.
Some educators have attempted to adapt the lecture method to the
new technology. In this format, students "meet" at a specified
time, read a text-based "lecture" prepared by the instructor,
and engage in online discussion by typing in comments on the lecture
and comments on other students comments. This approach has the
advantage that students do not have to be physically present on
campus in order to take a course. This results in an increase
in the number of people who can take courses and receive the benefits
of education.
More
could be done for students by taking advantage of research findings
on different educational techniques. The data are quite consistent
in indicating that mastery learning methods and cooperative learning
work far better than lectures ().
Real advances in education may occur when these methods are combined
with web-based technology (for perhaps a start in this direction,
see ;
;
,
1996). Given that educational practices have changed very little
since the days of Socrates, despite many attempts to improve them
over the centuries, it is probably unwise to predict that fundamental
change will occur anytime soon. However, although educators have
been strongly conditioned to preserve their traditional practices,
they have also been conditioned to work for the betterment of
their culture. The advances in technology that rapidly are making
all forms of information widely available to everyone may demand
new approaches to education. The next large evolutionary jump
in education may be at hand.
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