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Handaxes, Concepts, and Teaching
Author(s) -
Chazan Michael
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
mind, brain, and education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.624
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1751-228X
pISSN - 1751-2271
DOI - 10.1111/j.1751-228x.2012.01157.x
Subject(s) - argument (complex analysis) , context (archaeology) , epistemology , sociology , history , archaeology , computer science , philosophy , biology , biochemistry
This paper argues that teaching of concepts is deeply rooted in human phylogeny. The basis of this argument is a consideration of the type of knowledge used to make handaxes, a tool that is found in the archaeological record beginning around 1.8 million years ago. A distinction is made between the human capacity for teaching concepts, which has a deep evolutionary history, and the types of learning that take place in classrooms that can be related to the social context of early state societies.