Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-nwzlb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T07:58:38.060Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The active role played by human learners is key to understanding the efficacy of teaching in humans

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 June 2015

Samuel Ronfard
Affiliation:
Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138. sar798@mail.harvard.eduhttp://scholar.harvard.edu/samuelronfard/homepaul_harris@gse.harvard.eduhttp://www.paul-lansley-harris.com/
Paul L. Harris
Affiliation:
Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138. sar798@mail.harvard.eduhttp://scholar.harvard.edu/samuelronfard/homepaul_harris@gse.harvard.eduhttp://www.paul-lansley-harris.com/

Abstract

The early developing capacity of human learners to seek out reliable informants, initiate pedagogical episodes, and monitor and redirect ongoing instruction is critical to understanding humans' remarkable capacity for cumulative culture.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Begus, K. & Southgate, V. (2012) Infant pointing serves an interrogative function. Developmental Science 15:611–17.Google Scholar
Chouinard, M. (2007) Children's questions: A mechanism for cognitive development. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, Serial No. 286, Vol. 72, No. 1, pp. 1129.Google Scholar
Frazier, B. N., Gelman, S. A. & Wellman, H. M. (2009) Preschoolers' search for explanatory information within adult–child conversation. Child Development 80:15921611.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harris, P. L. (2012) Trusting what you're told: How children learn from others. Belknap Press/Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Harris, P. L. & Lane, J. D. (2013) Infants understand how testimony works. Topoi: An International Review of Philosophy 33(2):443–58. doi: 10.1007/s11245-013-9180-0.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sperber, D. & Wilson, D. (1995) Relevance: Communication and cognition, 2nd edition. Blackwell.Google Scholar
Stenberg, G. (2009) Selectivity in infant social referencing. Infancy 14:457–73.Google Scholar
Stenberg, G. (2013) Do 12-month-old infants trust a competent adult? Infancy 18:873904. doi: 10.1111/infa.12011.Google Scholar
Wu, Z. & Gros-Louis, J. (2014) Infants' prelinguistic communicative acts and maternal responses: Relations to linguistic development. First Language 34:7290.Google Scholar