Education Is Life Itself Biological Evolution as a Model for Hum

Bryn Mawr College

Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr
College
Education Program Faculty Research and
Scholarship

Education Program

2011

Education Is Life Itself: Biological Evolution as a
Model for Human Learning
Paul Grobstein
Bryn Mawr College, [e-mail]

Alice Lesnick
Bryn Mawr College, [e-mail]

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Custom Citation
Grobstein, Paul, and Alice Lesnick. "Education Is Life Itself: Biological Evolution as a Model for Human Learning." Evolution:
Education and Outreach 4, no. 4 (2011): 688-700.

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Education is Life Itself:
Evolution, Unconscious and Reflective Processes, Change
Short title: Education is Life Itself

Paul Grobstein
Department of Biology
Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr, PA 19010 [e-mail] Alice Lesnick (corresponding author)
Education Program
Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr, PA 19010 [e-mail] 267-455-5848
Abstract
Schooling often rests uneasily on presumed dichotomies between coverage and inquiry, skill development and creativity. By drawing on the often under-recognized parallels between biological evolution and human learning, this essay argues that formal education need and ought not forego the unconscious exploratory processes of informal learning.
Rather than posit as natural the cultural story that formal schooling must prepare students to integrate with given cultures and foreknowable futures, the evolutionary perspective shows that education is better thought of as preparing students to create cultures and to change, and foster change, in relation to unknown futures. The properties that distinguish formal from informal learning --

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