Dr. Strauss noted that the cognitive sciences generally study learning but do not take into account the other aspect of the educational process. “My perspective focuses on studying the processes that unfold when we are teaching. I went back to square one and asked myself why we teach, what must happen at the cognitive level in order to teach,” added Dr. Strauss, who has been a teacher for over 40 years and has researched cognitive development in children.
“Although I do not compare myself to them, the ancient Greeks asked themselves what constitutes good teaching 2,500 years ago, and we have not been able to find an answer that satisfies us,” he added. This aspect is a remarkable achievement, he noted, since human beings can develop historical culture as a result of cumulative knowledge. “It allows for an efficient transfer of information among individuals of the same species.”
In his work, he draws on aspects of anthropology, neuroscience, cognitive educational technology, and cultural evolution, among other disciplines. His area of expertise is cognitive development, but he noted that all these fields can offer points of convergence. For that reason, he said, “we are on the verge of witnessing a paradigm shift in how we understand teaching. It is important to view it as a whole, as a multidisciplinary field.”
The speaker asserted that teaching is a natural cognitive skill, comparable to language, because it is universal and evolves at the biological level. He argued that instruction is not necessary for teaching, since children engage in acts of teaching effortlessly, generally through imitation. However, intentionality is key; the will to facilitate learning in someone is what distinguishes one such activity from another.
The knowledge gap is another fundamental condition: something that one person knows and the other does not. For example, one child teaches another how to tie their shoelaces or how to play a game and “realizes on their own that they must teach the one who doesn’t know.”
“One-year-olds have the seed of teaching, and by age one and a half they begin to ask questions and seek answers. They make the request for instruction,” he said. “Starting at three and a half years old, they begin engaging in such episodes through demonstration, using strategies such as exaggeration, performing activities more slowly, or breaking them down. By age 5, they understand this intentionality—there is a reason for saying something—while by age 7, we can speak of contingent teaching; they demonstrate it in a more sophisticated way.”
“In neuroscience, models are created to try to identify what learning is. In my work, teachers don’t have to focus so much on these models, but rather on common sense, in day-to-day practice,” he concluded.
Dr. Strauss is a Child Development Psychologist. He holds a Ph.D. in Education from the Institute of Education at the University of California. He completed postdoctoral studies in the Department of Psychology at the same university. He is a Distinguished Member of the OR Yehuda Center for Academic Studies in Israel and of the National Academy of Education ( United States). He was a member of the Branco Weiss Chair for Research in Child Development and Education at Tel Aviv University. His numerous academic publications have focused on the field of child development and on the anthropological and evolutionary aspects of teaching. His main research topics are teaching skills, adults’ mental models of children’s thinking and learning, and the manifestation of these models in the way adults teach and discuss teaching.
Presentation by Dr. Strauss (Spanish version)
Presentation by Dr. Strauss (English version)