Can I suggest that you read the post. Really. If you don’t see a pattern of agreement in this, then you need some help with your reading comprehension.

And ‘This is the academic culture’ — ‘Irrelevant corollaries… trifling minutiae…’ Again, did you read the post, or did you just search for Schank’s name and try to heap scorn on anyone not sufficiently adulating? I liked Schank’s piece, as I think the posting makes ABUNDANTLY clear; I just didn’t agree with the evolutionary narrative that he employs. Relax, Kevin — no one’s making fun of your man.

If Greg’s point – “If, however, we believe that all the ‘information’ that determines the shape of our bodies and brains is not entirely in the nucleus of the egg and sperm cells that came together to form us, then there’s no reason to assume that we are environmentally out-of-step.” Really? Evidence of some environmental influence on the mind is enough to convince you that that things aren’t so bad after all. This is the academic culture – pick at trifling minutiae and find a means of dissent so you can show off your own ideas rather than sticking to the matter at hand. There’s no glory in listening to and agreeing with others, is there. This exemplifies a separate point Schank often likes to make – nobody remembers what a lecturer says in class, they only remember their own contribution to the discussion.

From the abstract
This paper aims to compare cognitive development in humans and chimpanzees to illuminate the evolutionary origins of human cognition. Comparison of morphological data and life history strongly highlights the common features of all primate species, including humans. The human mother-infant relationship is characterized by the physical separation of mother and infant, and the stable supine posture of infants, that enables vocal exchange, face-to-face communication, and manual gestures. The cognitive development of chimpanzees was studied using the participation observation method. It revealed that humans and chimpanzees show similar development until 3 months of age. However, chimpanzees have a unique type of social learning that lacks the social reference observed in human children. Moreover, chimpanzees have unique immediate short-term memory capabilities. Taken together, this paper presents a plausible evolutionary scenario for the uniquely human characteristics of cognition.

It is social referencing that seems core for human cognitive development (and probably learning as well). If this is the case, then “classroom learning” or test based learning as a unit might not be the most salient thing to focus on, but rather the social and interactive context in which information is transmitted in the classroom, the structures of assessment, etc… Some major learning in humans can (and does) go on in a classroom, but the context and they way the classroom is structured then becomes very important. (see also Herrmann, E., Call, J., Hernandez-Lloreda, M.V., Hare, B. and Tomasello, M. (2007) Humans have evolved specialized skills of social cognition: the cultural intelligence hypothesis. Science 317:1360-1366)

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071203094823.htm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/dec/04/animalbehaviour.evolution
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bpl/desc/2007/00000010/00000001/art00016