We propose that humans are adapted to transfer knowledge to, and receive knowledge from, conspecifics by teaching. This adaptation, which we call 'pedagogy', involves the emergence of a special communication system that does not presuppose either language or high-level theory of mind, but could itself provide a basis facilitating the development of these human-specific abilities both in phylogenetic and ontogenetic terms. We speculate that tool manufacturing and mediated tool use made the evolution of such a new social learning mechanism necessary. However, the main body of evidence supporting this hypothesis comes from developmental psychology. We argue that many central phenomena of human infant social cognition that may seem puzzling in the light of their standard functional explanation can be more coherently and plausibly interpreted as reflecting the adaptations to receive knowledge from social partners through teaching.

otherwise know as quantitative literacy in the United States, somewhat broadly and imprecisely as follows: Numeracy is a proficiency which is developed mainly in mathematics but also in other subjects. It is more than an ability to do basic arithmetic. It involves developing confidence and competence with numbers and measures. It requires understanding of the number system, a repertoire of mathematical techniques, and an inclination and ability to solve quantitative or spatial problems in a range of contexts. Numeracy also demands understanding of the ways in which data are gathered by counting and measuring, and presented in graphs, diagrams, charts and tables. There is no inherent reason that the symbol systems associated with ordinary literacy and language would be intrinsically different from the system entailed in quantitative literacy as the mind seems to be equivalently disposed to support both language and numeracy. Wynn (1992), for example, argues that humans are innately endowed with arithmetical abilities, and she and others

Abstract—One of the main principles underlying the design of human–system interactions within ITSs or ILEs is that the closer the “artificial ” principles are to those involved by human teachers, the more efficient the learning will be. However, the very notion of “human-likeliness ” is neither very new nor very precise. We suggest here that these human-like interactions need to be grounded in the very core human social capabilities, notably those allowing mind reading. We address this problem here, first in reviewing the literature about tutoring principles, then in proposing a new classification scheme of these principles. Third, we sketch the first lines of a model and a LSA-based software architecture that attempts to comply with this “humanlikeliness” by providing teacher-like advice for learning courses.

Its Implications for Teacher EducationThe opinions expressed in this volume are those of the authors and do