Sarah Hanisch

A generalized conceptualization of evolutionary processes allows for a view of the cognitive, behavioral, and cultural variation in our everyday lives as elements of diverse evolving systems. Such a view invites questions about how cultural evolutionary processes may favor or hinder the expression of variant thoughts and behaviors, any of which may be more or less valued by any given community. From an educational perspective, this implies an untapped potential for engaging students in understanding the cultural evolutionary dynamics of their everyday lives, schools, and broader communities. As a strategy to engage this potential, the Community Science Lab at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology is developing a unique model of Community-Based Cultural Evolution (CBCE) for inter-institutional collaboration at the intersection of evolution education and applied school improvement efforts. Using advances in teaching for conceptual understanding and transfer of learning, the CBCE model aims to empower students to clarify, investigate, and collaboratively influence the cultural evolutionary dynamics of their own school and surrounding communities. The relationship between students’ evolving intuitive theories of school improvement, and the evolving scientific theories of school improvement scientists, provides a framework for understanding the development of student conceptions of cultural (and, perhaps, biological) change more generally. This chapter provides a conceptual foundation for exploring the claim that engaging students in reflecting on the cognitive, behavioral, and cultural evolutionary processes in their everyday lives provides new opportunities for school improvement and interdisciplinary evolution education initiatives. The practical and systemic challenges of this approach are clarified and future directions are outlined.

Evolutionary concepts are used, with varying and arguable degrees of scientific utility, across a wide range of disciplines. Evolution education, however, remains overwhelmingly within the confines of biology education, when it is taught at all within general education. The reasons for this disciplinary myopism are complex, and normative guidance for curriculum designers is scarce. This contribution explores how understanding the structures of knowledge, or the organization of facts and generalizations in science, cognition, and education, may help illuminate the educational potential and evidence-informed pedagogical practices appropriate for teaching about the interdisciplinary application of evolutionary concepts.