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Cultural niche construction and human learning environments: investigating socio-cultural perspectives

Kendal, J.R.

Authors



Abstract

Niche construction theory (NCT) can be applied to examine the influence of culturally constructed learning environments on the acquisition and retention of beliefs, values, role expectations, and skills. Thus, NCT provides a quantitative framework to account for cultural-historical contingency affecting development and cultural evolution. Learning in a culturally constructed environment is of central concern to many sociologists, cognitive scientists, and sociocultural anthropologists, albeit often from different perspectives. This article summarizes four pertinent theories from these fields-situated learning, activity theory, practice theory, and distributed cognition. As a basis for interdisciplinary investigation, the article considers how these theories may be addressed using a cultural niche-construction framework, including the utility of an embedded model that explicitly accounts for effects of the constructed learning environment on within-individual learning dynamics in an evolutionary framework.

Citation

Kendal, J. (2011). Cultural niche construction and human learning environments: investigating socio-cultural perspectives. Biological Theory, 6(3), 241-250. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-012-0038-2

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Sep 1, 2011
Deposit Date Mar 1, 2012
Journal Biological Theory
Print ISSN 1555-5542
Electronic ISSN 1555-5550
Publisher Springer
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 6
Issue 3
Pages 241-250
DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-012-0038-2
Keywords Activity theory, Distributed cognition, Niche construction, Practice theory, Situated learning, Cultural evolution.