Being Human: Socializing and Communicating as Learning Drives throughout Evolution

The following passage was extracted from an upcoming article I wrote for MET (Modern English Teacher). I wrote it in the context of Covid-19 and from the perspective of different authors who work with neuroscience and learning. I'm sharing it here because I realized in the latest edition of my course Neuroscience and Learning that many teachers take this for granted. What do you think?

"Whether it was cooperation, language, genetics or cooking – or most likely a combination of these elements – there might be an underlying principle, something that connects all these things. Perhaps we can borrow the wisdom from an author not particularly related to brain research. Carl Sagan, the world-renowned astrophysicist, once said in one of the episodes of Cosmos, acclaimed TV show about life and the universe:

‘What an astonishing thing a book is. It’s a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark scribbles. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another person. Maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you.’ (Sagan et al, 1980).'

"What Sagan illustrates through the book analogy is our unprecedented capacity and willingness to communicate with one another. We urge to be part of a community and we can learn through interacting and communicating with the members of our tribe like no other animal. This suggests that one of the underlying principles connecting what the previous authors discussed in their books is socialization. In fact, Howard-Jones (2018), Everett (2019), Dehaene (2020) and Herculano-Houzel (2016) talk about how important being social animals is for humans to develop the full capabilities of our brains. Louis Cozolino (2013) suggests that our brain cortex has increased as a direct result of the need to socialize with more members. He claims that the brain is, before anything, humans’ social organ, and discusses how the brain grows best in the context of supportive relationships, low levels of stress and through the creative use of stories. In the context of the classroom, it is having a secure relationship with the teacher that matters the most"