Evolutionary Pedagogy: Evolutionary Foundations of Certain Pedagogical Practices and Their Implications in Teaching Processes

Human evolution is the result of highly complex biological, psychological and cultural changes over millions of years. This process can be traced back to the evolution of modern humans, thanks to the ability of human ancestors to adapt to environmental conditions. The evolutionary process involves the development not only of physical characteristics, but also of mental capacities and social structures. It is therefore a natural consequence that evolution has fundamentally influenced human cultural and psychological traits. The main reason for the emergence of fields such as evolutionary psychology and evolutionary psychiatry in the light of recent studies is the search for the contributions of evolutionary processes to such fields. Evolutionary pedagogy is basically the result of such a search. It was shaped as a result of the search for the reflections of psychological and cultural situations affected by evolutionary processes on pedagogy. Therefore, evolutionary pedagogy is a synthesis and it seeks to explain how many pedagogical practices may have been shaped in the evolutionary process. To this end, it draws heavily on evolutionary psychology and directly on human biological evolution. Such a quest for grounding predicts that a more beneficial process can be realized in the teaching-learning process by reproducing evolutionary situations in the classroom environment. In other words, the learning process can become more effective if teachers use the features compatible with evolutionary processes in their teaching techniques, classroom management, and the development of skills for learning to learn, and if they include them in the classroom environment. This is the main starting point of the study. Throughout the study, some examples of the pedagogical practices in which can manifest itself are emphasized. In addition to the explanations and examples given in the study, other researchers may associate different pedagogical practices with evolutionary processes. Therefore, evolutionary pedagogy is not only a new field but also a field that is open to the interest of researchers as a field open to development.