Education departments are very insular; they don't heed the work of other disciplines, even the work of cognitive scientists and anthropologists. I find the education literature almost unreadable!

@Gmak i did in school. it was sometimes better in college, sometimes not. when i taught, i used all sorts of materials, but only dry textbooks when not able to make my own syllabus (i was teaching in japan, and some schools offered more freedom to teachers than others). i used a lot of video. i taught with the book subliminal seduction in one class. those students were lively!

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@genessa
One of my primary influences on thinking about how humans learn has been Michael Tomasello, a developmental anthropolologist. Here's his oft-cited book:

[amazon.com]

@Gmak thanks! i have a backlog, a hell of a backlog, because of my deteriorating eyesite. i can read stuff on the computer because it's back;lit. being broke, i can't do the kindle thing, not unless the books are free and available on the computer as well, but guttenberg and the like are useful. this probably isn't on that, eh? alas.

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@Gmak hmm, reminds me of desmond morris, who may have been an influence or jumping-off point. interesting. i'd love to read it. i haven't even finished getting my guy to read lawrence o'donnell's book about 1968 to me. we may have to start over as he has alzheimer's (and is a slow and bad reader) and will have forgotten the chapters we have already read/heard. i need EYES!

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@genessa
Vygotsky was his primary influence. Vygotsky said that one of the primary ways we can learn about human cognition is to observe the difference in the learning behaviors of humans and their closest phylogenetic relatives, the chimps.

@Gmak sounds like some like minds there, re morris.

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