• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.107-122
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to review the literatures on the evolutionary perspective on education and to draw the educational implications for science education. This study addresses on several topics as follows: our common misunderstandings about the evolutionary perspective on education; children's inherent knowledge and abilities, their learning about the evolutionarily novel knowledge and abilities in school, their difficulties in academic learning, and the instructional strategies to cope with the difficulties; and the implications for science education from the evolutionary perspective. The evolutionary perspective on education has provided new insights how culturally important information is transmitted across generations in the past hunting-gathering societies and the modern societies, and how children's inherent motivational and behavioral dispositions affect their academic learning. In addition, the new perspective on education can be used to generate empirical hypotheses about children's science learning, and with the further research, could lead to useful implications and ultimately improve educational outcomes.