Near the end of chapter 2, Shenk describes a study done by Yale psychologist Robert Sternberg on “...the intelligence of Dholuo schoolchildren” (50). Sternberg tested the children’s knowledge of local herbal remedies as well as Western curriculum. His results demonstrated a negative correlation between the two: “‘The better the children did on the indigenous tacit knowledge...the worse they did on the test of vocabulary used in school, and vice-versa’” (50). The “environment” in the GxE paradigm may pertain to both abiotic and biotic factors. In the case of this study, the environment is both the local society of the children, as well as the larger, Western society and culture as a whole. Based on the study, to what extent do both the local and largescale societies impact the educational abilities of children in general? How does the size and proximity of a society have a larger impact on the educational abilities? With a local society, such as a Kenyan tribe, children have greater and more intimate day-to-day interactions with other members of the local environment when compared to the few hours spent in school learning Western societal values. Use evidence from the book as well as Chapters 51,53, and/or 54 of the Campbell textbook and relate your answers to the biological themes of interdependence in nature.
Ethan Homedi (ethanhomedi@yahoo.com)
David Shenk provides numerous examples of how the environment has a large effect on abilities and characteristics of an individual. One example being Yo-Yo Ma, the famous musician, who was raised in a household that emphasized music. This is similar to the case of the Kenyan children because Yo-Yo Ma's "local" community was music-centered and encouraged the arts, this resulted in Yo-Yo Ma being better at music. As we have learned in Chapter 51 there are numerous different types of learning. Cognition was among the most complex it was as a result of “awareness, reasoning, recollection, and judgment.” We also learned in the same chapter about social learning. Social learning is a form of learning through observation. In both these instances of learning, it would seem that the local environment would have a much more significant impact on individuals. Their local environment is much more a part of their daily lives than the larger community.
ReplyDeleteThe American Association for the Advancement of Science reported that, “Researchers found children living in deprived conditions suffered stunted growth, falling within the shortest 10% for their age. But on moving to a foster home, they went through astounding growth spurts” (http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2006/feb/18/medicineandhealth.lifeandhealth). They also reported that I.Q. tests taken during the deprived condition period and after the move to foster home showed an increase in scores. The deprived conditions and foster homes together can be thought of as a larger community. In the end, though, it is clear that the children are more influenced by the individual communities rather than both the communities as a whole.
As we learned with the theme of Interdependence in Nature an individual’s phenotype is determined by genes and the environment, but overall, it seems as though this environment is the local community, which has a much larger impact than the larger, global community. The local environment can determine the learning, interests, and mental state of adults right from their childhood. Even if the size of a community is large, it seems as though parents, household, school and local community will have a larger impact in shaping an individual. This is not to say that the larger community does not have an impact but not nearly to extent of the localized community.