463 research outputs found
Classroom of the apes: is teaching monkey business?
Between 1973 and 2000, social scientists conducted one of the most significant, innovative and
challenging programmes in the history of linguistic and educational research. ‘Project Nim’ investigated
both the interaction between nature and nurture and attempted to bring human level gestural
communication to a chimpanzee called ‘Nim’. The study offered some of the most important insights into
our understanding of language and cognition and what it means to be human, and represents a landmark
in our thinking about teaching and learning, and education itself.
Here, the authors contend that essential lessons from the experiment have been overlooked and risk
being forgotten. This article revisits the study, exploring some of the issues it raises, and attempts to site
what we learnt from Nim in the context of modern teaching practice. Through this re‐examination we
intend to provoke thinking not only about ‘Project Nim’, but perhaps also about other lost lessons in
education. We conclude by reflecting on the importance of remembering the lessons we learnt when
trying to teach Nim, and how they can enhance our practice as teachers for all learners
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