Teaching

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title: "Teaching" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["teaching"] description: "Process or activity of imparting knowledge and skills" topic_path: "general/teaching" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teaching" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Process or activity of imparting knowledge and skills ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Students_of_Nan_Hua_High_School,_Singapore,in_the_school_hall-_20060127.jpg" caption="Schoolers gathered from the Nan Hua High School in [[Singapore"] ::

Teaching is the practice implemented by a teacher aimed at transmitting skills (knowledge, know-how, and interpersonal skills) to a learner, a student, or any other audience of an educational institution. Teaching is closely related to learning, the student's activity of appropriating this knowledge.

Teaching is part of the broader concept of education. ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/A_college_professor_teaching_in_a_university_classroom_full_of_students_in_Tennessee,_United_States_06.jpg" caption="A college professor teaching a class in the United States"] ::

Profession

Training

Teaching in non-human animals

Teaching has been considered uniquely human because of mentalistic definitions. Indeed, in psychology, teaching is defined by the intention of the teacher, which is to transmit information and/or behavior and/or skill. This implies the need for the teacher to assess the knowledge state of the potential learner, thus to demonstrate theory of mind abilities. As theory of mind and intentions are difficult (if not impossible) to assess in non-humans, teaching was considered uniquely human. However, if teaching is defined by its function, it is then possible to assess its presence among non-human species. Caro and Hauser suggested a functionalist definition. For a behavior to be labeled as teaching, three criteria must be met :

• The behavior of the "teacher" must be observed only in the presence of a naive individual
• The behavior represents a cost for the teacher, or at least no direct benefit
• The possible consequence of the behavior is a learning gain for the learner

References

References

1. (2012). "How to design a teaching course". De Boeck.
2. (2015). "Penser l'école". L'Harmattan.
3. (2014). "Professeur des écoles: droits, responsabilités, carrière". Retz Éditions.
4. (2015). "How to learn about teaching: An evolutionary framework for the study of teaching behavior in humans and other animals". Behavioral and Brain Sciences.
5. (1992). "Is There Teaching in Nonhuman Animals?". The Quarterly Review of Biology.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::