Comment: What do we mean by the social mind? In what ways is thinking 'inside your head' also social thinking? How do community and culture shape learning?

The concept ''the social mind'' expresses the notion that the way people think is influenced constantly time by society and their closer communities and processes and interactions between these groups. I think it also means that one's perception also shapes the world outside of them, including their social interactions etc.; it means that the social mind is created by and creates simultaneously the world around it. While someone grows up they are so strongly shaped by the people around them that they adopt and automatise characteristics, ways of thinking, habits, and more of other people without noticing. Therefore, even being ''inside one's head'' is social, since the interaction between the individual and their own mind is also shaped by the way they interact with others. For example, if someone is very strict with themselves about a certain food they like (say, pizza) and eating it too much, this can often come from someone in their earlier life telling them not to eat that or too much of it repeatedly. This is an example of a negative side of the social mind, but it can also be very positive. Due to the social nature of the mind and its development, community and culture play a big role in learning. The community can influence pupils and learners strongly in the adaption of rules and expectations, but also provide opportunities to learn scholarly and moral knowledge. Culture can also influence in what order people learn certain things and in what settings.

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A great example of this social learning is one from my work. The Kindergarten teacher I assist does an exercise with their students in which they have to learn the three main class rules: raise your hand, stay silent when the teacher speaks, and stay seated. In this, the children are divided into teams, that all get four coins, and need to follow the rules in order to keep the coins. If one of the rules is broken by one of the students, the coin gets taken away from the whole team. This way, the children are motivated to remind each other of the rules. Recently, I was observing this exercise and noticed something interesting: in order to correct one student's behavior, the teacher would only point out the behavior of the others, rather than directly address the student who needed reminding of the goal. It happened, for example, when one of the students got off their seat and started sitting on the floor near the Legos. The teacher simply said: student A is sitting very well in their seat, and so is student B; it was enough for student C to get up and sit back in their seat again. The same for speaking: if one student started speaking before receiving a turn, the teacher simply would say how well another student raised their hand or waited their turn. The reinforcement and learning of the class rules are made completely social by this, by pointing out the exemplary behavior in the learning community and the teacher not giving any negative feedback to the student directly. The student just adopts what the others around them are doing and learns in a social manner.