Seems to me Dewey and researches in this area could benefit from learning the literature on types of imitation in humans and other primates (procedural imitation, intentional imitation, automatic imitation, and goal-sharing).

This: http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=intention+imitation&btnG=&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5

Evolution had to solve the goal of value learning before, and she always comes up with interesting ways no one would have thought about.