The aims and meaning of education and teaching are contested. This article empirically explores the aims that dominate present research about teaching as reflected in high-impact reviews of research about teaching (n = 75). Four types of aims are discerned: knowledge/cognitive aims, social aims, aims encompassing the development of personal characteristics and democratic aims. With some exceptions, the reviews analyse teaching with regard to knowledge and cognitive aims only and do not explicitly attend to the aims of schooling or guiding documents. The implications of these empirical findings are discussed in light of the educational philosophies of Dewey and Thorndike.