[10]
"Two
views of education have been at war for centuries: the didactic (for
information-transmission) view and the constructivist view. The didactic view
prevails among the general public. It holds that teachers should be masters of
particular domains of knowledge and that their job is to transmit their
expertise about these domains to students through lectures and recitations.
Students should memorise the facts and concepts of the domain and practise its
skills until they have mastered them, and they should be able to demonstrate
that mastery on appropriate tests.
The
constructivist view, which undergirds the work of John Dewey, Lev Vigotsky, and
Maria Montessori, holds that teachers should be facilitators who help students
construct their own understandings and capabilities in carrying out challenging
tasks. This view puts the emphasis on the activity of the students rather than
on that of the teacher. " (Willis J W, Stephens E C & Matthew K I
(1996) Technology, Reading, and Language Arts, Allyn & Bacon, Needham
Heights, Massachusetts p 30)