Abstract

Every day we are struggling to understand the reality we live in. Sometimes we are able to unravel the mechanisms behind the things that happen around us, but more often we have to rely on parents, teachers or peers to come to a better understanding. Over many centuries our educational system has developed into a system in which the teacher plays a pivotal role. The teacher is the source of information and the student the receiver. In this exchange between student and teacher, there has always been a strong emphasis on the reproduction of knowledge. An early study by Stevens (1912) demonstrated that two-thirds of classroom questions required students to accurately recite textbook information. Sixty years later, Gall’s (1970) research still showed that 60% of the questions asked in the classroom required factual answers.