In distance education to date, the nature of teaching and learning in all academic domains has largely been understood in terms of behaviorist theories, more recently drawing on cognitive science from which principles and models for course design have been derived. This paper takes as its starting point contemporary critiques of such 'traditional'…

The key to developmentally appropriate practices is to let a child construct his or her own knowledge through interactions with the social and physical environment. Because the child is viewed as intrinsically motivated and self-directed, effective teaching capitalizes on the child's motivation to explore, experiment, and to make sense of his or…