7.6 Conclusion

One of the conclusions of this study was that teachers of FSFL might benefit from opportunities to develop an understanding of constructivist epistemology and philosophy. Adopting a constructivist philosophy may not represent a large shift in thinking. In spite of the fact that it may be a theory, philosophy and epistemology, constructivism still represents a view of learning that is essentially intuitive in nature. It is not surprising that one of the leading spokespersons of constructivism, von Glasersfeld, once argued himself that "Constructivism does not claim to have made earth-shaking inventions in the area of education; it merely claims to provide a solid conceptual basis for some of the things that, until now, inspired teachers had to do without theoretical foundation" (von Glasersfled, 1995b, p. 15).

In essence then, all constructivism does is attempt to make us aware of something that we know intuitively. To evolve their beliefs so that they might work more effectively in OLEs, teachers must be like the explorer in the excerpt from the poetry of T. S. Eliot at the beginning of this chapter. They need to return to where they started and revisit their common sense notions of what it means to learn. OLEs can help them in this process because they provide an altered context that provides support for a philosophy that equates learning with what we know it to be intuitively - a process of sense-making. Teachers need not be like strangers in a strange land in online learning environments. They need to let themselves be guided by an intuitive notion of what it means to learn. Their belief in learning as a process of making sense and of coming to understand the world will provide them with the most important map which they will need to guide them as they venture into new landscapes for learning in the 21^st century.