These teaching methods tend to stem from a view of knowledge that is dominant
in schools in Africa, England and elsewhere. Kelly (1986) argued that historically the
dominant epistemology or view of knowledge that has influenced curriculum planning
is ‘rationalist’; that is that knowledge is certain, factual and objective, rather than
contentious and subject to change and interpretation. This rationalist view of knowledge
stems from European culture at the end of the eighteenth century, the period of
the ‘Enlightenment’, when the aim was to formulate general laws based on observation
and experiment. Kelly argued that this stress on certainty and the one ‘right’ answer
leads to authoritarianism because if knowledge is absolute and unchanging then there
cannot be legitimate alternatives to it. There would be little point in discussion and
dialogue as the role of the teacher in such a system is to impart a factual body of
knowledge to immature recipients. This results in an emphasis on the transmission of
cognitive knowledge, subject content and values (as though they were facts) over
education about values, skills, feelings and relationships. It also results in an emphasis
on teacher-centred learning over enquiry, discussion and critical analysis