1.13 Conclusion

The conditions at the turn of the century are evolving in such a way as to encourage educators to reformulate goals, reconceptualize roles, redefine learning and teaching, and to rethink what they do. But none of these acts can be accomplished successfully without first reevaluating what they believe about goals, roles, learning and teaching. Schools are busy places where the key players often don't have much time to tend to important acts such as thinking about what they do and, more importantly, why they do it. Their behaviours have become automatic - dictated by years of practice, by institutional conventions and, sometimes, by unquestioned, unscrutinized beliefs. Schools are about learning. Yet, how often do teachers have the opportunity to ask themselves: How do children learn best? What is learning? What is a teacher? The responses to these questions and to many others like them essentially become the blueprints for action, the maps that guide the teacher's way through days and years of classroom interaction with hundreds and perhaps thousands of children in the course of a career.

This study aims to get at the heart of teaching and learning. It looks behind the scenes and takes aim at the key actors - the teachers - for it is they who are the gatekeepers, who will ultimately determine much of the experiences to which students will be exposed within the confines of their schooling years. As such, this study provides intimate insight into hidden worlds, into the heart of teaching. The timing of this study is critical in the sense that it comes at a time when new technologies are beginning to impact on every aspect of life. Were this study conducted 40 years earlier when television represented the latest technological revolution, it would not have had the same impact. Whereas television had the power to improve teaching practices, OLEs have the potential to transform them. Whereas, 40 years ago, the educational community was immersed in a philosophy of behaviourism, today's community is on the verge of a possible paradigm shift to a philosophy of constructivism that reconceptualizes teaching and learning. More than ever today do we need to have insight into teachers' beliefs.

The teaching of FSFL has often been reflective of the prevailing social, educational and political trends. As such, it is unlikely to remain immune to the changes currently taking place in technology and in educational philosophy. Teachers will be affected either directly or indirectly. The emergence of new technologies combined with an interest in and understanding of constructivism provides a backdrop for a change in approaches to the teaching of FSFL. This study will provide insight into the dynamics of this change from the perspective of the key stakeholders - the teachers.

Constructivist philosophies would have us see the teacher as a facilitator. Other metaphors for the teacher might include that of the master, sage, guide, banker or gardener. For the purposes of this study, it is useful for the reader to conceptualize the teacher as an explorer. The teacher is exploring new territories or new landscapes for learning- ones which are unknown, strange, without bearings, and unlike anything they have previously encountered. They have few reference points, few coordinates for their journey beyond the maps which they have used in the familiar territory of the traditional classroom. The following chapter describes the theories and thoughts of the last 100 years of second- and foreign- language education in order to understand what some of these reference points or coordinates might be. The remainder of this study then follows its own journey into the heart of teaching - into teachers' beliefs.