<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; " class=""><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 16.0px 0.0px"><A href="http://dougiamas.com/writing/constructivism.html">http://dougiamas.com/writing/constructivism.html</A><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#777777" face="Verdana" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"></SPAN></FONT></P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 16.0px 0.0px"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#777777" face="Verdana" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">Cultural myths that are prevalent in today's education systems include (Taylor, 1996):</SPAN></FONT></P><OL><UL><LI style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#777777" face="Verdana" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">The rationalist myth of </SPAN></FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#777777" face="Verdana" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"><B>cold reason</B></SPAN></FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#777777" face="Verdana" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"> - where knowledge is seen as discovery of an external truth. This can lead to the picture of the teacher in a central role as transmitter of objective truths to students. This philosophy does not promote clarifying relevance to the lives of students, but instead promotes a curriculum to be delivered.</SPAN></FONT><BR style=""></LI><LI style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#777777" face="Verdana" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">The myth of </SPAN></FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#777777" face="Verdana" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"><B>hard control</B></SPAN></FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#777777" face="Verdana" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"> - which renders the teacher's classroom role as controller, and "locks teachers and students into grossly asymmetrical power relationships designed to reproduce, rather than challenge, the established culture".</SPAN></FONT></LI></UL></OL><DIV style=""><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><DIV style=""><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder" style=""></DIV><DIV style=""><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder" style=""></DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline" style=""></SPAN> </DIV><BR style=""></BODY></HTML>