The impact of epistemological perspectives on teaching and learning in Open and Distant Educational Systems

Epistemology, as a branch of Philosophy, studies the process by which knowledge is obtained and evaluated. As such it can, in relation to the approach to truth and knowledge which are the main goals in education, open new vistas to planners and teachers alike. This applies to the original planners of Open and Distant Education as well, since the epistemological view of the time has informed the planner's perceptions of student, teacher, curriculum, and teaching/learning strategies, as the main constituents of these systems. In this paper, the relationship between epistemology and education, especially Open and Distant Education, is discussed and in the light of that, positivist, interpretive, and critical epistemological approaches are introduced. Furthermore, the two educational systems are portrayed in general and their requirements in relationship to the teaching/learning strategies are explored from these three epistemological perspectives.