ABSTRACT
The historical lack of research in this field is especially surprising in view of
the fact that all the great teachers of ancient times-Confucius and Lao Tse
of China; the Hebrew prophets and Jesus in biblical times; Aristotle,
Socrates, and Plato in ancient Greece; and Cicero, Evelid, and Quintillian in
ancient Rome-were teachers of adults, not of children. Because their
experiences were with adults, they developed a very different concept of the
learning/teaching process from the one that later dominated the formal
education of children. These notable teachers perceived learning to be a
process of mental inquiry, not passive reception of transmitted content.
