A Critical Analysis of Transactional Distance Theory

formal philosophical definitions to concrete, operational ones caused ambiguity, at best, and collapse of the theory, at worst. The problem with philosophical approaches to dialogue is that they are highly idealized and prescriptive. They tell us how people should relate to each other and what outcomes should result from dialogue. They do not tell us, however, what real dialogues look like, sound like, and how they work, or fail to work, in real situated leaming environments. Philosophical approaches are biased a priori toward an antiempirical approach to the study of dialogue that, in fact, may explain the dearth of empirical research into transactional distance theory.