In 1998 the Charleville School of Distance Education (SDE) in Queensland, Australia, began using telephone teaching to replace high frequency radio as its means of communicating with rural and remote students. A study investigated the extent to which telephone teaching has contributed to the development of a constructivist teaching and learning environment. A literature review describes aspects of four generations of distance education and discusses previous studies of telephone teaching, the teaching strategies used in telephone teaching, and the benefits of the interactive teleconferencing environment. Results of the present study indicate that the 13 teachers at Charleville SDE were using teaching strategies and facilitating interactions that reflect the major tenets of constructivist philosophy. Teachers reported that their most utilized strategies were catering to the individual needs of students, making use of students' prior knowledge, and providing students with opportunities for reflection. Overall, teacher ratings of teaching strategies and learning activities used suggest that the SDE environment was strongly supportive of a constructivist teaching and learning paradigm. Teacher responses to the Community of Learners Scale indicate that telephone teaching supported a community of learners and fostered teacher-student and peer interaction. Details are provided on the incidence of specific teaching strategies and learning activities. (Contains 38 references.) (SV)