Constructivist educational principles suggest that educational environments should provide learners with personal control, authentic learning contexts, and diverse personal interactions including collaboration. How can such constructivist values be applied to mass Higher Education? Traditional methods cannot achieve it with large student numbers but computer‐based media are scaleable and may support constructivist learning. A new course for non‐science undergraduates provided an opportunity for a constructivist design using the World Wide Web, email, and video. The design of the course, its implementation and evaluation are described. Authentic assessment was critical. Web forms and e‐mail supported some necessary personal interactions, but collaborative work was problematical.

Constructivist learning theory predicts that knowledge encoded from data by learners themselves will be more flexible, transferable, and useful than knowledge encoded for them by experts and transmitted to them by an instructor or other delivery agent. If this prediction is correct, then learners should be modeled as scientists and use the reasoning and technologies of scientists to construct their own knowledge. However, it cannot be taken for granted that the prediction is correct, or correct in every knowledge domain. The present study attempts to establish conditions in which the prediction can be operationalized and tested. It reports on the adaptation of constructivist principles to instructional design in a particular domain, second language vocabulary acquisition. Students learning English for academic purposes in the Sultanate of Oman followed one of two approaches to vocabulary expansion, learning pre-encoded dictionary definitions of words, or constructing definitions for themselves using an adapted version of the computational tools of lexicographers. After 12 weeks, both groups were equal in definitional knowledge of target words, but lexicography group students were more able to transfer their word knowledge to novel contexts.

Examines the history, characteristics, and value of designed instruction that is grounded in behaviorist, cognitive science, and constructivist theory. Changes that have allowed developmental phases of instructional design are considered, including instructional design methodology, physical technology, and programing mechanisms used to develop instructional software.

Key words: behaviorism, instructional design, constructivism, conceptual frameworks, computer software, cognitive models, machine learning, computer based instruction, cognitivism, learning modules.

A variety of instructional approaches has been studied and implemented across educational and training settings. Vastly different design practices have been proposed that reflect fundamentally different philosophies, beliefs, and biases. Yet, evidence of mismatched frameworks and methods are widespread. This has become particularly problematic in advancing emerging constructivist learning environments. In this paper, we advance the concept of grounded design, a process that involves linking the practices of learning systems design with related theory and research. The purposes of this paper are to introduce the fundamentals of grounded design, to describe how underlying foundations and assumptions can be aligned with the corresponding methods, and to introduce examples of grounded constructivist learning environments.

Key words: training setting, system design, learning environment, educational technology, related theory.

Discussion of constructivism and instructional design focuses on the development of a design model for constructivist environments that supports the construction of knowledge, a meaningful context for learning, and collaboration among learners and with the teacher. Differences between constructivist and objectivist approaches are considered.

Key words: constructivism (learning), context effect, cooperative learnin, g educational environment, instructional design, models, teacher-student relationship.

Discussion of constructivism and instructional design focuses on the development of a design model for constructivist environments that supports the construction of knowledge, a meaningful context for learning, and collaboration among learners and with the teacher. Differences between constructivist and objectivist approaches are considered.

In this article, the implications of constructivism for instructional systems design (ISD) are summarized as five principles that integrate the affective and cognitive domains of learning. In contrast to current views, it is suggested that constructivist philosophy offers instructional designers an alternative set of values that may significantly influence the emphasis of ISD methods without undermining the coherence and consistency of the ISD model. Distinguishing characteristics of the two approaches are described, based on a review of recent literature. The article concludes with the assertion that the influence of constructivist philosophy on ISD should be to focus attention on critical enabling objectives traditionally overlooked by instructional designers.

Key words: coherence, system design, distinguishing characteristic, recent literature, educational technology.

Key words: constructivism, educational environment, information processing, wigs, machine learning, environmental technology, physics, mathematics education, banks, learning.