The philosophical assumptions underlying both the behavioral and cog-nitive theories are primarily objectivistic; that is: the world is real, external to the learner. The goal of instruction is to map the structure of the world onto the learner (Jonassen, 1991b). A number of contemporary cognitive theorists have begun to question this basic objectivistic assumption and are starting to adopt a more constructivist approach to learning and under-standing: knowledge “is a function of how the individual creates meaning from his or her own experiences” (p. 10). Constructivism is not a totally new approach to learning. Like most other learning theories, constructiv-ism has multiple roots in the philosophical and psychological viewpoints of this century, specifi cally in the works of Piaget, Bruner, and Goodman (Perkins, 1991). In recent years, however, constructivism has become a “hot” issue as it has begun to receive increased attention in a number of dif-ferent disciplines, including instructional design (Bednar et al., 1991).