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 qfi 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.