Understanding the effects of constructivist learning environments: introducing a multi-directional approach

The idea to organize a special issue on the effects of constructivist learning environments originated at the 2007 annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association in Chicago. We organized a symposium on this topic, which was attended by a large audience and received many positive reactions. Therefore, we came up with the plan to translate our symposium into a special issue. In addition to the papers that were presented in the symposium, we invited several other experts in the field to contribute to this special issue. We are pleased to present the results of that collaborative effort.