Visual elements such as graphs, tables, and diagrams are essential components of scientific writing. Although scientific writing textbooks and guides often contain information on how to design such visuals, little has been written on how to effectively discuss those visuals within the text. This article offers a novel heuristic for teaching…

In the subject matter of functional relationships, a student's ability to translate from one form of representation to another is seen as a central competence. In the course of the HEUREKO project (heuristic work with representations of functional relationships and the diagnosis of mathematical competencies of students), a theoretical competence…

The debate defining thinking, critical thinking, and higher-level thinking is expansive. Geersteen (2003) provides an excellent review of this literature and suggests that one way to distinguish between lower- and higher-level thinking is based on the level of abstraction. In this article, the authors focus on analysis and synthesis or…

In this article, 41 models of covariation detection from 2 x 2 contingency tables were evaluated against past data in the literature and against data from new experiments. A new model was also included based on a limiting case of the normative phi-coefficient under an extreme rarity assumption, which has been shown to be an important factor in…

Reports information retrieval experiments comparing the performance of a probabilistic retrieval model that incorporates interdocument links with the simpler spreading activation strategy. Results indicated that the overall improvement obtained by including hypertext links in the retrieval model was low. (30 references) (EA)

Discussion of instructional design and instructional development focuses on four studies conducted in Newfoundland that examined instructional development knowledge, competency, and use among teacher-librarians, secondary school teachers, and elementary school teachers. Results are reported that indicate teacher planning is done using personal…

Presents the Semantic Vector Space Model, a text representation and searching technique based on the combination of Vector Space Model with heuristic syntax parsing and distributed representation of semantic case structures. In this model, both documents and queries are represented as semantic matrices, and retrieval is achieved by computing…

Examines processes by which general but weak search methods are transformed into powerful, domain-specific search strategies by classifying types of heuristics learning that can occur and components that contribute to such learning. A learning system--SAGE.2--and its structure, behavior in different domains, and future directions are explored. (36…

Presents typology of online search heuristics consisting of six main classes: philosophical attitudes and overall approach; language of problem description; record and file structure; concept formulation and reformulation; recall and precision; and cost efficiency. Heuristics in each of the six classes are listed and selected examples are briefly…

Description of study conducted to establish a profile of guidelines presented in professional literature for the evaluation and revision of instructional materials emphasizes content, design, and presentation. Formative and summative evaluation are discussed; input from users, learners, and experts is described; and appendixes include a list of…

Discussion of instructional design models focuses on a study concerned with developing effective instruction in heuristic-based problem solving for computer programing. Highlights include distinctions between algorithms and heuristics; pretests and posttests; revised instructional design procedures; student attitudes; task analysis; and…

Describes a study that used a mental models perspective to examine the search behaviors of gifted elementary school children searching a full text electronic encyclopedia. The discussion covers analyses of search patterns used, differences between younger and older searchers, suggestions for systems design, and needed further research. (39…