When a cause interacts with unobserved factors to produce an effect, the contingency between the observed cause and effect cannot be taken at face value to infer causality. Yet it would be computationally intractable to consider all possible unobserved, interacting factors. Nonetheless, 6 experiments found that people can learn about an unobserved…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to argue that abductive reasoning is a typical but usually unrecognised process used by HRD scholars and practitioners alike. Design/methodology/approach: This is a conceptual paper that explores recent criticism of traditional views of theory-building, based on the privileging of scientific theorising, which…

In an Editorial in "Times Higher Education" (2009) extensive comment was given on the work of Furedi (2009) on the culture of complaint and the application to higher education of the consumer model. The discussion included many apparently strong criticisms of this use of the consumer model. "Higher Education Review" has itself published articles…

It is the purpose of this article to discuss the development and application of a logic model in the context of a large scientific research program within the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). CSIRO is Australia's national science agency and is a publicly funded part of Australia's innovation system. It conducts…

The full promise of class room learning is dependent on its ability to incorporate 21st century skills in its instructional design, delivery and implementation. In this increasingly competitive global economy, it is not enough for students to acquire subject-level mastery alone. Skills like creative thinking, problem-solving, communication and…

If one looks back at the last 50 years or so at educational technologies, one will notice several things. First, the pace of innovation has increased dramatically with many developments in the application of digital technologies to learning and instruction, following by a few years developments in the sciences and engineering disciplines that are…

When reading conflicting science-related texts, readers may attend to cues which allow them to assess plausibility. One such plausibility cue is the use of graphs in the texts, which are regarded as typical of "hard science." The goal of our study was to investigate the effects of the presence of graphs on the perceived plausibility and…

History of psychology students wrote essays about historical figures and counterfactual events. A linguistic analysis of the essays revealed that counterfactual assignments included more auxiliary verbs and more references to tentativeness and the future. More important, scores on the counterfactual assignments but not the historical figure…

By the end of primary school, we might expect children to be able to give a reasonable description of what science is. In their response to the question "What is science?", Eshach and Fried (2005) distinguish between conceptual and procedural knowledge and understanding. They explain that children's conceptual knowledge is developed…

This paper reports on a qualitative study focusing on engineers' point of view in regard to university mathematics and mathematics education. An individual interview was conducted with three electrical and two mechanical engineers between the ages of 25-40, all engaged in successful careers. The subjects were requested to reflect upon themselves…

Most theories of analogical transfer focus on similarities between the learning and transfer domains, where transfer is more likely between domains that share common surface features, similar elements, or common interpretations of structure. We suggest that characteristics of the learning instantiation alone can give rise to different levels of…

U.S. schools teach predominately to the analytical, left-brain, which has foundations in behaviorism, and uses a mechanistic paradigm that influences epistemic beliefs of how learning takes place. This result is that learning is impeded. Using discourse analysis of a set of Piagetian children, this study re-analyzed Piaget's work. This study found…

Numerous popular figures currently espouse the importance of spirituality. Some prominent voices, such as Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson, and Eckhart Tolle, advocate a more spiritual existence, warning that the earth and humanity are engaged in a seismic change. The shift of spiritual leaders from fringe to fairly mainline attention is…

Utilizing a program logic model allowed us to plan and guide our successful Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC) national accreditation for our educational leadership program. The model integrates the six principal Interstate School Leaders Licensing Consortium (ISLLC) standards with TEAC's Quality and Processing Principles and with the…

The overall direction of this research is to improve the development of information systems within federal agency modernization efforts so that the systems produce a value to the federal agency that is significantly greater upon implementation than the investment required to develop the systems. Federal agencies are modernizing at an increasing…