Substruction is the illustration of the infrastructure of a research study--the foundational elements, their relationships, and outcome. It helps researchers increase their knowledge of theoretical, empirical, and descriptive links between a study's conceptual and operational components. (SK)

Proposes a probability heuristic model for syllogistic reasoning and confirms the rationality of this heuristic by an analysis of the probabilistic validity of syllogistic reasoning that treats logical inference as a limiting case of probabilistic inference. Meta-analysis and two experiments involving 40 adult participants and using generalized…

Assessment of learning organizations is not a scientific but a political endeavor, better served by heuristic measures. These measures assess conditions in which there is high probability that learning is occurring, enable participants to assess the learning climate, and make the learning climate a focus of inquiry. (SK)

Presents a values orientation heuristic approach to understand culture as a way to generate realization of many characteristics of culture at once and their interworking. Develops 5 categories of characteristics of culture, and within these categories, 23 dimensions. Attempts to cover all the cultural values a businessperson would possibly…

Many important human activities involve accomplishing goals without a script. There is no formula for true problem-solving. Heuristic, cognitive "rules of thumb" are the problem-solver's best guide. Learners should understand heuristic tools such as means-end analysis, working backwards, successive approximation, and external representation. Since…

Argues that structural functionalism as a method for conducting fieldwork and as a format for the analysis of ethnographic data remains a powerful model, one that is easily understood by professional educators. As a heuristic device, functionalist theory can help in the solution of a problem that is otherwise incapable of theoretical…

The heuristic value of Chilcott's essay lies less in its support for structural functionalism and more in its concern to reexamine theory in the work of earlier educational anthropologists for what earlier theories and practices can add to current research. (SLD)

College students (n=103) cited past performance as the most influential basis for their efficacy beliefs about mathematics. Women cited physiological reactions and teaching quality more often than men did. Thought-listing procedures proved a useful means of studying phenomena not measured by standard psychometric means. (SK)

Reports on a study designed to: (a) understand the nature of science as progressive transitions in heuristic principles; and (b) provide a rationale for the inclusion of three more characteristics of the nature of science to the original five suggested by Smith and Scharmann. Concludes that nature of science manifests in different topics of the…

Responds to "Understanding Nature of Science as Progressive Transitions in Heuristic Principles" by Mansoor Niaz. Concludes that the historical vignettes provided by Niaz provide interesting insights into the nature of science but that the proposed characterizations do not help distinguish things that are more scientific from things that are less…

Interviews with four nurse educators and four education administrators in Canadian hospitals identified (1) organizational demands and constraints that shape nurses' educational needs; (2) the skills needed to be developed; and (3) staff development delivery systems to respond to those needs. An organizational culture that fosters learning…

Presents an approach for illustrating, on an intuitive level, the significance of loop invariants for algorithm design and analysis. The illustration is based on mathematical games that require the exploration of regularities via problem-solving heuristics. (Author/MM)

Explores some aspects of the relations between literacy education and the processes and history of thinking about public policy making. Discusses two broad abstractions--knowledge and power--that constitute a heuristic of the policy moment. Argues that a critical understanding of policy is required to enable literacy educators and researchers to…

We devised criterial recollection tests to investigate why testing memory for pictures elicits lower false recognition than testing memory for words. Subjects studied unrelated black words paired either with the same word in red font, a corresponding picture, or both. They then took three memory tests, always using black words: a recognition test…

Research on language comprehension has focused on the resolution of syntactic ambiguities, and most studies have employed garden-path sentences to determine the system's preferences and to assess its use of nonsyntactic sources information. A topic that has been neglected is how syntactically challenging but essentially unambiguous sentences are…