Many researchers and teacher educators propose that reflection is an important way teachers can think about changing their views and practices. The hierarchical constructs used to describe reflection, however, are often interpreted in ways that promote reflection as a "tool" teachers use to elevate their views and practices toward ideal "end…

The "Approaches to Studying Inventory" (ASI) was based on qualitative research by Marton and Saljo, which established "surface" and "deep" approaches to study. This article attempts a new qualitative explication of the meanings of study. A heuristic due to Husserl is employed which distinguishes between the "noema", the "subjective object" of…

Cognitive processes are often attributed to statistical or symbolic general-purpose mechanisms. Here we show that some spontaneous generalizations are driven by specialized, highly constrained symbolic operations. We explore how two types of artificial grammars are acquired, one based on repetitions and the other on characteristic relations…

This chapter is based on heuristic research and phenomenology which honors the dialectic of personal narratives as a way to process and understand the politics of change centered on hegemony, discourse, and cultural plurality. This methodology utilizes personal narrative and dialog as way to consider the importance of reflecting on individual…

The purpose of this qualitative, heuristic inquiry was two-fold: First, the study explored the lived experiences of four teacher leaders working in one comprehensive high school in a district where the researcher is superintendent. The second purpose was to learn from the experiences of the teacher leaders to inform district level actions that…

Commonality analysis is a method of decomposing the R squared in a multiple regression analysis into the proportion of explained variance of the dependent variable associated with each independent variable uniquely and the proportion of explained variance associated with the common effects of one or more independent variables in various…

Many univariate statistical methods assume that dependent variable data have a univariate distribution. Some statistical methods assume that the error scores are normally distributed. It is clear that the concept of data normality is an important one in statistics. This paper explains that, notwithstanding common misconceptions to the contrary,…

Considers the process of evaluating the interactivity of Web-based learning systems (WBLSs), adapting a heuristic approach usually employed for usability evaluations. Proposes a three-way model of interactivity, reports an evaluation using three different WBLSs, and concludes that heuristic evaluation provides a cheap, intuitive and practical…

Uses a heuristic example, data from K. Holzinger and F. Swineford (1939) to illustrate the "holdout" method to assess the generalizability of results in multiple regression. Regression weighted from one data subset are used to compare estimated dependent variable scores from the opposite subset. (SLD)

Recent attempts have been made to find a robust method for comparing the variances of "J" dependent random variables. However, these procedures can give unsatisfactory results. Several new procedures that are derived heuristically are examined. The most effective method is based on the statistic derived by D. Quade. (TJH)

This article traces the historical and conceptual development of what is known as activity theory, from Vygotsky and Luria, to A. N. Leontev, to Engestrm, in order to illustrate what I see as two problems with the activity theoretic approach, especially as manifest in the work of Leontev and Engestrm: what I call the boundary and/or focus problem…

The purpose of this paper was three-fold: (1) to review mastery learning and criterion-based assessment; (2) to advocate extending these concepts to higher education; and (3) to invite MSERA members to join in research projects examining mastery learning in higher education. The authors used Guskey's (2001) definition of mastery learning from his…

We examined the relationship between cognitive capacity and heuristic responding on four types of reasoning and decision-making tasks. A total of 84 children, between 5 years 2 months and 11 years 7 months of age, participated in the study. There was a marked increase in heuristic responding with age that was related to increases in cognitive…

Educational efforts to incorporate ethical decision-making in science classrooms about current science and technology issues have met with great challenges. Some research suggests that the inherent complexity in both the subject matter content and the structure and dynamics of classrooms contribute to this challenge. This study seeks to…

How has GOOGLE shaped knowledge? How has it shaped those who use it? This article considers the impact of online knowledge upon the content of knowledge and upon the people who seek it and create it. The authors suggest that 1. Google-ization is reshaping knowledge. 2. Google-ization is changing how knowledge counts as important. 3. Google-ization…