ABSTRACT
Following Polya (1945) I proceed from the following three assumptions: (1) “Heuristic” means “serving a discovery”; (2) solving of a problem certainly contains a bit of discovery, hence it involves heuristic processes; (3) investigation into heuristic processes cannot aim at finding infallible rules of how to make discoveries; it is directed instead at comprehension of human problem-solving behavior. Accordingly, all rules and laws pertaining to problem-solving behavior are called heuristic principles. A teacher or that very person who solves a problem may use these rules consciously to increase the effectiveness of the solving process. Thus we have to categorize the heuristic principles: principles of which the subject is or is not aware; principles received from other people or worked out by oneself; principles applied with another’s help only, or without any assistance.
