To make decisions and solve problems, people have to manage changing situations with multiple, often competing, goals and alternatives. Complex cognitive skills are needed to handle ill-structured (heuristic) tasks, but instructional design models (IDMs) for teaching and learning heuristic knowledge do not yet satisfy business and educational needs. In the literature, mental heuristics are commonly defined as mental shortcuts, rules-of-thumb, strategies, principles, and hunches, but a more operational definition is a useful basis for an IDM for heuristics. This research combines a form of Landa's (1976) definition of heuristics with detailed instructional methods to generate a preliminary IDM for heuristics. The primary research method is extended literature review using Reigeluth's conditions-methods-outcomes-values meta-theory (1999a) for the IDM and Reigeluth's theory-construction process (1983) for IDM construction.