Intuitive learners

This chapter will present key ideas that will be taught and developed through a spiral curriculum. Increasingly advanced treatments will be revisited throughout the secondary years in different contexts. This is important because many of the ideas met in chemistry are abstract, unfamiliar and even cotmter-intuitive. Learners therefore need time to come to terms with these ideas to... 

The expert is aware that the electron s history has no significance, but a learner may well expect there to be a greater attraction between an atomic core and the bonding electron that belongs to that atom (Taber, 1998). Such beliefs may seem rather bizarre for those used to thinking of chemistry in terms of fundamental concepts (such as energy and forces), but actually reflect one of the basic principles of magic that seem to commonly influence people s intuitions about the natural world (Nemeroff Rozin, 2000). Indeed the notion that a past association leaves some... 

By means of virtual environments a learning context can be created where the multiple aspects of human intelligence are addressed. With sufficient perception and interaction qualities to give the learner a feeling of intuitive handling of virtual objects to the learner, the following VE applications are possible in the area of apprenticeship. 

The main point here is that if the learner can see the context, view what is relevant and be stimulated into seeking what is unknown or unseen, then the cognitive process of relational browsing and the discovery of the relative relevance between facts and objects will lead to a form of non-linear understanding akin to lateral thinking and intuition. This, personally, is seen as a higher, far better aim than the more linear processes that even basic fixed-link hypertexts produce, because they are built on procedural, pre-programmed, personalized structures. 

In order to be able to construct such program the first activity is to construct the information basis of the Hypermedia Tutorial. This is not only the declarative and procedural knowledge about the subject but also, in the special case of Hypermedia information, about the recognized necessary pre-requisites (which will allow students who don t possess them to get them) and also complementary information capable of satisfying the curiosity of the learner (and making the program attractive). In order to define this information as well as the way it is presented and how to control the process (exercises, games,...) one first attempt must be done based on the experience and intuition of the educationalists. 

Some learners prefer to learn by themselves whereas others prefer to work in groups. Some learners need a lot of organization and learn in small steps sequentially whereas others assimilate whole concepts with a flash of insight or intuition. 

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