How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School

This chapter does well in comparing the characteristics of novices and experts. Novices seem to be acquiring pertinent information without yet knowing how to organize the facts. Experts have acquired a bulk of information, organized the facts/rules into retrievable patterns, and are capable of seeing the "big picture". The ability to form and recognize patterns, select an appropriate action, and choose necessary steps can be likened to the use of heuristics. Educators should work toward not only supplying the ideas and facts of a subject, but also how to manipulate the information in various situations.