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Small numbers of mental operations, or meta tasks, can mobilize the knowledge students bring to a learning task. Often students do not understand the problematic nature of the problems they are expected to solve. They also do not understand the necessity to commit sufficient intellectual effort to locate where the real problem lies in the information they are presented with. The meta tasks presented here, within a constructionist framework, based on readings in Polanyi and Ausebel allow students to systematically restate problems central to building an understanding of fundamental concepts in organic chemistry.
A model (a gnoson-the fundamental particle of knowing) for the fundamental act of learning, couched in particle model terms, is presented. This gnoson provides a model for chemists who lack reading background in educational literature to use in thinking about some important philosophical issues.
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