Intellectual need is a specific form of intrinsic motivation; it has been defined as "a learner’s subjective need to address a problem by learning something new." It has been recognized as critical in effective education and learning. Intellectual need arises when a person experiences a problem leading to either out of curiosity or to solve a specific problem.
Intellectual need is often greatest when there is a hole in an otherwise well-connected web of knowledge, where one has reached the limit of their knowledge and identified a knowledge gap. Merely understanding a question and being unable to answer it is not sufficient to create intellectual need—intellectual need arises when a person believes the question to be interesting or important, and usually this involves fitting the question into a framework of well-understood ideas.
Mathematics professor Guershon Harel argues for a difference between motivation and intellectual need, stating that intellectual need does not have to do with one's interest or desire but rather epistemology and one's engagement in problems leading to learning. He has formulated the Necessity Principle, which states: "For students to learn [what] we intend to teach them, they must have a need for it, where 'need' here refers to intellectual need."
A common critique of certain educational systems is that students are expected to learn facts and ideas in the absence of any intellectual need. As a result, the teachers and educational system must provide extrinsic motivation for the students in the form of tests, grades, or other incentives. This gives rise to a whole series of problems, ranging from boredom to academic dishonesty.
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