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| Intellectual need is a specific form of intrinsic motivation;
it is a desire to learn something. Although it is a difficult
concept to grasp, it has been recognized as critical in
effective education and learning. Intellectual need arises when
someone poses a question to themselves or others, 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. 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. 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