During a demonstration students are often subject to change blindness. I would argue that slow is not better, no change can occur while any part of the system is in motion! So move the mouse, STOP, then click, STOP, then observe... etc.. The mind of a predator is tuned to track motion in the prey to the exclusion of all eles
On learning schema
Students have many reasons for "simulating understanding", we must test true understanding of schema. The mere mention of any word belonging to a "well understood schema" should instantly bring a mind map of the schema to mind. Anything less should be considered a failure to understand the schema.
For example: If I say "non-breaking space" a mind map consisting of the shortcut, menus, and applications of this object should be described by the student. If I say "CTRL+SHIFT+SPACE" the same mind map should be described. Steve.
If you can carry on an intelligent conversation using pieces of paper slid under a door, does this imply that someone or something inside the room understands what you are saying?
The Chinese room thought experiment.
On SCHEMA ACTIVATION
Because texts are never completely explicit, the reader must rely on preexisting schemata to provide plausible interpretations. Yet, there is much evidence that good and poor readers do not always use schemata appropriately or are unaware of whether the information they are reading is consistent with their existing knowledge. Also, there is evidence that students who do not spontaneously use schemata as they read will engage them if given explicit instructions prior to reading (e.g., Bransford, 1979).
Prereading strategies have been developed to help students relate new information appearing in written discourse to their existing knowledge. The design of many of these preorganizers reflects Ausubel's (1959) definition of readiness and the purpose of their use is to create a mind set prior to reading. These preorganizers have included advance organizers (Ausubel, 1960), structured overviews or graphic organizers (Alvermann, 1981), previews (Graves, et al., 1983), concept maps (Novak & Gowin, 1984), and thematic organizers (Alvarez, 1980, 1983; Alvarez & Risko, 1989; Risko & Alvarez, 1986).
"without some general setting or label as we have repeatedly seen, no material can be assimilated or remembered" (Mayer, 2003, p. 76). (2) Schemas - WikEd
Teaching efficiency is teasing out the key ideas, making them so important as to hide all unimportant details (to be revealed later in the course) and by doing so making them memorable.
Intuition pumps are cunningly designed to focus the reader's attention on "the important" features, and to deflect the reader from bogging down in hard-to-follow details.
