Education through various simulations and in simulator training of procedural knowledge, means that educators may facilitate instruction in environments that can contain both beginners and experts. To conceptualize the potential need of differentiation of learners, an analytic approach is used based on phenomenological thinking (skill-model) and different views upon learning itself. The research problematizes whether a novice and an expert can benefit from different approaches to learning processes in a simulation environment using maritime education as a case. Central to the analysis are the understanding of what knowledge is, and the how´s and why´s of such views. The role of the simulator instructor will be understood and discussed in the light the skill model, and through arguments from different forms of knowledge. Finally, we will suggest that a simulator instructors acts, can be understood by their intention, or their un-intent. Through the learner’s level of expertise, teaching experiences in simulators can benefit from not only an emphasis on procedural knowledge, but also on situations and dilemmas with no clear right or wrong answers, forcing the learners to choose among skills through deliberative action. In such cases, the teachers action is non-action, they do not act intentionally – they are performing exstruction.

Keywords: Skill model, simulator training, educator, maritime.