Curiosity is frequently the engine that drives learning and achievement. If a student is curious she will be a better student.
Yet curiosity is not something that can be taught. It’s not something that can be demanded on the syllabus. It can’t be easily tested. But it is a spark that can be lit. It is something that can be nurtured. Yet assuming, for the moment, that curiosity has not been well developed in students during high school, how can a college professor ignite that spark in college?
How indeed?
Each student must be motivated to see that the course subject and material represents a gap in his knowledge that needs to be filled. Psychologist George Loewenstein, in a 1994 article, talks about curiosity as not only a mental state, but also as an emotion, “a powerful feeling that impels us forward until we find the information that will fill in the gap in our knowledge.” Teaching, even in higher education, is a creative activity. It’s dealing with a student’s emotions so that a desire to learn becomes a mutual goal of both teacher and student.
Curiosity is that self-motivated desire that impels a student to search on their own for desired information, not because they have to, and not only because they want to, but because they feel like they need to know that information to become educated and informed.
In a course, talk about curiosity early on. Often a student simply looks at curiosity as a platitude thrown out as part of the academic jargon. Be motivated. Pay attention. Turn things in on time. Don’t plagiarize. Be curious. Blah, blah, blah.
So discuss curiosity…as an emotion, as a goal, as a flame that needs to be kindled and nourished. Give examples. Ask for examples. Examine it all for more than a few minutes.
Curiosity also can be nurtured by asking questions. Interesting questions. Fascinating questions. Questions posed by the professor that are so good that they lead to other questions. Point out that expert learners keep searching until they find answers to the cascading series of questions that emanates from something they want to become knowledgeable about. You want to pose questions to students that will lead them to additional questions of their own that will increase their desire to accumulate knowledge and information about a subject. Again, tell them that.
Curiosity can also be modeled and, in a sense, needs to be modeled if the professor is to be seen as the leader of a group of mutual learners. As the prof, point out how you became fascinated with the course subject, how you went about becoming curious, the initial questions you asked, and the complex questions and answers you developed in order to accumulate the knowledge necessary to teach the course.
In Lewis Carroll’s, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is the following: “Curiouser and curiouser!” cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English).”
Alice is talking about curiosity as a sense of wonder. She knows not where she is. She does not know the people and things she encounters. But she is in awe. She wants to learn more. She enjoys the sense of adventure involved in her journey.
And any professor wants those same things for his/her students. But they will not get there on their own. The “curiouser and curiouser” has to be explained, nurtured, nourished and modeled.
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