Curiosity is Our Super-Power!
Have you ever noticed that three and four-year-olds are exhaustingly curious? Have you experienced first hand the joy they get from exploration? Felt envious of their ability to devour information? Watched from the sidelines as they are out investigating the world in a relentless pursuit of knowledge? Watching them is like watching a light bulb turn on and off — it’s tiring. I have even read that young children ask an average of about 300 questions a day, and learned that this number suffers a dramatic decline when they hit age five. What happens at this stage of development to stifle their insatiable questioning?
You guessed it — they go to school.
And it is at our institutions of learning where the questions begin to stop.
These astute young learners begin to understand that the focus at school is on answers — and more importantly — right answers. Sadly they begin to think of questions as something they can no longer ask because the focus is on something quite different. It is on systematic compliance instead of relentless curiosity. And that is sad. This human super-power is nearly lost in these crucial years.
I wish all schools understood lessons in this video and put more value on the power of questions and curiosity.
Why are the kids so innately curious? It’s because curiosity is an active pursuit that they are naturally drawn toward. Curiosity drove great people like Galileo, Isaac Newton, Marie Curie, and Albert Einstein to ask important questions and solve global problems. Technology combined with curiosity can supercharge learning and transform many more young people into innovators and game-changers than ever before. Where will curiosity lead in the future? A cure for cancer? For AIDS? A solution to the climate crisis? Students and later adults who know how to ask just the right questions will be the ones who will find the answers we have all been waiting for.
Restoring Curiosity to Learning
Teachers are very familiar with the 4 C’s: critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and creativity, the building blocks for successful learning. Curiosity did not make the list. This is alarming, because curiosity might just be the crucial C that leads to lifelong success, and in this case, our readiness for such a dramatic shift in information.
Curiosity and the Individual
The lasting impacts of being curious are also important, and researchers are finding that curiosity might just play a role in our personal happiness and future success.
Recently on the podcast “Masters of Scale,” Eric Schmidt of Google fame said he believed the two most important traits in a job candidate were persistence and curiosity. Please take note: he did not say critical thinking, collaboration, communication or creativity. He said curiosity. He implies that curiosity is critical for boosting those other C’s. Without a foundation of curiosity, the other learning building blocks collapse.
In the article Curiosity: The Heart of Lifelong Learning, Marilyn Price-Mitchell Ph.D. observes, “Research suggests that intellectual curiosity has as big an effect on performance as hard work. When combined, curiosity and hard work account for success just as much as intelligence.”
Researchers are finding that when people are curious their brain is more active, more engaged, and processes information in a more concrete and permanent way. According to a research blog post The Power of Lifelong Curiosity, those people who are curious tend to be happier, more adaptive, and more confident. In the long run, they also accomplish more. Curiosity motivates learning because the curious person cares about seeking answers.
Curiosity must be the foundational component of learning
We have to ask ourselves some honest questions: Does my classroom foster curiosity? Do my students see a reward in asking questions? Or are they simply looking to meet my expectations for a grade? I’ll have lots more to say about this in future posts, but for now, take some time to reflect on your teaching practice and see if you might need to adjust it to encourage curiosity.
Here are three ways to begin:
Become the Curiosity Example:
- The best way to help people tap inner curiosity is to both model and value it. Administrators and teachers alike should model a curious mindset in staff PDs, meetings and classrooms. With adults, this starts by finding a way to take the sting out of feeling like a novice again. By the time people hit their 30’s they believe they are becoming experts at something, a satisfying feeling. Curiosity asks the questions of a novice instead of an expert, which can be really uncomfortable. So value and support the playful clumsiness that can come out of starting from fresh and asking new questions.
Teach Students How to Ask Questions, then Step Aside:
- My favorite way to do this is through the Question Formulation Technique from The Right Questions Institute. This technique helps students strengthen their questioning skills by taking them through six steps that allow them to foster their curiosity mindsets. I like to do this with teachers with the prompt Classrooms in 2030, and let them ask all kinds of questions about what this might look like. The questions they come up with foster creativity and I have to step aside and let the serendipitous learning begin.
Bring in Some Provocations:
- Allow students and teachers to tinker with ideas by setting up a unit or meeting with a provocation. In their book Inquiry Mindset, Trevor Mackenzie and Rebecca Bathurst-Hunt tell us that, “Provocations are prompts, artifacts, images or videos that spark wonders, curiosities, questions, and potential inquiries. Powerful discussions, engaging questions, and meaningful learning pathways are inevitably created when we begin learning with provocations” Start a unit with a provocation, or — better yet — find a way to start a PD session with one. Provocations fuel curiosity and spark learning opportunities.
In the next decade, we need learners who can ask the right questions, not just answer them. They must be prepared to successfully navigate the coming wave of information, better themselves, and better their world. We must restore curiosity to the fundamentals of learning, or face the consequences.
Holly Clark is the Co-Author of The Google Infused Classroom — Follow her on Twitter or Instagram