Capturing, Sustaining, and
Transferring Curiosity
Deb Rosenfeld
Education Development Center
Goals
• To understand what makes students curious
• To understand how curiosity drives learning and
understanding
– Student learning requires both cognitive and
emotional-motivational engagement
– Curiosity is an emotional-motivational engagement
that can enhance cognitive engagement
• To understand how to ignite and sustain
curiosity
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Agenda
1. What is curiosity?
2.
Curiosity as a self-scaffold: Connection
between curiosity and student achievement
•
Curiosity in the context of development
3.
How is curiosity captured?
4.
Curiosity-based instruction
5.
Stump the presenter
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What is Curiosity?
Curiosity is the “desire to know, to see, or to
experience” leading to “exploratory behavior
directed towards the acquisition of new
information.”
(Litman)
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What is Scaffolding?
Scaffolding is the support offered by
the joint participation of a more expert
person and a student in a task that has a
level of complexity just beyond the
level that the student could perform
independently.
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What is Self-Scaffolding?
A scaffold builds on students’ prior
knowledge with the goal of later
independent performance of the task.
When the support that a scaffold
provides is given by the student
herself, the support is called a selfscaffold.
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Curiosity as a Self-Scaffold
Curiosity allows students to maintain
their cognitive effort by providing the
motivation for knowing and
understanding the material being
learned. In this way, curiosity acts as a
self-scaffold in the learning process.
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Curiosity in the Context of
Development
• Piaget: Learning is the result of active construction
through assimilation and accommodation
– Curiosity triggered when new info doesn’t easily fit with
existing ideas and concepts, and motivates resolving this
dissonance
• Fischer: Importance of context (cognitive, emotional,
and motivational support) in constructive process
– Learning is the result of frequent opportunities to perform at
an optimal level (requiring support structures) until it
becomes part of one’s functional repertoire
– Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development
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Inducing Curiosity
• Lack of desired information (uncertainty)
• Conceptual conflict, incongruity, surprise
• Meaningful situation (utility to students)
All of these make the individual feel compelled to
explore and acquire knowledge to resolve the
problem.
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Current Elementary Math
Curricula
• Some fail to induce curiosity because any
conceptual conflict or surprise is solved
for students, not by students.
• Engaging stories are often tangentially
related to content, making transfer of
curiosity unlikely.
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Curiosity-Based Instruction
• Entry points using stories and puzzles
involving numbers, words, and pictures
• Problem left unresolved
• Students predict solution
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An Example:
Introducing the Kindertectives
Jane, Arjun, and Monica present a mystery
and then ask for students’ help in solving
it.
The confusion and interest that the
Kindertectives demonstrate acknowledges
students’ feelings around learning math,
promoting intrinsic motivation.
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Portion of Entry Point to
Chapter 1
At Jane’s house, her parents were talking about her bedtime.
So that Jane wouldn’t know the options and beg for the
latest bedtime, they talked in a code.
“What do you think about drawing an S and closing the gate,
then around a tree and around a tree, and a ball?” asked
Jane’s dad.
Do you know when Jane’s bedtime was? We need your help
to figure this out!
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Think Math!
More examples of Curiosity-Based Instruction
•
•
•
•
•
•
Entry Points
Few instructions (puzzle-like)
Other Number Puzzles
Number “Tricks”
Headline Stories
Explore Pages
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Grade 3
Entry Point:
Student Letter
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Grade 4
Entry Point:
Student Letter
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Kindergarten Few Instructions
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Grade 1:
Few
Instructions
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Grade 5
Number Puzzle
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Grade 5
Number Puzzle
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Grade 4
Number ‘Trick’
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Grade 4
Number ‘Trick’
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Grade 5
Number
‘Trick’
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Headline Stories: An Example
Jane bought a birthday card. She gave the
cashier $1 and received 3 coins as change.
•
•
•
•
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What can you say?
What questions can you ask?
What do you want to figure out?
What can you predict?
What else do you need to know?
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Features of Headline Stories
• Puzzling
• Doesn’t ask a particular question
• Allows finding math in everyday
situations
• Open-ended so there are multiple
approaches and solutions
• Leads to further questions
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Grade 4
Explore Page
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Educational Implications
“Before anything else, a teacher’s first job is to pique
curiosity.” (O’Malley, 1998, p. 16)
Engagement is necessary for learning, and curiosity is an
important means of engaging students in learning.
Teachers should not do all of the explaining, but instead
should present examples, counter-examples, and
conceptual conflicts for students to explore and explain.
(Carey)
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Stump the Presenter
•
•
•
•
•
Questions?
Comments?
Concerns?
Money back requests?
Money giving requests?
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Thank You!
Please contact me with questions, concerns, ideas, or
just to discuss this topic further!
[email protected]
Education Development Center
Division of Mathematics, Learning, and Teaching
55 Chapel Street
Newton, MA 02458
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References
Arnone, M. (2003). Using instructional design strategies to foster curiosity. In ERIC Digest. Syracuse, New York: ERIC Clearinghouse
on Information and Technology.
Blair, C. (2002). School readiness: Integrating cognition and emotion in a neurobiological conceptualization of children’s functioning at
school entry. American Psychologist, 57(2), 111-127.
Carey, S. (2000). Science education as conceptual change. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 21(1), 13-19.
Deci, E., Vallerand, R., Pelletier, L., & Ryan, R. (1991). Motivation and education: The self-determination perspective. Educational
Psychologist, 26(3/4), 325-346.
Fischer, K. & Bidell, T. (2005). Dynamic development of action, thought, and emotion. In R.M. Learner (Ed.), Theoretical models of
human development (6th ed., Vol. 1). New York: Wiley. Pp. 1-62.
Fischer, K., Social Foundations of Learning and Development. [Lecture to HT-100: Cognitive Development, Education, and the Brain at
the Harvard Graduate School of Education]. Retrieved November 14, 2005, from http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?course=gseht100.
Fischer, K., Collaborative Construction of Skills, Self, and Relationships. [Lecture to HT-100: Cognitive Development, Education, and
the Brain at the Harvard Graduate School of Education]. Retrieved October 17, 2005, from
http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?course=gse-ht100.
Fischer, K., Yan, Z., & Stewart, J. (2002) Adult cognitive development: Dynamics in the developmental web. In J. Valsiner & K.
Connolly (Eds.), Handbook of developmental psychology (pp. 491-516). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Gardner, H. (1999). The disciplined mind. Middlesex, England: Penguin Books.
Litman, J. (2005). Curiosity and the pleasures of learning: Wanting and liking new information. Cognition and Emotion, 19(6), 793-814.
Loewenstein, G. (2004). The psychology of curiosity: A review and reinterpretation. Psychological Bulletin, 116(1), pp. 75-98.
O’Malley, W. (1998). Curiosity. America, 179(9), pp. 14-18.
Siegler, R. (2003). Implications of cognitive science research for mathematics education. In Kilpatrick, J., Martin, W.B., & Schifter,
D.E. (Eds.), A research companion to principles and standards for school mathematics (pp. 219-233). Reston, VA: National
Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
Spitzer, M. (1999). The Mind within the Net: Models of learning, thinking, and acting. Cambridge: MIT Press.
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