Making the Shift Toward Teaching With Curiosity

Making the Shift Toward Teaching With Curiosity

Curiosity is identified, in a growing number of studies, as the key to success in the obvious domains of learning, problem solving and innovation, but also high business performance, leadership, happiness and positive social behaviour. Companies such as Google and Pixar seek out curiosity in their employees as well as dedicate resources to its cultivation. As teachers, we celebrate the curiosity in students who drive their own learning and eagerly seek out an opposing point of view, but equally mourn its recognisable loss with age. How do we protect and grow this treasure in our classrooms, making students aware of its value?

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As a curious teacher myself, I am continuously looking for ways to successfully teach future skills to students. Skills, such as curiosity, that will sufficiently equip them to be problem solvers and innovators in our rapidly changing world, are vital. My research and experience thus far, has confirmed two essential elements. The first is to explicitly teach the particular skill. The second is to create vast and varied opportunities for its growth.

My absolute favourite opportunity to teach curiosity is at the beginning of an unplanned unit. Our teaching team have meet and tease out a transdisciplinary theme from the PYP programme. Rather than planning a series of prescribed lessons on narrowed content such as ‘saving the dolphins,’ we pour our creative energy into designing provocations that offer diversity in subject and content. Education consultant, Kath Murdoch, talks about provocations evoking wonderment and leading to a state of imbalance where people are driven to find out more in order to understand a complete picture. I relate this to an opportunity for ‘just in time learning’ where, during provocations, teachers can identify what students are curious about and use it to leverage learning.

Imagine a room full of things for students to tinker, photos to understand, scenarios in which to role play, virtual worlds to explore, challenges to attempt, puzzles to solve, games to play: A myriad of engaging provocations to hook students into the learning. But, before the students embark on possible chaos, let them be clear on the purpose and intention of their interactions. “Today we are learning to be curious. Why do you think it is important to be curious? What do you think curious people do?” Together you will find success criteria that suits your unique class. Just like any success criteria, let it be what you model, reinforce, give feedback on and set expectations for during the lessons and what you evaluate together at the end.

When students begin meeting the success criteria for being curious during provocations, teachers light up with ideas, realisations, inspiration, an understanding of what their students need and are interested in knowing. A teacher’s role during this time, aside from the explicit teaching, is to ensure student curiosity is

captured and used to design their next steps in learning. During provocations, I observe and record questions, impressions, opinions, vocabulary, stories, explanations, areas of interest, predictions, actions, reactions, myths, misunderstandings and experiences that students are verbalising or showing. Without fail, I am constantly surprised at how clearly my students have just shaped what they are ready to learn and indicated engaging, relevant contexts in which to learn it. Teachers can use their student’s specific curiosities to develop big and small questions for further exploration, linking the importance of them being curious to understanding their world.

I challenge you, as I have challenged many of my converted colleagues:

• Do not fill your holiday with planning lessons but rather provocations that will elicit curiosity.

• Make the explicit intention of your provocation time to build curiosity.

• Use the curiosity to leverage learning.

I have many more tips and tools to weave into growing curiosity in your classroom that I am ready to reveal when your curiosity grows further. Share your stories of success, confusion, hilarious student dialogue, challenges and questions which come from your own experiences in this challenge and we will no doubt discover more together.

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Zaana Cooper


Zaana Cooper
Zaana Cooper is a creative educator of students and teachers. She is committed to designing educational opportunities that develop successful communicators, problem solvers and innovators for our future world. Working in a self- designed makerspace environment, she models an integrated and inquiry learning approach which incorporates design thinking, technologies and learning by doing.
You can contact her by email:
zaanajones@gmail.com