Supporting curiosity in schools and classrooms

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Curiosity is associated with increased learning, and developing curious individuals is an educational goal in its own right. This review uses Bioecological Systems Theory to examine how students’ curiosity can be supported in educational contexts. Understanding the nature of curiosity as a biopsychosocial characteristic that can change over time and its relation to other characteristics such as knowledge and epistemic beliefs provides insight into why some students may be more curious than others, or more curious in certain subject areas than others. Scaffolding uncertainty and other practices that instigate curiosity are an important means of increasing curiosity for learning. Overall, the development of students’ curiosity should account for the complex, nested structure of learning environments, including the culture of high-stakes testing.

Section snippets

Bioecological systems theory as a framework for understanding how to support curiosity

Bioecological systems theory, pioneered by Urie Bronfenbrenner, characterizes development as an interaction between the individual and their environment over time [17]. The environment includes everything from one-on-one interactions to classroom dynamics to school culture and educational policies, and is characterized as a nested system ranging from micro-levels to macro-levels (see Figure 1) [14,15]. The micro level consists of the people (e.g. parents, teachers), objects (e.g. toys, books,

Defining curiosity within bioecological systems theory

Curiosity involves both transient and enduring forms [5,11]. State curiosity — the momentary desire to resolve a knowledge gap — is a transient form of curiosity often associated with features of contexts, such as novelty and complexity [18]. Within bioecological systems theory, state curiosity occurs at the intersection of the individual and the context. Not all individuals experience contexts in the same way [19,20]. For example, what is novel for one student will be routine for another. The

Understanding biopsychosocial factors related to curiosity

Biopsychosocial factors are enduring, yet modifiable factors, such as traits, dispositions, and abilities. Two biopsychosocial factors that have emerged as important for developing curiosity are knowledge and epistemic beliefs. Because curiosity, at its heart, involves a discrepancy between what someone knows and what they want to know [25,26], understanding the relation between curiosity and knowledge (including beliefs about knowledge) is of central importance when considering why curiosity

Proximal processes that promote curiosity

Proximal processes are the first-hand interactions between individuals and their immediate surroundings, and they are ‘the mechanisms that produce development’ [17]. Bronfenbrenner notes that for proximal processes to be effective in promoting development, they must occur with regularity over time [17]. The momentary experience of curiosity (i.e. state curiosity) is usually short in duration and is triggered by external stimuli or internal dissonance [2••,18,22,25]. To develop more enduring

Characterizing nested environmental systems that nurture curiosity

Perhaps the best-known aspect of bioecological systems theory is the visual depiction of an individual’s environment as a series of concentric circles with the individual at the center (see Figure 1). The microsystem, or aspects of the immediate environment such as individuals with whom one interacts directly (e.g. parents, peers, teachers) and environmental resources (e.g. books, computers, classroom activities), is nearest to the individual and therefore directly involved in the proximal

Conclusion

The current review summarizes evidence that curiosity is malleable and can be supported by considering individuals’ biopsychosocial factors, first-hand interactions, and educational contexts. Together, the findings from this review suggest that educators, researchers, and policy-makers can support curiosity by: recognizing curiosity as a modifiable characteristic; targeting ideas for which students have moderate knowledge; supporting epistemic beliefs associated with increased curiosity;

Conflict of interest statement

Nothing declared.

References and recommended reading

Papers of particular interest, published within the period of review, have been highlighted as:

  • •• of outstanding interest

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