Curiosity As a Personality Variable Influencing Learning In a Learner Controlled Lesson With and Without Advisement (original) (raw)

CURIOSITY AS AN INFLUENCING VARIABLE IN ACHIEVEMENT IN AN INTERACTIVE LEARNER CONTROL ENVIRONMENT

en.scientificcommons.org

This study investigated the effect of curiosity on learning art education facts and concepts by first-and second-graders in computerbased interactive learner control environments with and without advisement. High-curious subjects, who generally prefer a higher degree of unfamiliarity and uncertainty, were predicted to perform better in either learner control environment than low-curious children. All children regardless of curiosity level were expected to perform better in the advisement condition than in the no-advisement condition. As predicted, a significant difference in achievement scores favored the high-curious children in both conditions. Although there was no main treatment effect, exploratory analyses revealed an unpredicted significant interaction between grade level and treatment. First-graders performed significantly better with advisement than without advisement while second-graders performed better without. Examination of treatment usage data indicated that first-graders followed advisement more than did second-graders.

Effects of Variations in Learner Control on Children's Curiosity and Learning from Interactive Video

With the emergence of interactive learning technologies, there are many questions which must be addressed concerning young learners. Such sophisticated technology combined with thoughtful instructional design has the potential for both encouraging achievement and stimulating important scholarly attributes such as curiosity and other aspects of motivation. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of variations in learner control (also referred to as lesson control) on children's level of curiosity and learning from computer-based interactive video (CBIV). The lesson content was art education and contained both facts and concepts. It was presented as a videodisc visit to the Everson Museum in Syracuse, New York. A posttest only control group design was employed with 103 first and second grade subjects who were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions (designer control, learner control, or learner control with advisement) or a control group. The independent variable for this study was the degree of lesson control which the subjects had over the content. The dependent variables were the posttest scores in achievement and curiosity. Results indicated that children in the learner-control with advisement group scored significantly better in the achievement posttest than did the learner control subjects. They also tended to score higher on certain of the curiosity subscales. (7 tables, 32 references)

Stimulating curiosity to enhance learning

Curiosity is an aspect of intrinsic motivation that has great potential to enhance student learning. Theory and evidence describing curiosity are discussed, focusing on psychological and pedagogical literature relating to adult education. In particular, the concept of 'information gaps' as a source of academic curiosity is explored. In addition, the concept of curiosity in two disparate sample disciplines; second language learning and medical education are considered. The role of inquiry based learning approaches are also discussed as potential modes of stimulating student curiosity, as well as simple classroom techniques, which could be applied to almost any academic discipline and based on the theories should act to enhance student curiosity.

On educating, curiosity, and interest development

Current opinion in behavioral sciences, 2020

This review provides curiosity researchers and neuroscientists with information about the distinction as well as the relation between curiosity and interest, and their potential to benefit educational practice. Both are universal, and are associated with rewarding information search (that is, they do not require external rewards for their existence); however, they differ in their characteristics and in their impact on learning. Whereas the information seeking that characterizes curiosity may result in short-term and specific learning as the knowledge gap is closed, information search associated with interest serves to trigger new questions leading to an ongoing deepening and development of learners' knowledge and value. Suggestions are made about (a) how the coordination of research on curiosity and interest development could benefit educational practice, and (b) how neuroscientific research is uniquely positioned to distinguish between curiosity and interest.

Using Instructional Design Strategies To Foster Curiosity. ERIC Digest.

2003

Curiosity is a heightened state of interest resulting in exploration, and its importance in motivating scholarship cannot be ignored. It is also a critical component of creativity, and fostering curiosity and creativity in today's learners is a challenge faced by educators and instructional designers alike. Following a background on the definition of curiosity, this digest presents these instructional design strategies for fostering curiosity: (1) curiosity as a hook: use curiosity as a primary motivator at the beginning of a lesson by starting, for example, with a thought-provoking question or surprising statement; (2) conceptual conflict: introduce a conceptual conflict when possible and learners will feel compelled to explore the conflict until it is resolved; (3) an atmosphere for questions: create an atmosphere where students feel comfortable about raising questions and where they can test their own hypotheses through discussion and brainstorming; (4) time: allow adequate time for exploration of a topic; (5) choices: give students the opportunity for choosing topics within a subject area; (6) curiosity-arousing elements: introduce one or more of the following elements into a lesson to arouse curiosity:incongruity, contradictions, novelty, surprise, complexity, uncertainty; (7) the right amount of stimulation: be aware of the degree of stimulation that is being entered into the learning situation and remember, there are individual differences when it comes to curiosity; (8) exploration: encourage students to learn through active exploration; (9) rewards: allow the exploration and discovery to be its own reward; (10) modeling: model curiosity, ask questions, engage in specific exploration to resolve a question posed, and demonstrate enthusiasm. (Contains 14 references.)

Development and Testing of the Curiosity in Classrooms Framework and Coding Protocol

Frontiers in Psychology

Curiosity is widely acknowledged as a crucial aspect of children’s development and as an important part of the learning process, with prior research showing associations between curiosity and achievement. Despite this evidence, there is little research on the development of curiosity or on promoting curiosity in school settings, and measures of curiosity promotion in the classroom are absent from the published literature. This article introduces the Curiosity in Classrooms (CiC) Framework coding protocol, a tool for observing and coding instructional practices that support the promotion of curiosity. We describe the development of the framework and observation instrument and the results of a feasibility study using the protocol, which gives a descriptive overview of curiosity-promoting instruction in 35 elementary-level math lessons. Our discussion includes lessons learned from this work and suggestions for future research using the developed observation tool.