K-12 educators generally value students’ curiosity at every age and grade level, so it may seem surprising that curiosity has been widely overlooked as a learning outcome. However, we can always make a concerted effort to focus on what we believe is important to students and essential for being a healthy young person growing into adulthood. It starts with making sure we agree on the outcomes we want.
Because state standards haven’t defined outcomes explicitly related to curiosity, it’s incumbent on us to create tools, like the rubrics I shared in my previous blog, to align on what curiosity looks like so that we can begin to observe and develop it in students. These rubrics are helpful for student self-assessment and surfacing what challenges we should expect as we work to nurture curiosity more intentionally. This post will focus on three inherent challenges to cultivating curiosity.
Challenge #1: Interest
Interest is the first challenge. As is likely obvious to all educators, curiosity is highly dependent on context. It’s rare to find students who are genuinely curious about everything. Some students are fascinated by art, others are inspired by math and eager to uncover its secrets and logical intricacies. And, many students aren’t. That’s why we can’t hold students to a standard of intrinsic curiosity in every context.
Expert |
Proficient |
Developing |
Novice |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Interest |
I’m always excited to listen, learn, and engage regardless of the topic. I’m genuinely curious about most things. |
Though I'm more enthusiastic about learning in areas that interest me, I can work to listen, learn, engage, and ask questions about any subject in school. |
It's difficult for me to engage and ask questions if I don't care about the topic. My body language often reveals my engagement. |
If I don't like what I'm learning or don't care about it, I usually don't engage and don't appear interested in the conversation. |
Instead, we aim for Proficiency as described in the Interest rubric. We want each student to be a curious learner and thinker in different contexts, even if it’s for a topic that’s not a current or lifelong passion. Indeed, many adults find their careers by showing a small amount of initial curiosity in an area with a willingness to try something new. Curiosity can be the first domino that sets off a chain reaction for a learner to find their motivation and goals. However, the opposite can also be true—I was considering becoming an optometrist because I’m fascinated by how vision and eyes work. But when I took a human anatomy class and we dissected eyeballs, I quickly realized that a career in medicine wasn’t for me. I’m still fascinated by light and vision, but we don’t need to make a career out of everything that piques our curiosity.
Challenge #2: Deprivation Curiosity
The second challenge to nurturing curiosity is far less known and has only recently surfaced through research: curiosity has a dark side. As you’ve been reading and thinking about curiosity, you’ve likely had in mind what researchers consider healthy curiosity, which is called Interest Curiosity. The driving force behind Interest Curiosity is knowledge rooted in intellectual humility. We have to admit to ourselves what we don’t know before we can seek deeper knowledge. People with Interest Curiosity approach learning with the joy of exploration, much like infants and toddlers. And students whose curiosity is motivated in this way are skilled at distinguishing between real and made-up concepts.
The dark side of curiosity is called Deprivation Curiosity, and the primary motivating factor is to reduce uncertainty. People exhibiting Deprivation Curiosity have an indiscriminate openness to information. Though they are inquisitive, they lack discernment, which makes them susceptible to disinformation. The Skepticism Rubric I developed over fifteen years ago is relevant to these new findings because discernment and critical thinking are essential to being a curious learner.
Expert |
Proficient |
Developing |
Novice |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Skepticism |
When presented with information, problems, or questions, I question the underlying assumptions and perspective of the presenter to find deeper meaning.
|
When I am presented with a problem or new information, I ask questions to determine its meaning and begin reasoning to assess validity and credibility. |
I often trust what I hear or read, but if something sounds really weird, I ask questions to learn more. |
I immediately accept what is presented. I want an easy answer or method, so I can mindlessly use it forever. |
If something “sounds really weird” to a student with Deprivation Curiosity, they typically will not seek out reliable and vetted sources of information to determine if what they’ve heard is true. They’ll often even ignore reliable information entirely because they’ve decided they’re already certain of what they know. And any new, contradictory information will create the uncertainty they’re trying to avoid.
Deprivation Curiosity has been exploited in recent years through social media campaigns that have intentionally spread disinformation and misinformation. Now that deepfakes and AI-generated text, pictures, and videos have come into existence, we have a far more dangerous reality we need to help all students navigate, especially those with Deprivation Curiosity.
Challenge #3: Fixed Mindset
A third challenge to cultivating students’ curiosity is connected to a students’ mindset about their capabilities and persistence. It’s one thing to see an unexpected phenomenon, such as a magnifying glass starting a fire, and wonder how it works. It’s another thing entirely to devote time to figuring out how it works and persisting when learning is difficult. Much has been written and said over the past decade about the differences between a growth mindset and a fixed mindset, and I won’t spend time here sharing it. Instead, it’s best to simply describe the mindset behaviors we’re looking for as they relate to curiosity.
Expert |
Proficient |
Developing |
Novice |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Mindset
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I’m always excited to listen, learn, and engage regardless of the topic. I’m genuinely curious about most things.
|
Though I’m more enthusiastic about learning in areas that interest me, I can work to listen, learn, engage, and ask questions about any subject in school.
|
It's difficult for me to engage and ask questions if I don’t care about the topic. My body language often reveals my engagement.
|
If I don’t like what I’m learning or don’t care about it, I usually don’t engage and don’t appear interested in the conversation.
|
Students with a fixed mindset often avoid challenges and new experiences because they fear that failure will reflect poorly on their abilities, and they don’t believe their abilities can improve. This mindset can prevent students from expressing and pursuing their curiosity. By sharing this rubric with them, we can have a different conversation about how they can learn and grow as a curious learner who exhibits persistence and isn’t worried about making mistakes in the process.
Educators, parents, and students can work together to overcome the curiosity challenges described in this blog.
Interest
By understanding that students may not be interested equally in all subjects, and inspiring them to listen, learn, engage, and ask questions about any subject, we empower them to explore new things without penalizing them for expressing a deeper interest in specific areas.
Deprivation Curiosity
Embolden students to poke holes, ask questions, and dig deeper into areas. By allowing students with Deprivation Curiosity to push back and express skepticism, they will better understand concepts and grow into responsible, reflective consumers of media.
Fixed Mindset
Motivate students to adopt a growth mindset by praising their effort, resilience, and strategies over innate abilities, emphasizing that challenges and failures are opportunities for learning and growth.
I encourage you to download the curiosity rubric here. You can share this resource with your team to help foster curiosity, measure curiosity, and inform ways in which stakeholders at every level can address curiosity challenges.
Stay tuned for more on how to take these rubrics and use them as blueprints for assessments so that we can accurately capture and report on students’ curiosity. Following the “backwards design” approach, I’ll then provide strategies for cultivating curiosity in our classrooms with practical lesson designs.
