Curiosity: A Strategy for Motivating Students in the Classroom

Students are exposed to a lot of new information in school. This makes it essential for a teacher use a variety of strategies for motivating students in the classroom.

One tool that we can use is curiosity. This approach is something that is often taken for granted and we often hear: “Oh, kids are curious by nature and they like to ask questions.”

True….but are they also building deep questioning skills? Are they only curious about events that are obviously puzzling, such as volcanoes? Could they be curious about things they are not curious about yet?

For example, if the goal in English Language Arts was,
“(Students) Understand that within any group there are many different points of views depending on the particular interests and values of the individual, and recognize those differences in perspective in texts and presentations.”

We could carry this out in simple and focused activities, as well as organized debates in the classroom. Students can also be involved in a learning activity where the objective is to detect two opposite opinions in a televised debate, etc. This will help them understand the mechanisms of different points of view, but it might not necessarily make them grow in their own thinking process.

To help students build sustained intellectual curiosity, these activities could be carried out in a year-long manner, bringing students to actually seek the opinions of others, to seek the echo from people who have different ideas than they have and to read literature that could bring a new perspective in the way they look at the world around them.
These approaches lead students to deeper questioning and sustainable curiosity. Rather than a curiosity that is simply triggered by an event, it becomes a way of responding to new subjects, situations and people.

Such sustained curiosity motivates students to not only learn in the classroom, but also pursue their learning outside.

Taken from the course, Integrating Standards in Teaching, at Professional Learning Board

What are the other ways that you use to motivate students in the classroom?