Question posed: Is curiosity a didactical tool?

How
can we use it in order to foster learning?
This research emerges after watching the Mitras experiment video during
the 31th of March seminar, in which some kids learn how to use a computer
without any kind of external help. This makes me reflect about the curiosity
as a didactical tool and how can I, as a future teacher, take some advantage
of it in my classrooms.

The first step is researching about if any expert talks about the topic.
Ramsey Musallam, in his speech in TED talks (2013) - Three rules to spark
learning - talks about curiosity as a booster of learning. He explains how
he manages to make their students be curious for learning. What is more,
he talks about how teachers must act regarding curiosity:

If educators leave the role of diffusers of content and adopt a new

paradigm as growers of curiosity and research, can we give a little
more sense to the school day and we might awake the imagination.

This is the first educator that talks about curiosity as a didactical tool in this
essay. There is also an study from University of California, directed by
Matthias Gruber, which researched about curiosity as an educational
resource in classrooms and extracted the following outcomes:

Firstly, when people had a lot of curiosity for knowing the answer to some
question, they acquire better the information than in other cases. According
to Gruber, Curiosity can put the brain in a state that allows you to learn
and retain any type of information, such as a whirlpool that sucks what do
you want to learn, and also all that is around.

Secondly, the researchers discovered that when curiosity is stimulated,

there is a higher activity in brains internal circuit related with the outcome:
We have demonstrated that intrinsic motivation involves the same brain
sectors that are strongly linked with the extrinsic motivation.
Finally, the team discovered that when curiosity motivates learning, there
was a higher activity in the hippocampus, a region of the brain that is
important for new memories formation as well as an increasement of the
interactions between the hippocampus and the rewarding circuit.

All of these result have been focused on scientific reasonings, but they
actually place curiosity in the axis of the proper education. Once we all
agree on this affirmation, it is time to establish some relation with our
classroom contents. Is curiosity included in any research approach? We are
going to take into account the metaphor used in class to define the
interpretative research approach:

An interpretivist sea person enters into the water, establishes

rapport with the fish, and swims with them, striving to understand
their experience of being in the water. In addition we also have that:
He/she questions her methods of interacting with the fish, remains
doubtful about his/her ability to fully commune with them and reflects
on his/her own experience of being fish-like in the water.

This make me think about the linkers between this approach and curiosity.
Personally, I believe that when curiosity motivates your learning process
need to get involved and integrated with your context. I think that
establishing relations with the contexts, strictly demands for curiosity.

Understanding this relationship among these two educational elements

could be very helpful for us as future teachers since it will allow us to take
into account the curiosity when designing a didactical sequence within the
interpretative approach, for instance. Moreover, I also think that if we want
to attend all the children needs, curiosity must be also took into account
for bringing them the better learning experiences as possible.
During this research, I was wondering if curiosity is a quality that decreases
as long as we grow up. Observing some little kids in the park or even in the
classrooms, you could realize that they are constantly researching and
asking for things. This is fostered by their intrinsic motivation for knowing
more about something. Then, you can also observe how usually their
parents make them remain quiet or in silence because the fact of asking a
lot of things constantly is not considered polite. But this is a great example
to know and to identify the differences between generations and ages or
degrees of maturity. While the kid is looking for new things, the father or
mother does not feel the necessity to do it. Why? The Portuguese writer
Saramargo said: The old age appears when curiosity is lost. Are there any
reason that sustains this assumption? According to an article published in
Lamenteesmaravillosa.com (2015), there is a theory called The Reversed
U, that states that we are more curious in those moment that we know a
few about something - the beginning of the path - and we want to know
everything about this topic - the end of the path.
Taking into account this theory and all the statements and assumptions
commented before, another question have to be posed, in order to do this
research meaningful for me and for all these students that want to become
teachers in a future: How curiosity can be promoted? Which strategies or
methodologies are the most effective?

According to Juvitza Panez Salazar, Assessment and Language problems

treatment specialist, the measures that must be taken so as to promote
the curiosity in classrooms are:

- Changing the routine: even though habits are helpful for them, it
would be also interesting and enriching for them to introduce
something new or unexpected.

- Organize surprise activities: organizing an activity and not telling

them anything about it until the beginning of that activity.

- Be open to their questions: To let them the opportunity to ask and

not be afraid of giving them the answers. She recommends to let the
topic open so as to increase the motivation towards more answers.

- Develop the imagination: Do it through tales, songs, games, graphic

and hands-on activities, etcetera. For instance letting them to
interpret the characters and belief their history and adding also
surprise elements to do it more unexpected and enriching for them.

- Experimentation: These must be easy to do, and they have to be

based on the closest students context. Dialogue during the
experiment is vital for a good outcome.

Finally, I would highlight the usefulness of this research as a tool for my

future professional job. It has been very enriching learning about this
important topic that was totally unknown for me before. I am really sure I
would take into account curiosity in my future plannings so as to improve
my students learning experiences.