We are just about to begin a unit on building critical curiosity in class. My students always take the Effective Lifelong Learning Inventory (ELLI) which measures 7 dimensions of lifelong learning. Each semester, critical curiosity is always one of the lowest scores across the board, and students also write in their reflections, that learning is difficult in subjects about which they have little or no interest. So imagine how hard it is to convince them of the value of the general education curriculum.
One of my instructional goals is to give them strategies and approaches to help them generate more interest for themselves… not waiting for the instructor to make a subject interesting. These are some of the strategies I teach them:
- making easy educational games
- what/why questions
- Socratic questions
- fortune teller questions
Questions are clearly at the heart of the matter – but how to get students to ask good, meaningful, important, and authentic questions – that generate understanding and interest? I’ve been exploring the topic more deeply through a series of books that are useful!
- A More Beautiful Question; Berger (2014) Bloomsbury Press – Explores the power of inquiry, the reasons why we’ve stopped being able to ask good questions, and gives practical suggestions on the “Why, What if, and How” of asking good questions
- Make Just One Change; Rothstein & Santana (2011) Harvard Education Press – Gives a great process for teaching students how to ask better questions. Teacher gives prompt, students brainstorm as many questions about the original question as possible – They then explore those questions as open/closed – they prioritize questions, and build a plan for action.. I clearly want to do more reading in this area!
- Making Thinking Visible; Ritchart, Church, & Morrison (2011) Jossey-Bass – This comes from work in Harvard’s Project Zero – many practical ways to build common language and routines (approaches) to learning that get students to think metacognitively and get what’s rolling around in their heads outside and onto paper in meaningful and useful ways.
Stay tuned…
