How do we ignite curiosity in our students about the academic content we are teaching? In 1994, a Carnegie Mellon behavioral economist named George Loewenstein published a paper espousing a theory of curiosity. According to Loewenstein, curiosity is when we feel a gap between what we know and what we want to know. This "knowledge gap" causes a pain like an itch. Like any other itch, we feel highly motivated to alleviate that pain - only in this case by filling the gap with knowledge.
If you've ever watched a good trailer and then waited in a long ticket line to be one of the viewers, then you've felt the itch. If you've ever bought a pack of basketball cards and hoped from one of the All-Star players, then you've experienced the itch. If you've ever flipped to multiple pages in a Choose-Your-Adventure book to see what kind of alternate ending you could get to, then you've had that itch.
Loewenstein claims creating that itch isn't as simple as asking questions. That is, curiosity first requires some background knowledge. For example, asking fifth graders how to take the derivative of a function wouldn't generate any interest; a normal person that age wouldn't enough prior knowledge to bridge the gap between what he/she knows and the concept that's being taught. The more we know, the more we will want to know. These days, I spend a good deal of time tracking the Republican Presidential nomination. Even though I know a lot about the candidates and their views, I continue tracking each debate because the frontrunner status continues to fluctuate between candidates and there is no clear winner. Think about your favorite websites, the ones you visit on a daily basis: do they expose you to new topics or deepen pre-existing knowledge pools?
In order to ignite curiosity, we need to first open a gap between our existing knowledge and a new, related area. The authors Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner are experts at this. For example, one of the questions on the Freakonomics book jacket is "Why do drug dealers still live with their moms?" This question first highlights what we already know (or at least suspect): that drug dealers are rich, violent and rebellious. Then, it opens a knowledge gap: namely, why would someone who is rich, violent and rebellious want to live with his mother? By inspiring our curiosity, this gap makes us want to read the book (which accounts for why over 4 million copies of it have been sold).
Here's how this Gap Theory of Curiosity might be applied to planning our lessons. To begin a lesson, we might first elicit an idea that our students already know, and then point out something related that they do not know. Take, for instance, the following examples:
5th Grade Physical Science
What the students already know: "Who likes to dive into water when swimming?"
What they don't know: "I do too, but I can also walk on water. Does anyone know how?"
9th Grade Physics:
What the students already know: "Who's noticed that tires look flatter when it's cold outside?"
What they don't know: "Why is that? Where does the air go?"
10th Grade Geometry:
What the students already know: "We know that a triangle is composed of three sides."
What they don't know: "Do any three sides make a valid triangle? Why or why not?"
10th Grade World History:
What the students already know: "As you know, the U.S. fought Hitler and Germany in World War II, and the war started in 1939 when Germany invaded Poland."
What they don't know: "Then why did it take the U.S. two more years to declare war on Germany?"
Onwards towards engaging our students,
William
http://www.lulu.com/alastingwill
I have been in the educational sector for over 7 years, both in the traditional public school system and the charter school world. The first few months of my teaching career were extremely difficult, as I had poor classroom management and my supervisor encouraged me to seek other career opportunities. Through trial and error, I discovered a classroom management system that resulted in great success; my students were able to make at least two grade levels of growth each year that I've taught them, and their test scores were on average four times as high as the district's test scores! Because of my success as a teacher, I was promoted to being the School Leader. This position has allowed me to coach and influence over 30 teachers towards successful outcomes. My school has been designated a Title 1 Academically Distinguished School, one of the highest honors that can be afforded a public charter school.