BE CURIOUS AS A CAT
AIREEN D. MALANG It is important for teachers to develop their students' learning and innovation skills. These skills are often referred to as "the 4 Cs" or Creativity, Critical thinking, Communication, and Collaboration. These capture the skills students should hone during their formal education to complement and drive knowledge acquisition and content mastery.
But apart from these so-called 4Cs, there is another C that is just as important for learning and innovation: curiosity.
Acquiring knowledge is more than asking questions and gathering information. By asking questions, students can identify gaps and think critically about what they are learning. They can get information from individuals and other sources of information, think creatively and divergently, and work constructively with others.
Indeed, fostering student curiosity has an impact on student engagement, interest, and can assist students in driving their learning. According to studies by neuroscientists from the University of California at Davis, high curiosity may improve individual's memory for information they acquire, and they suggest "stimulating curiosity ahead of knowledge acquisition could enhance learning success."
While student curiosity is so beneficial to learning, it has somehow been overlooked in the classroom. This is because teachers juggle between curricula and standards while attempting to address the individual needs of their students. To implement a curiosity-infused learning environment, deliberately teach students how to formulate questions with simple strategies that support the work educators are already doing.
Asking and using their own questions can have a significant positive impact on students' curiosity, according to another study by Boston University. According to the research, students' questions engage them in their own learning, can be useful for addressing teaching and learning objectives, and help students develop a skill that lends itself to innovation and original thinking.
--oOo-The author is a Teacher III at Concepcion Elementary School, Bacolor North District, Pampanga