I really enjoyed this article; I thought is posed a view of looking at what children in a different way. In particular, I really like this statement, "The key is curiosity, and it is curiosity, not answers, that we model... When we are curious about a child's words and our responses to those words, the child feels respected."
I think that modeling curiosity is one of the most difficult things to do in a classroom. At least, thats what I have seen in high school classrooms. High school kids have been trained by there peers that it is not "ok" to be curious in science. Its uncool. I believe that younger elementary and pre-school kids have completely uninhibited curiosity. They have natural curoisity that needs no inspiring; that is where the teacher needs to become masterful in directing the students' energies and curiosity. That can be a handful, in and of itself!
During my student teaching, I had one class that was so curious about everything, that they asked so many questions that it was difficult to get my lessons done. They asked the most wonderful questions! However, I did find it difficult to relax and listen to what they were asking at first. I was so stressed out about covering the curriculum, that I often asked the kids to hold their questions until after class (where the student never asked the question) or I half -heartedly listened while I quietly panicked that I was not covering the curriculum. (FYI: This is why general science or physical science classes are HORRIBLE! You can not cover an entire unit on earth history in 4 weeks. Just to let you know. Oh, and the kids learn nothing. I have heard this straight from many students! And that's my soap box for the day...)I slowly started to realize that little by little my students were becoming disengaged with the material and stopped asking questions. I was so bummed! I loved the fact that they asked questions, even though it stressed me out.
Thats when I started to learn how to balance curiosity and the curriculum and the importance of listening. I started truly listening to my students and you could see their confidence and interest grow exponentially. My curriculum got covered and my students were engaged in the material.
So here's my dilemma...when students are not naturally engaged and curious, how do you get them to be curious? Especially at the high school level when curiosity is bad? I am certainly not afraid of revealing my inner dork in front of my kids (oh yeah, I am THAT science teacher that tells the bad science jokes) and I had foolishly hoped that that would be enough to get my kids curious. Maybe this is where I can apply the 5E learning model and better inquiry activities and get my kids thinking and working hands on, not just re-affirming principles they already saw in the book. How indeed does one get their students curious?
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I was actually just talking to a teacher today in my internship about this. He teaches an online creativity class for masters students and also works in enrichment for fifth through eighth graders. He said his goal in teaching is to create hunger in kids. He does not feel like the expert on everything. He even said that would be a 19th century style of teacher. As a teacher we cannot know everything, but if we can light a fire within our students and make them love our subject, then all the better. It is ok to say I don't know as long as our students come out of it wanting to know more.
I completely agree with your statement about creating balance between curiosity and curriculum. I had such a hard time dealing with this issue with my senior class. In order to relate the material to their life I used to take clips from shows like House , ER and implement them into my teaching. Students were really curious about the medical tests and abnormal disease uncovered on the shows. I would try to have some what structure classroom discussion but some time it tended to be most of the classroom. I learned to show the clips at the end of the class and usually have something different on Friday the last period of the day.
I too want to find that balance. I feel that you need to show yourself as teacher being curious as well in order to get that vibe going with your students. I think a great way to get them engaged in finding out their interests and tying that into what your doing in science. You need to make it important to them otherwise they are just going to disengage.
you pose a really good question! Curiosity is such an important trait of a learner, in general, for any subject area. I think that doing what you said, modeling your own curiosity, will help kids get interested in science. If they see how passionate you are, then it may encourage them to be passionate and curious also. I think the engage and explore phases of the learning cycle can be helpful too. Students may be encountering new phenomena or ideas, and curious to find out more and ask questions. You need to know what interests your students and how told build off what they are already interested in.
i loved that quote as well from the article. THank you also for sharing that story about your student teaching. It really showed how curiosity and curriculum need to be a balance, and how teachers need to find it.
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