In recent years, research has shed light on the role curiosity plays in the learning process and its neurobiology. Many questions remain, however, the information obtained from these investigations allows us to employ strategies to facilitate learning in the classroom.
What is Curiosity?
In everyday life, we refer to curiosity as that desire to know and learn more than what we already know. In the scientific field, the definition of the concept is not so simple, as curiosity has been studied from different approaches. We have, for example, the studies conducted by Daniel Berlyne, a pioneering psychologist and researcher on the subject. Among his contributions, the classification of curiosity into two categories stands out: perceptual curiosity, a product of external sensory stimuli, which motivates us to experiment with the environment, and epistemic curiosity, inherent to humans and whose manifestation is observed in the search for knowledge resulting from enigmas and conceptual gaps (Román, 2016).
From Berlyne’s studies, other approaches derive that distinguish curiosity as a state and as a trait. Curiosity as a state is the activation generated by any question or unknown external stimulus. It is a fleeting state as the activation decreases once the question is deciphered. Curiosity as a trait is intrinsic to the person and endures over time, motivating them to seek answers and increase their knowledge.
As can be observed, there is no single approach to the study of curiosity, which is why a specific or closed definition of the concept would be inaccurate. Therefore, we can say that it is a multidimensional concept about which much remains to be known.
Curiosity and Learning
Curiosity is innate in children and is the ignition engine for the learning process. From a young age, they interact with their environment, and once they learn to speak, they don’t stop asking questions. All of this is curiosity in action, testing the world around them. A study conducted at the University of Michigan with 62 Kindergarten children from different socioeconomic statuses showed that those with high trait-curiosity demonstrated superior mathematical and literacy skills compared to children who did not exhibit this characteristic, regardless of their socioeconomic status.
Another study conducted at the University of California revealed the activation of brain areas related to reward and pleasure during moments of high curiosity. Participants were asked to select from a list the questions that aroused the most curiosity and indicate those that aroused the least curiosity. Through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), activation was observed in the brain areas described above when participants reviewed the questions that most piqued their curiosity. Additionally, activity was observed in the hippocampus, an area related to the storage of new information. In addition to the brain activity observed during the task, it was found that even days later, participants remembered the information obtained related to those questions that piqued their curiosity.
This study also showed that people remembered images, which were presented randomly, at moments when they were in a state of high curiosity during the experiment. This indicates that, in a state of curiosity, we can even remember incidental or less relevant information at the moment.
Curiosity in the Classroom
We can leverage the knowledge of neurosciences within the classroom to promote learning in our students.
Judy Willis, neurologist and educator, suggests that in class we can activate a state of curiosity in our students with novel and unexpected elements. A different piece of clothing, an accessory, unexpected objects, distinct colors, variations in voice tone, a curious video or photograph, clues, puzzle pieces, variations in movement—anything that can create that intention to predict what is going to happen. She indicates that brain activation is observed when we try to predict something, and it is at the possibility of predicting where the state of curiosity is observed at its peak.
Daniel Willingham, PhD. in Cognitive Psychology, recommends that we expose students to solving unknowns. When we successfully solve problems or complete cognitive challenges, dopamine is released, a neurotransmitter related to reward in the brain. Willingham emphasizes the importance of the difficulty level of these challenges, since if they are too easy or the answer is provided too soon, this pleasurable response is not generated; however, it is also not advisable to present unknowns that are too difficult for the student to solve on their own, as the objective will not be achieved either.
In conclusion, we can make use of the knowledge obtained from research in the field of neurosciences and bring them to life in the classroom through strategies to facilitate the learning process in students. While it is true that the classroom and the laboratory are two different places. In the laboratory, variables have a different level of control than in the classroom; however, this does not mean that the knowledge obtained in the laboratory is not relevant to the reality of the classroom. Quite the opposite, neuroeducation seeks to unite both contexts for the benefit of our students in a world that is constantly changing.