Reads: Cultivating Curiosity
The Curiosity Classroom
Wendy L. Ostroff, in Cultivating Curiosity in K-12 Classrooms (2016), advocates for the construction of the “curiosity classroom,” which encompasses everything from a focus on learning processes as opposed to just outcomes, to the physical construction of a space from furniture to lighting.
The chapters cover familiar topics, such as exploration, autonomy, intrinsic motivation, and more. Most useful, however, are the practical tips that follow the neuroscience - Ostroff calls them “curiosity techniques to try” - because they force the reader to constantly re-think classroom routines and teaching techniques throughout the book. Some examples are dated (in a section on real-time technology, I noted that the TodaysMeet digital backchannel no longer exists), but as I read them - and returned to them throughout the read - I found myself thinking about how much we need more curiosity techniques with which to try fearlessly and relentlessly, especially in an era of hybrid learning.
Perhaps most impactful was Ostroff’s chapter on supporting good questioning. It pained me to read about how teachers sometimes quash natural inquiry by re-routing or wholesale ignoring student questioning (something we’ve all done) in the interest of maintaining time on task. Reading Cultivating Curiosity reminded me that the so-called “teachable moment,” perhaps above all other moments in the classroom, is often the most fertile ground.
Shiny Objects
In the four years since the book was first published, it does seem like more facilities construction plans are trying to break out of the old “cells and bells” model to feature flexible arrangements, maker spaces, and cafeteria features. Of course, “open” designs are not new, and can be controversial, as many educators argued that the training and financial resources needed to make these spaces a success simply never materialized, thus rendering the movement stillborn. My elementary school had rooms with open ceilings, and the noise from phonics lessons in the adjoining room (as well as a few pencils flying over the wall) were mainly how I recall the open-concept space impacting our learning.
The good news? Ostroff places her focus on curiosity as a process, not merely as a seating arrangement. Constructing a classroom around the concept of curiosity would, I presume, reject shiny objects like trendy architectural concepts as an end in and of themselves in favor of classroom where creative process is the primary value. If open floor plan concepts have tended to put the cart before the horse, the strategies behind the curiosity classroom hold promise for getting it right.
Channeling Our Inner, Curious, Child
Ultimately, does the book break a whole lot of new ground? No. What it does, and does well, however, is to reconnect us with everything we have ever loved about the classroom and teaching when we allow ourselves and our students to be curious, like young children. Some examples:
My 5th grade teacher loved to present enrichment scenarios and then turn us loose on them. For one discussion, we were provided with the biographies of a half dozen individuals who were awaiting life-saving organ transplants. Our only instruction was to “rank” the potential recipients in terms of who was the most deserving. We were 10 and 11 years old, but embedded in that discussion were (a) the roots of age-old arguments of utilitarianism versus the categorical imperative, and (b) modern-day organ donor/transplant policy, among other “outcomes” that we had no idea we were learning. It worked - I still remember that “lesson” 30 years later, because we drove it.
As a substitute teacher, I was tasked with teaching a 7th grade science lesson on the parts of a flower. Inspiration struck as I was planning for the day, and I took the class outside for a few minutes to physically identify flower parts (the classroom I was in looked right out at the edge of some woods where wildflowers were growing). The only question I asked up front was “So what do you notice about these flowers? Tell the person next to you when you notice something.” They nailed it. Why leaf (see what I did there?) through a textbook when the students could see it for themselves? We still accomplished the objectives for the day, and the textbook diagrams of the pistil and stamen were still there when we got back.
I worked with a teacher who taught a current events elective, which she started each day by saying “What do you want to learn about today?” followed by the class learning about whatever that happened to be.
My cooperating teacher for student teaching encouraged me to allow students to draw the electoral process for presidential elections instead of doing a drill-and-kill lecture. When I asked why, he said “because high school kids love to draw, too.” When I saw the final results, which all visually depicted - correctly - everything from primaries and caucuses to the general election, but were all unique to each student’s creative process, I got it.
One of my mentor teachers loved using an interactive notebook technique, and often encouraged groups of students to take a few minutes to write down as many questions as they could think of, with no judgement or analysis. The questions then guided all discussion and learning for the day.
On and on these examples went through my mind as I read Ostroff’s work. And I thought of my own children, as well. When we go on hikes, there are no learning objectives, no formal curriculum. If they see a frog, snake, or dragonfly in a marsh, we simply stop and marvel at it. My twins, for some reason, love to jump on tree roots, so we talk about why trees have roots. They pick up leaves and examine their striations, which leads us to a quick chat about plant versus animal cells, photosynthesis, why leaves change colors and fall to the forest floor, and nature’s constant renewal.
Then we get shave ice, because shave ice is really good.
The point is that there has to be time to cut loose and let the questioning, creative impulse rule. Cultivating Curiosity helped me remember that. I’m sure it will help you, too.
What was the most open-ended lesson in which you have ever taken part, either as a student or a teacher?