The Fast and the Curious

Fast Llamas,

Do you ever get on a kick about a certain topic?  You see something that intrigues you and then you spend time learning all you can?  Well, I do!  And lately I have been energized about curiosity and its impact on learning.

Based on the work of Dr. Georgi Lozanov, curiosity plays a key role in learning.  We say in Quantum Learning that our Teaching Cycle was created, based on Lozanov's work and it augments how we learned as children.  So, this past week, I was reading articles about curiosity and its impact and it hit me.  The connection between the two.  That when we were little we learned about the world around us by thinking and asking...

Let's dive deeper into the state of curiosity a how we can use it intentionally in our classrooms.  

If we want to accelerate learning, then we have to start with engagement, capturing our students attention.  This can be accomplished by getting our students ready to learn and using curiosity to do get them there.   Curiosity makes your brain alert to new concepts, when you are curious about something your brain expects and allows for new ideas related to the concept and subjects.  In other words, curiosity primes the brain for new learning.  

Without curiosity, images, thoughts, and ideas might given to you, yet, you miss them because your mind is not prepared to recognize them.  Our job as teachers to to prepare our students for learning.  One of our primary objectives or directives is to create an optimal learning environment.  To lay the groundwork for learning to happen for our students.  We let them know that learning to about to begin, that learning is happening and that the learning is important.  

When curiosity is piqued:

• we are more likely to remember learning
• we are more likely to learn content faster
• our minds are active not passive
• our minds are observant of new ideas
• it opens up new worlds and possibilities
• it brings wonder, joy, awe and excitement to lessons

We all know that we have a very short amount of time for learning to occur. Ask any teacher and they feel, "they teach against the clock" on most days.  Coupled with a lot of students go home to environments where learning is not supported (they babysit, work, cook, clean or don't have a place to do school work) once they leave our campus.  The time we have them in our class makes every minute matter. That was Dr. Lozanov's curious mind too, and he was asking... "how can we accelerate learning, learning more in less time?". 

Don't confuse me, I am not talking about,  "faster" as in physically "faster" such as, making kids do math problems in less time (gosh, no "mad minutes" here).  

But, what I am saying in coupling our huge list of what to teach along with the time we have to teach it, makes teachers question on how and ways to get there.  Using curiosity to prime the brain for new learning is a great answer to this burning question.  

Application:

There are two things to consider when planning the beginning of your lesson.

1. How can I create a desire for learning?

2. How can I make connections with any new learning to students prior knowledge?

Ideas for Preparing the Learning - purposefully planning and adding to plans, making it intentional:

Curious State - 

A hook:

• song
• video
• demo
• joke
• story
• skit
• a question
• picture
• puzzle
• virtual simulation

How great would a math lesson be to start with a puzzle such as..

There are even math wordles around!  

A common experience 

Ideas tend to grander and require student participation:

• Students plant pea seeds and grow them over several weeks, a King or Queen (hello, A.P. or Principal, comes in and takes them all (intro to revolutionary war)
• Students push carts across a field to demonstrate pioneer experiences
• Students are given an oreo cookie to make an analogy to writing
• Students are told parents will now choose their dates to prom as an intro to Romeo and Juliet
• Students eat blue/purple colored foods and drinks and wait to see the results - digestive system
• Students are required to pay to use the restroom with PBIS bucks, rule was created by senior teachers (into to revolutionary war)
• Pacific Northwest Tree octopus - false information on the internet
• Creating a scaled timeline that stretches the area of the classroom
• Having a feast from a different culture

If you are thinking these ideas are fun, then you are correct.  Let's add a bit of wonder, awe, joy, fun to our lessons to pique curiosity and grab our students attention.  What ideas do you have?  Do you have a lesson that could use a small upgrade to get it going and get students participating.  When you begin planning your lesson, begin with this step, plan for priming students brains for what comes next.   

until next time

Tracy