Stimulating Curiosity to Enhance Learning

People find it easier to learn about topics that interest them. Recent neuroscience research has demonstrated that memory is improved when the learning material is something they are curious about.

Stimulating Curiosity to Enhance Learning, an academic research paper published in the  GESJ: Education Science and Psychology, explores how curiosity can be guide teaching practice in a range of education contexts to motivate students to seek information and discusses practical applications in second-language teaching and other subjects. 

Abstract

Curiosity is an aspect of intrinsic motivation that has great potential to enhance student learning.  Stimulating Curiosity to Enhance Learning reviews theory and evidence describing curiosity, focusing on psychological and pedagogical literature relating to adult education. The concept of curiosity in two disparate sample disciplines; second language learning and medical education are considered. The role of inquiry based learning approaches are also discussed as potential modes of stimulating student curiosity, as well as simple classroom techniques, which could be applied to almost any academic discipline and based on the theories should act to enhance student curiosity.

Read the full article online or download the PDF on the ResearchGate website.

Citation: Pluck, Graham & Johnson, H.. (2011). Stimulating curiosity to enhance learning. GESJ: Education Sciences and Psychology. 2. 24-31.

Source: ResearchGate | Stimulating Curiosity to Enhance Learning, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/292088477_Stimulating_curiosity_to_enhance_learning | Retrieved February 2023.

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