Cultivating Curiosity

I am curious about curiosity!

On Friday, I had the pleasure of attending a Learning Pioneers live webinar about cultivating curiosity with Kath Murdoch and Guy Claxton. 

Being curious about such a big idea means we don't "arrive" at a final destination and end our inquiry. The webinar was an exciting reminder about the cyclical nature of inquiry and how ongoing curiosity drives continuous meaning making, connections, wonderings and deeper and broader learning for all learners - children and ourselves!

I was reminded of a couple of workshops I have led on nurturing curiosity that I have never blogged about. I shared 11 different strategies that I will outline here. On Friday, some of these strategies were explored in depth. 

In a culture that harnesses the energy and tension of not knowing, and where surprise and the unfamiliar are welcomed, curiosity is nurtured. Far from a world of right and wrong and where mistakes are feared, the process of learning is fuelled by curiosity and lives within an inquiry mindset. There are many models and processes for inquiry that have been developed to remind us that curiosity is central to inquiry, yet it should move far beyond just identifying what we are curious about. 

Recently I noticed that Kindergarten were not using the 'strange' Makedo tools in the classroom. Simply repositioning the cardboard in the classroom and briefly modelling some of the common functions of the tools encouraged children to feel more confident and take risks as they experimented with cardboard. 

Inquiry can sometimes mistakenly be interpreted as an approach that requires no planning. Planning for inquiry (rather than all of the whats and hows of inquiry) requires us to step back at times and ensure children have time to inquire. Instead of 'covering' endless objectives, we can 'uncover' and become curious about big ideas. Instead of feeling the pressure of a ticking clock, we can relish moments when children make unexpected connections, grapple with complex ideas and become more aware of what they don't understand yet. 

In Kindergarten, we have systems in place to document children's learning, often through photographs, videos and direct quotes of what children say. Each week in planning meetings, we look at this documentation to plan responsively to the interests, curiosities and thinking of the children, instead of working our way through a list of activities planned before we even launched the unit of inquiry. In a recent inquiry into structures, children were curious about which structure is the tallest in the world, where it is and how tall it is. This led to interpretations of graphs, measuring heights of structures and challenges to design the tallest structure possible in the classroom. 

Independently of shared units of inquiry, we plan for inquiry using the set up of learning spaces and materials that children can access as a source of inspiration and curiosity. Recently, we added a water table. We are noticing children are curious about the flow of water, floating and sinking and the relative capacities of different containers. 

As we build relationships with children, find out more about their interests and play choices, and pay attention to their responses to learning, we build a clearer picture of what each learner needs and wants. Curiosity can be expressed in many verbal and non-verbal ways, beyond the semantics of a question. Seeing what fascinates children, what puzzles them and what ignites a spark to find out more ensures curiosity as a disposition is nurtured. 

In Kindergarten, the daily morning routine is based on a set of challenges the children go to in pairs in any order they like. One of these is to speak to the classroom assistant and me so we have a regular time to connect. Children often use this time to ask questions about differences they notice in the classroom, or special events in the classroom or with their family after school. These personal inquiries are often the most significant to the children! 

I have noticed, too, that children are curious about the names of large numbers. They are often playful in saying numbers such as 'thirty-four hundred hundred'. I use their interest in large numbers to seek and point out numbers in different contexts including picture books about space, animals and structures that refer to measurements beyond 1000 units. 

Modelling inquiry gives children the opportunity to see, hear and feel what it is like to be driven by curiosity. It puts words and actions to feelings many children already have, and can inspire and tease out those curiosities that haven't been realised yet. 

During Friday's webinar, Kath delved more deeply into the importance of us modelling being inquirers, sharing what makes us curious and our appreciation of the world with the learners we teach. How inspiring for children to have a teacher delight in the wonders of the world, alert to and pursuing ideas and objects to be curious about, and share this with the children themselves! 

In Kindergarten, I am good at modelling being an inquirer in the moment and sharing my genuine curiosities. Reading aloud a non-fiction book about ice as a material for structures prompted me to recount my stay at an ice hotel in Sweden, what I was wondering about at the time (and before sleeping on a bed of ice, and drinking from a glass made of ice!) and what I am still curious about now. 

I need to be more intentional in bringing my curiosities outside of school into the classroom. When children do display curiosity, I react with such excitement in front of the whole class to show them that getting to know what matters to them and what they are curious about matters to me! 

The language of inquiry is often playful, tentative and inviting. The more this language is used, the more it becomes embedded as part of a culture of inquiry. 

During Friday's webinar, Guy talked about a shift from "is" language to "could be" language, and the 'tyranny of the right answer'. In addition to the phrases above, he also gave other examples such as 'perhaps', 'let's try', 'what if...' and 'what might...'.  Kath referenced the work of Ron Ritchart with language as a cultural force. She also made the point that alongside what is said, it is important to have spaces for when things are not said. The importance of silences and slowing down!  

In Kindergarten, we display some of these sentence starters as visuals to support learners and remind adults about their importance. This week, I was observing a child who had chosen to paint. I was struck by her 'self-talk' as she experimented with the paints and happily tried ideas out, curious about what would happen. "I'm not drawing a normal flower now... To mix orange, I need yellow and red... I need a little more yellow. Just a little bit... I think I need more white. Oh oh! It's getting worse... I guess we need to do this colour first."

Provocations and invitations can be so powerful in sparking or reigniting curiosity. They may be as 'simple' as a well-framed question or time spent in different learning environments such as in nature.

In these photographs, Kindergarten were invited to explore the fabrics, using their imagination and to be as creative as they could. Children pretended to be different characters, created different settings and used the materials symbolically to represent different props and objects. This sparked a lot of excitement and interest in what imagination actually is and how we might use it. 

Recently, I shared back to the class a set of brushstrokes that one child had made with paint the previous day. A group were instantly fascinated with the mix of colours and asked how this was done. This led to the child who was the painter leading a mini workshop for those that were curious. Using children's thinking and processes as ways to invite and provoke further thinking and curiosity is a dynamic way for children to learn from one another. 

Concepts and inquiry are soulmates. The abstract and complex nature of these big ideas we call concepts invite us to be curious in limitless ways. In this photo with children playing with marble chutes, it wasn't the marble chute itself the children were curious about and fascinated with. It was the concepts of speed and rotation, but it could have been many other ideas that we would discover from observing the children at play and conferencing with them. 

Our current unit of inquiry is based on the concept of imagination. We are inquiring into how we can use our imagination to create in different ways, but also to respond to the creations of others. This week, we read the wordless picture book Sector 7 by David Wiesner. Asking the children to think about their own imagination as readers and the imagination of the book's creators has kindled a lot of thinking that we will take to our team planning to consider how we might respond next. 

Familiar routines to keep track of children's curiosities helps all children be successful as inquirers. They are examples of concrete actions to make the abstract nature of inquiry a reality. Examples of routines are Project Zero's Thinking Routine Toolbox, Philosophy for Children and Thinking Moves. Often, children's curiosities are evident, but simply asking, "What are you wondering?" after the children have been immersed in big ideas or significant learning experiences gives so many new possibilities. 

In Kindergarten, our last unit of inquiry was based on structures. Families had sent in photographs of structures from places that were special to them and we often engaged in the routine of "I notice... I wonder..." It was great to see so much interest in places around the world such as Malaysia, The Netherlands, USA, Kuwait, and Australia. The concept of 'process' was inquired into in this unit, and towards the end of the unit, the children started to debate if they themselves engaged in a process as they built their own structures, and then if learning itself is a process! To facilitate this debate, we used parts of the P4C routine. 

Curiosity can fuel learning anywhere and at any time. It is important for children to explore different spaces around the school and beyond the school's walls. Each week, Kindergarten explore Paris as a classroom and go on adventures such as visiting nearby nature trails, parks and woods, walking around the local neighbourhood and going on trips to art galleries, monuments and museums. We can also diversify learning spaces with the resources we offer for exploration and play, including guest speakers (family members, other staff, community members...) 

This week, we walked to the Bois de Boulogne for the first time. It was a longer-than-normal walk (close to 25 minutes) and Kindergarten weren't told where we were going. En route, there was so much excitement, anticipation and curiosity about our destination. Once we arrived in the wood, the children were immediately curious about the animals that were standing on the (frozen) lake! This new learning space gifted us moments of magic and intrigue. 

In the classroom, we have noticed that the children are interested in games that require logic and careful thinking. Slowly, our learning space hosts more and more of these games. The children enjoy the games, but listening to their language and noticing their behaviours, many children are actually curious about the strategies to win and are trying to figure out the best moves and choices to make in different games. 

A range of questions engage children in the process of making meaning and thinking for themselves. Carefully constructed questions have the potential to intrigue, stir emotions, call for different perspectives and trigger curiosity so that learners are emotionally and intellectually engaged. 

Part of Kindergarten's morning routine is a morning message for children to look at with a friend. The message has a visual and a question to spark conversation. The interest that this message generates is impressive - both in terms of the power of a carefully crafted question to hook learners in, but also to trigger children's own questions, wonderings and theories in response. The 'buzz' and 'energy' of curiosity is often palpable. 

John Dewey said, "Learning is a process of action and reflection." Children learn from doing, but the level of learning can be so much deeper and richer if children have the chance to look back and process the what, how and why of their learning. Taking the time to reflect on what children are curious about helps them to consider how much they have learned so far and what new wonderings may have emerged. 

A short time ago, we were reflecting on a number routine which gives children the answer and invites them to think of different number sentences to make the given number. As I asked children to share what they noticed about the number sentences, one child asked why there were no full stops at the end of number sentences. I had never thought about this before myself, and with great excitement and surprise, we began to share our theories about why this might be. 

On Friday, after watching a puppet show in French, children were reflecting on the concept of imagination. One child said they were imagining all the French words were actually English to help him make sense of the story! Wow!

Reflecting on your own practice:

- Which of these strategies do you use regularly?

- Which of these strategies might you consider adopting or adapting?

- What other strategies might cultivate and nurture curiosity?