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Curiosity is a multifaceted concept, but at its core can be considered the desire for and perseverance in exploration and information seeking, particularly in response to uncertainty or information gaps. Young children are naturally curious. Curiosity is essential for children to learn how to learn about the world around them, to test and discover physical and social norms, and more. Children need opportunities for curious learning, as learning while curious supports incidental and more efficient learning of new information and skills. When these early learning experiences are scaffolded, these experiences can develop into more advanced thinking and reasoning skills they'll later use to explore increasingly complex questions about how the world works. Curiosity is a key predictor of academic success. It can support learning by motivating information seeking and persistence, and supporting encoding information into memory.
Researchers have broken down the multifaceted concept of curiosity into types of curiosity to better understand why and how curiosity presents itself. For instance, joyous exploration is a state of wonder, and is important for seeking out and engaging in learning experiences. Social curiosity is wanting to learn about other people through talking, listening, and observing. This type of curiosity can help teachers to learn about children and children to learn about each other, helping to create an inclusive environment where children feel they belong.
Importantly, Curiosity acts on an inverted “U-shaped” curve - wherein Curiosity tends to be higher when there is some minor level of familiarity while leaving much to be discovered. If there is too little to be learned, it might not be interesting enough for children to want to engage in information seeking, but if there is too much uncertainty, children might be intimidated about how much effort it would take to fill the gap in their knowledge. What is ‘too little' or ‘too much' varies across individuals, and likely across contexts (e.g., at school vs. in a science museum).
While some Curiosity is dependent on the task at hand, creating a classroom climate that is supportive of Curiosity will help support children's curious learning in the classroom more broadly. Additionally, tapping into children's Curiosity about a topic of interest can be a way to engage reluctant or struggling learners, or students with ADHD. When children have positive experiences around uncertainty (e.g., not getting punished for making mistakes, seeing examples of others valuing uncertainty as opportunities to learn, etc) they develop a more general comfort with uncertainty. This can increase the likelihood children will engage in exploration when they encounter uncertainty in the future.
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