Are you Curious Yet?
Exploiting the Brain’s Untapped Power to Promote Learning
Jamie L Perry, PhD
The Brain & Curiosity
Curiosity Prepares the Brain for Learning
Introduction
Curiosity is inquisitive thinking with a desire to learn or
know something new. Children are innately inquisitive
and their curiosity leads to constant exploration of the
world around them. Unfortunately, the use of exploration
in learning is a learning pedagogy that is difficult to
maintain. The classroom full of exploration and curiosity
as a child turns into a sedentary classroom led primarily
by electronic communication (Figure 1).
A typical classroom
for children filled
with activities that
promote exploration
& interactive group
activities
Curiosity has been shown to put the brain in a state that promotes
learning and retention of information. Grubber et al. (2014) read trivia
questions followed by a presentation of a visual image of a face to a
group of participants. Participants rated the trivia based on their level of
interest or curiosity. Following the visual and verbal stimuli, researchers
examined how well the participants could retain the trivia answers and
the faces shown at the time of each trivia statement. The investigators
found that the greater the curiosity in the question, the better the
individual could remember the trivia and the unrelated face shown just
after the trivia. These findings demonstrated that curiosity could prepare
Curiosity & Teaching
Curiosity is something I use regularly in the classroom.
I believe that when curiosity piqued, students are better
learners and better researchers. Below are some
examples of ways I achieve this in my teaching:
Gruber M, Gelman B, Ranganath C. States of Curiosity Modulate
Hippocampus-Dependent Learning via the Dopaminergic Circuit. Neuron.
2014.
the brain for learning and was associated with long-term memory of even unimportant details when paired with
something that piqued curiosity. Using fMRI, the researchers further identified the following:
A typical college
classroom using
digital learning
with a mostly
non-interactive
learning environment
If we are not careful, we can find that students stop
exploring and instead are only memorizing. Students
may forget the importance or value of asking why, how,
and what and instead accept what is given to them to be
truth or fact. Using curiosity, the brain can be a very
powerful tool that can promote increased memory and
enjoyment in the learning process.
1. Curiosity stimulated regions of the hippocampus, which is involved in creating memories.
2. There appears to be an interaction of the hippocampus and the dopamine reward system in connection with
curiosity, which is responsible for making curiosity intrinsically rewarding.
3. This interaction also promotes long-term memory and also retention of unimportant information that is paired
with curiosity.
Using Right Brain Activities in Teaching
Curiosity is considered to be a whole brain process (Creative-Innovation
Model) including a sequence of: interest (left and right hemisphere),
preparation (left hemisphere), incubation (right hemisphere), illumination
(right hemisphere), verification (left hemisphere), and application (left and
right hemisphere).
The role of the right hemisphere is considered to be essential to the beginning
of the creative process and reasoning/logic/analysis associated with the left
hemisphere allows for examination and exploration of those creative ideas. For
this reason, pairing art or creative activities using the right hemisphere, is an
important way to promote curiosity in our student learners.
www.homeschoolwithlove.com/2013/09/24/left-brainright-brain-whole-brain-learning/
Jamie Perry, CCC-SLP, PhD
Associate Professor
Interim Department Chair
East Carolina University
perryja@ecu.edu
(252) 744-6144
1. Model curiosity to the students
• It is about the student’s
curiosity, not mine
• Teach students that some
things are absolute, but many
things are negotiable and ever
changing
• Leave students with the job of
finding out how or why
something happens
2. Use the right hemisphere through art for learning
I like to use art in projects to get students to build
things with their hands and create physical 3D models
to improve their learning. Below is an example where
students are instructed to
create a skeletal muscle
model. This project has
shown to greatly simplify
an otherwise complex aspect
of the class.
3. Encourage interactive creativity & curiosity
I believe peers are the best source of piquing curiosity.
Interactive team activities are the best way to engage
students’ curiosity together.