Cultivating Curiosity in Your Classroom (Webinar)

Wendy Ostroff conducted a webinar titled Cultivating Curiosity in Your Classroom which discussed students’ innate curiosity and how to use that curiosity to enhance their learning journeys.  The webinar began by stating that all persons are natural learners.  Personal discovery begins at birth and continues all throughout life.  Therefore, personal discovery and curiosity should be used in the classroom.  Curiosity provides motivation and enhances cognitive skills.  Therefore, teachers need to take students’ curiosity and transform it into inquiry and learning.  To encourage the usage of student curiosity in the classroom, the teachers need to share their personal curiosity with their classes about learning and lesson content.  The following is a list of elements that are needed to facilitate curiosity: exploration/experimentation, autonomous/effortless learning, intrinsic motivation, imagination/creativity, questioning, and time.