Curiosity Makes Us Better at Learning Everything (Including the Boring Stuff)

It's no surprise that the more curious we are about something, the better we are at learning about it. However, a new study published in Neuron has findings that go beyond that:

More surprising, however, was that once their curiosity was aroused, they showed better learning of entirely unrelated information... that they encountered but were not necessarily curious about. People were also better able to retain the information learned during a curious state across a 24-hour delay. 

Curiosity is a form of intrinsic motivation, which means we get a rewarding feeling just by learning about what interests us. According to this study, curiosity also creates a state of mind where we feel rewarded no matter what we are learning about. That means students will learn more and retain more information about anything, as long as they are kept in a curious state.

As  teachers and youth workers, this means we must talk to our students and learn what makes them curious. Then we can plan lessons around that curiosity, allowing them to absorb extra -- even unrelated -- information and feel good about everything they learned.

AJ

Motivate Youth

Aaron Romens is an education consultant based in Madison, Wisconsin.