One-minute lecture: How does curiosity emerge, and where does it go?
Tänase uudishimu päevale mõeldes on ka värske ühe minuti loeng uudishimulikkusest. Today is curiosity day and being curious is also the topic of the next one minute lecture.
In the past, curious children were often told that “children should be seen and not heard”. Tallinn University Junior Research Fellow Katrina Nurmoja, can school nurture curiosity, or does it rather suppress it?
Researchers have found that curious people are more joyful, more resilient to stress, more open, and achieve better learning outcomes.
It is concerning, however, that according to social skills studies, curiosity seems to decline during the school years — 10-year-olds are more curious than 15-year-olds. This tendency may be reinforced by an excessive focus on performance and by overuse of digital environments, whose inhibiting effects have been confirmed by several studies.
But how can we maintain curiosity? Curiosity is supported by an environment that focuses on the process of learning and promotes a sense of autonomy, competence, and relatedness in the learner.