Tapping Into Young People's Innate Curiosity

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By Sam Piha

“Childhood curiosity is an innate, powerful internal drive to acquire new information, understand how the world works, and fill knowledge gaps. It acts as a primary motivator for learning, characterized by eager exploration, constant questioning, and a ‘Goldilocks’ desire for optimally challenging information.” [i] 

Afterschool youth programs should tap into young people’s innate curiosity. This involves assessing where the program is in engaging young people’s curiosity. This blog explores these issues and provides information related to youth curiosity, including ways afterschool programs can support curiosity. (We relied on articles and AI research to develop this blog.)

WHY CURIOSITY IS IMPORTANT

“Curiosity is one of the main ways children learn about the world. When kids ask ‘why?’ or ‘how does this work?’, they’re not just being playful—they’re actively building understanding, problem-solving skills, and creativity.” [ii]

According to Penn State Extension, “Curiosity is an important trait that leads to learning. When children are comfortable and feel safe, they are naturally able to explore their worlds. The more your child explores, the more he learns. Curiosity drives kids to try new things.



Strong curiosity gives children confidence to try new things. Trying new things opens up new worlds to your child. It brings excitement to life. Children who are curious enjoy their lives. They are less likely to get bored and find life dull or routine. They feel that there are always new, interesting things just around the corner. It can lead them to have adventurous and interesting lives.” [iii]

WHY DOES CURIOSITY MATTER?
CuriOdyssey writes, “Curiosity is the desire to learn, to understand new things and to know how they work. ‘We can teach a new generation to observe patterns in our world and in science, technology, engineering and math by taking advantage of their natural tendency to be curious, thereby enhancing the likelihood of new discoveries and inventions,’ says CuriOdyssey Executive Director Rachel Meyer. ‘We need people who are curious and who feel free to tinker and explore without fear of failure. When curious people fail, they analyze their failure to understand it so they can do better the next time.’  

Curiosity is at the very root of the scientific process. After observation the first step is to ask, ‘Why?’ Supporting kids’ natural curiosity at an early age about what makes the world work is the best way to excite their interest in STEM. Whether kids aspire to become scientists or artists, science fluency, like being fluent in a language, will make them better at it. If we do not spark curiosity, future generations will not understand the benefits of being science-fluent. 

Curiosity is the mark of an active, open, observant mind and helps us see learning as fun, fueling imagination, creativity and innovation. It prepares the brain for learning and makes subsequent learning more rewarding. Research also shows that curiosity is just as important as intelligence in determining how well students do in school.” [iv] 

Source: Resilient Educator

CURIOSITY: SCHOOL AND AFTERSCHOOL
How Traditional Schooling Kills Curiosity  

“’Children enter school as question marks and leave as periods,’ so said educator and social critic Neil Postman.” [v] 

John Larmer writes, “You likely know that young children are intensely curious creatures who ask lots of questions, perhaps hundreds a day. But when a child starts school, the rate drops precipitously, nearing zero by the time they reach middle school. Some of this is due to brain development, and some to social factors; children in a large group in the school setting might feel inhibited from asking too many questions. A big part of the drop, though, is due to the nature of typical schooling today. 



Education researcher Susan Engel, in her paper Children’s Need to Know: Curiosity In Schools, reports on a remarkable observation she and her graduate students made when visiting K-5 school classrooms to study curiosity. They planned on examining individual differences between children, seeing whether specific places or activities in a classroom elicited more or less curiosity, and comparing classrooms to one another. However, they were shocked to find out that, “It turned out to be impossible to make the kinds of comparisons we wanted. Why? Because there was such an astonishingly low rate of curiosity in any of the classrooms we visited.” [vi] 

“If teachers are to promote curiosity, administrators and policy makers will need to emphasize its value. We need to imagine schools as places where curiosity not only survives but flourishes. If curiosity is understood as essential, no less so than solving a geometry problem or writing a good essay, we might see very different classrooms and very different graduates.”  [vii] - Susan Engel, Education Researcher  

John Larmer continues, “Similarly, after listing some ways teachers can nurture curiosity, Alfie Kohn notes, ‘Alas, these recommendations for teachers often run smack into structural constraints: an inflexible schedule that doesn’t leave time for exploration; a principal who insists on quiet, orderly classrooms; a central office that imposes a standardized curriculum; a school board that cares more about test scores than about meaningful learning... Much of the problem comes from construing learning as a list of facts to be memorized or discrete skills to be practiced. This premise tends to promote teacher-centered direct instruction, which is often scripted or otherwise tightly controlled.’

Warren Berger, author of A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas, agrees: ‘Our current system of education does not encourage, teach, or in some cases even tolerate questioning. Harvard’s Tony Wagner says: ‘Somehow, we’ve defined the goal of schooling as enabling you to have more ‘right answers’ than the person next to you. And we penalize incorrect answers. And we do this at a pace—especially now, in this highly-focused test prep universe—where we don’t have time for extraneous questions.’” [viii]

 

ENDNOTES
[i] Jill Anderson, How Curiosity Can Unlock Learning for Every Child
[ii] IBID.
[iii] Penn State Extension, Curiosity is the Wick in the Candle of Learning*
[iv] CuriOdyssey, CuriOdyssey and Curiosity, Engines of Discovery
[vi] IBID.

[v] John Larmer, Another Argument for PBL: It Promotes Curiosity

[vii] IBID.

[viii] IBID.

To learn more about tapping into young people's innate curiosity, check out our latest briefing paper on this topic here.

Learning From Mistakes: Helping Kids See the Good Side of Getting Things Wrong

Source: "Learning From Mistakes: Helping Kids See the Good 
Side of Getting Things Wrong"

By Sam Piha

Sam Piha

Most people, particularly older youth, are often ashamed or embarrassed if they make a mistake publicly. It’s no wonder that many are afraid to engage to avoid the shame and judgement that comes with mistakes.

Embracing our mistakes is an important part of a growth mindset. GoZen, an online social emotional learning resource, writes, “Carol Dweck rocked the world of education with her research into something she called a Growth Mindset: the belief that a person’s basic abilities can be improved by hard work and determination. A growth mindset is central to a love of learning, perseverance and resiliency. Adopting a growth mindset also allows adults and kids to reframe mistakes into learning opportunities, making them less frightening and less debilitating.” (see LIAS Blog on Growth Mindsets).

"I say to myself that I never lose, that I only learn. Because when you lose, you have to make a mistake to lose that game. So you learn from that mistake, and so you learn [overall]. So losing is the way of winning for yourself."- Tanitoluwa Adewumi, America’s 10- year- old Chess Master

And, we are more than our mistakes. Afterschool programs are particularly good at helping youth see themselves as more than their mistakes or school grades.

"I particularly struggled with math. But after-school activities redefined the school for me. It wasn’t just the place where I failed my first test. It was where I learned how to sew. And I wasn’t just a person with a bad grade. I was a dancer.”- Meril, 17- year- old student

Source: Greater Good in Education

How do afterschool workers view their own mistakes? How do young people in your program think about mistakes? How are program staff trained to address the times when youth may make a mistake? I asked these questions to several afterschool leaders and share their responses below.

Carol Tang, Senior Vice President for
Learning and Public Engagement at the
 American Museum of Natural History

Carol Tang -“If you take a step back and look at science, it's not about facts and figures or rote memorization. If you think about what scientists do- they are active, hands on, they make things and break things, they talk to their peers, learn from their mistakes and get better through time.”

Autrilla Gillis,
Director of Expanded Learning,
ISANA Academies

Autrilla Gillis -“I think that mistakes identify areas of opportunity for both young people and staff. Often times both staff and young people view mistakes as failures, while in reality mistakes are opportunities to try again with targeted supports or a focused action plan to improve the results.

From the district level, mistakes identify areas of future professional development for my staff and I. We veer away from vilifying staff members and instead investigate what led to the mistake, using our findings to determine whether an individual, school site, or district wide training should occur to ensure that the mistake is avoided in the future. 

Addressing mistakes is one of the most common conversations our staff encounters. Whether the mistakes involve academic feats, student responses to personality clashes, or poor decision making. As adults, we’ve taken the stance that young people must be empowered to work through their mistakes so that they acquire that skill, one that they’ll use for the rest of their lives. 

For our youngest scholars it begins with one-on-one conferences that utilize visuals and worksheets to help students identify the root causes of their decision making that led to the mistake, next we set goals to avoid making the same mistake when the situation is encountered again. As our scholars progress through grade levels we increase the reflective aspect of the process by incorporating journaling and peer support. It is rewarding to see scholars encounter mistakes and work their way through the same process using “self-talk” to get themselves through.” 

Rebecca Fabiano
President & Founder,
FAB Youth Philly

Rebecca Fabiano - “'Mistakes are Ok!; Take accountability for, and learn from your mistakes!'

That is the first line of our guiding principles, which we recite in a call and response fashion when we come together as a group. One person chanting the first part, the rest of us responding the second part. We actually changed it this fall to this current statement from 'Mistakes are Ok!; It’s Ok to ask a lot of questions' because we wanted to focus more on accountability and learning. 

The original statement was part of a job description for college interns; we wanted them to really see their time with us as a learning experience and that we didn’t expect them to know everything right away or to even ‘get’ everything the first time, which is why we encourage asking questions. Several interns noted that very sentence was why they wanted to work at Fab Youth Philly (FYP).

We also ask about mistakes during interviews as we see mistakes as teachable moments. As a learning organization, we are constantly making mistakes in part because we are also risk-takers, we are somewhat nontraditional in some of our work and so there are bound to be mistakes made. We also primarily work with teens for whom it is their first job being employed by us so we want them to develop a ‘muscle’ around mistake making, but also seeing mistakes as an opportunity.

The way staff addresses mistakes varies from staff, to staff, and sometimes has to do with confidence and experience. But all of us TRY to approach it as a teachable moment. The more experienced staff tend to see right away the opportunity for learning, and working with the teen to address the issue, as opposed to blaming or shaming. Sometimes as adults, we need coaching too, around suggestions for how to support teens when they make a mistake.”  

LEARN MORE

• Why Mistakes Are Keys to Growth 
• Forgive Your Mistakes & Learn- Barack Obama's Rebellious Youth
• Obama: Mistakes (VIDEO)
• The Mistake- Friendly Classroom
• The Mistake Imperative—Why We Must Get Over Our Fear of Student Error

"Mistakes are a natural part of learning, but students cannot develop into critical thinkers if they regularly freeze out of the fear of making a mistake.”- Colin Seale, Thinking Like a Lawyer 

Another Argument for PBL: It Promotes Curiosity

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This is a guest blog. “Another Argument for PBL: It Promotes Curiosity” by John Larmer was originally published on PBLWorks. 

Should curiosity be the “5th C” of 21st Century Success Skills? You’re probably familiar with the “4 C’s” – the 21st century success skills of critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity – and know that Project Based Learning is one of the best ways to build them in students. I’d like to propose a fifth “C” for consideration: curiosity. It’s important for success in school, in the world of work, and life in general. It’s not exactly a skill, but like creativity it’s a personal quality that can be cultivated. 

However, traditional schooling has the unfortunate tendency to kill students’ curiosity. PBL is the antidote. 

Why is Curiosity Important? 
First, to beat the drum I usually do when promoting PBL, most students are not as engaged in learning as they should be. This would change if their curiosity was honored in the classroom. Instead of marching through a curriculum that emphasizes standardized tests, mastering skills and facts, and moving at a preset pace, imagine how more engaging school would be if students were given opportunities to ask their own questions and explore answers.

Second, curiosity brings benefits in school and beyond. As progressive education advocate Alfie Kohn puts it, “Curiosity is valuable in its own right—and not just for children. It’s a passport to a richer, more fulfilling life.” Studies have shown that curiosity improves the quality of life in terms of intelligence and learning, social relationships, happiness and meaning, and brain health. Curiosity is “the heart of lifelong learning” says youth development expert and creator of The Compass Advantage Marilyn Price-Mitchell, who placed curiosity on her list of eight “internal abilities” that help children “develop into capable, caring, and engaged adults.” 

Education research confirms the value of curiosity. A 2018 study found that “greater curiosity was associated with greater kindergarten reading and math academic achievement...Curiosity may be an important, yet under- recognized contributor to academic achievement... especially for children with low SES.” The researchers defined curiosity as “characterized by the joy of discovery, and the motivation to seek answers to what is unknown.” Another study found that curiosity influenced academic performance: “In fact, it had quite a large effect, about the same as conscientiousness. When put together, conscientiousness and curiosity had as big an effect on performance as intelligence.”

Curiosity is valuable in the modern workplace, too. A 2024 article in Forbes, “Curiosity: The Superpower For Success In The Workplace And At Home,” makes the case: 

“In the workplace, curiosity acts as the fuel for innovation and creativity. It encourages individuals to question the status quo, explore new possibilities and think outside the box. This relentless pursuit of knowledge and understanding can lead to the discovery of unique solutions to complex problems and the development of groundbreaking products and services. Organizations that cultivate a culture of curiosity often find themselves at the forefront of their industries, leading the charge toward the future.” 

Finally, cultivating a sense of curiosity in its citizens is good for a democratic society. This is the message of Scott Shineoka, author of Seek: How Curiosity Can Transform Your Life and Change the World and keynote speaker at this year’s PBL World event. He argues for greater understanding as a healing process in a polarized nation: “curiosity can help us build relationships, even across differences, even across divides.”  

(The message about arriving at mutual understanding is also, btw, delivered by PBLWorks staffer Ryan Sprott in his 2024 book, Teaching Contentious Topics in a Divided Nation.)

How Traditional Schooling Kills Curiosity 
“Children enter school as question marks and leave as periods.” So said educator and social critic Neil Postman, paraphrasing progressive educator Lillian Weber. Why is that? 

You likely know, especially if you’re a parent, that very young children are intensely curious creatures who ask lots of questions, perhaps hundreds a day. But when a child starts school, the rate drops precipitously, nearing zero by the time they reach middle school. Some of this is due to brain development, and some to social factors; children in a large group in the school setting might feel inhibited from asking too many questions. A big part of the drop, though, is due to the nature of typical schooling today.  

Education researcher Susan Engel, in her paper Children’s Need to Know: Curiosity In Schools, reports on a remarkable observation she and her graduate students made when visiting K-5 school classrooms to study curiosity. They planned on examining individual differences between children, seeing whether specific places or activities in a classroom elicited more or less curiosity, and comparing classrooms to one another. However, they were shocked to find out that, “It turned out to be impossible to make the kinds of comparisons we wanted. Why? Because there was such an astonishingly low rate of curiosity in any of the classrooms we visited.”  

Engel continues, “If teachers are to promote curiosity, administrators and policy makers will need to emphasize its value. We need to imagine schools as places where curiosity not only survives but flourishes. If curiosity is understood as essential, no less so than solving a geometry problem or writing a good essay, we might see very different classrooms and very different graduates.” 

Similarly, after listing some ways teachers can nurture curiosity, Alfie Kohn notes, “Alas, these recommendations for teachers often run smack into structural constraints: an inflexible schedule that doesn’t leave time for exploration; a principal who insists on quiet, orderly classrooms; a central office that imposes a standardized curriculum; a school board that cares more about test scores than about meaningful learning... Much of the problem comes from construing learning as a list of facts to be memorized or discrete skills to be practiced. This premise tends to promote teacher-centered direct instruction, which is often scripted or otherwise tightly controlled.” 

Warren Berger, author of A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas, agrees: “...our current system of education does not encourage, teach, or in some cases even tolerate questioning. Harvard’s Tony Wagner says: “Somehow, we’ve defined the goal of schooling as enabling you to have more ‘right answers’ than the person next to you. And we penalize incorrect answers. And we do this at a pace—especially now, in this highly-focused test prep universe—where we don’t have time for extraneous questions.

Source: www.pexels.com

The Antidote: 5 Ways PBL Promotes Curiosity 
If you’re familiar with Project Based Learning, you’ve no doubt seen how it provokes curiosity in students. Not only does it provoke it–curiosity is baked into the design of a project and fertilized by the culture of a PBL classroom. Let’s look at five features of Gold Standard PBL that elicit, support, and encourage curiosity. 

1. Driving Questions 
The central question or challenge that frames a good project is open-ended; that’s the key to engaging students’ curiosity. There is no single ”right answer” students are supposed to arrive at; they cannot simply google it, as they can for a “closed” question with a specific answer. Even the teacher doesn’t know the answer, or at least acknowledges there is more than one good answer, so they approach the driving question with curiosity too. 

Take a look at these open-ended driving questions from projects designed by PBLWorks (from its project library or the TEACH app). If you were a student, wouldn’t these make you curious? 

In grades K-2: 

• In case of a fire, what is the best way to safety?

• How can we help new friends get to know our community?

• How does our food connect us to places near and far? 

In grades 3-5: 

• How can humans safely explore Mars?

• How can we protect endangered species in our area? 
• Did the American Revolution have more than two sides? 

In middle school: 

• What should we do about cyberbullying?

• What masks do we wear when we go about our daily lives? 
• How can we increase access to fresh food in our community?

In high school: 

• How can we influence the way A.I. is used in our school?

• How can we help a local business make the most money? 
• What does it mean to live well, and how do we do it? 

2. Entry Events 
The first thing that happens in a well-designed, well- implemented project is an event that engages students’ curiosity and sparks questions. The entry event can be anything that alerts students to the project’s topic and grabs their interest–from a live speaker to a field trip to a film clip to a class activity. Along with the driving question, the entry event could connect the project to students’ lived experiences or culture, and/or it might introduce them to a real-world issue or problem to address. 

3. Students’ Need to Know Questions 
After the entry event and the introduction of the driving question, students generate a list of their own questions to investigate. These questions form the backbone of the inquiry process that is at the heart of PBL. Facilitated by the teacher, students are prompted to ask both process questions about completing the project and more open- ended questions based on curiosity about the topic or problem at hand. Sometimes this is framed as a “Wonder” list. As they dig deeper into the project, students’ add more questions to their list. 

4. Student Choice 
Because students are given various opportunities to make their own choices in PBL, they need to activate their curiosity: What resources might I use to answer my need to know questions? How can our team work well together? What do I think is the best answer to the driving question? What product or performance could I create? What is my audience or intended stakeholder like? 

5. Classroom Culture 
One of the Project Based Teaching Practices in PBLWorks’s model for Gold Standard PBL promotes curiosity: Build the Culture, and so does a related Practice, Engage and Coach. A classroom culture that supports PBL, and curiosity, includes a sense of safety; it’s OK to share your ideas and you won’t be put down for it. Your questions matter and will be honored. Think out of the box. The teacher coaches students to surface their questions and be curious about the project’s topic. The teacher also models how to approach the project with curiosity by doing think-alouds–about the driving question, what resources to use, new need to know questions, how to create a product, or the needs of an audience. 

There’s a reason why curiosity appears on many "Portraits of a Graduate” being created by school districts today: school communities and stakeholders recognize its importance. It’s often linked to lifelong learning, innovative thinking, resilience, growth mindset, and being self-directed learner. PBL can help these districts move “from poster to practice” and make sure their lofty goals for graduates are reflected in their instructional practices.  

And, it’s worth repeating in these times... Curiosity can help a divided nation move from conflict to understanding. Let’s keep our children curious in their school years, so they’ll continue to flex that muscle as adult citizens! 

MORE ABOUT… 

John Larmer

John Larmer is a key builder of PBLWorks (Buck Institute for Education), having served as editor in chief, director of publications, and director of product development. He co-developed the model for Gold Standard PBL, which is the foundation of PBLWorks’s products and services. He is currently involved the development of project-based curriculum units and professional learning resources, and general editing and writing duties.

John is the author of several books and articles for K-12 teachers, school leaders, and parents, as well as many PBLWorks blog posts. He wrote widely-used rubrics for 21st century success skills, and problem-based curriculum units for high school government and economics. He contributed to PBLWorks’ research, online project library, and in-person and online professional development programs, including the flagship PBL 101 workshop and workbook. 

PBL Works’ exclusive focus is Project Based Learning. Why? Because PBL advances educational equity and empowers youth furthest from opportunity. They believe PBL is transformative for all kids. Through PBL, students engage in learning that is deep, long-lasting, and relevant to the challenges of their lives and the world they will inherit. Research confirms this.

Their services, tools, and research are designed to build the capacity of K-12 teachers to design and facilitate quality Project Based Learning, and the capacity of school leaders to create a culture for teachers to implement great projects with all students.