{"id":62299,"date":"2018-01-19T10:05:44","date_gmt":"2018-01-19T15:05:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/?p=62299"},"modified":"2018-01-19T10:08:55","modified_gmt":"2018-01-19T15:08:55","slug":"a-curiosity-guide-ian-byrd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/2018\/01\/19\/a-curiosity-guide-ian-byrd\/","title":{"rendered":"A Curiosity Guide [Ian Byrd]"},"content":{"rendered":"<hr \/>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.byrdseed.com\/category\/a-curiosity-guide\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>A Curiosity Guide<\/strong> <\/a>&#8212; from byrdseed.com Ian Byrd<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>Excerpts:<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.byrdseed.com\/curiosity-01\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Anticipation and Dopamine:<\/strong><\/a> In part one of this curiosity series, we explore the connection between curiosity, anticipation, and dopamine and discover why we remember things better when we are allowed to wonder.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">So, to wrap up our first round of exploring curiosity:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>When we become curious, we are anticipating learning information.<\/li>\n<li>Our brain releases dopamine, a pleasurable chemical related to the anticipation of a reward (in this case information).<\/li>\n<li>Simply being in this curious state activates the hippocampus, enhancing memory.<\/li>\n<li>We remember things better when we are in this state, even things we weren\u2019t actually curious about.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Closing Question:<br \/>\nHow many times a day are your students in a curious state, eagerly anticipating information?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.byrdseed.com\/curiosity-02\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Confusion and Curiosity:<\/strong> <\/a>So how do we make kids curious? We\u2019ll cover two aspects: creating information gaps and (yes) purposefully confusing our students.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">In <a href=\"http:\/\/www.byrdseed.com\/curiosity-01\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the first article<\/a>, we covered what happenings in our brains when we become curious. We also noted that just being in a <em>state of curiosity<\/em> can improve memory, even for things you\u2019re not curious about.<br \/>\n&#8230;<br \/>\nHere\u2019s one key: to become curious, you must already know something about the topic. Curiosity only fires up when we discover that some important information is missing or that it contradicts information we already had. George Loewenstein calls this the Information Gap theory of curiosity.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Simply put: we have to give students enough information for them to become curious about the missing information.<br \/>\n&#8230;<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">To wrap up part two:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Curiosity requires us to know something about the topic.<\/li>\n<li>We become curious when information doesn\u2019t fit an existing mental model.<\/li>\n<li>Confusion is part of curiosity. We enjoy a certain amount of cognitive disequilibrium.<\/li>\n<li>But! No one wants to be curious forever. It must be resolved.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.byrdseed.com\/curiosity-03\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Curiosity Is Social:<\/strong><\/a> When we\u2019re curious, we can enhance that curiosity by discussing it with others. Our mutual confusion takes us deeper into the experience.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">So, in classrooms, it\u2019s worth purposefully (but gently) confusing students and then letting them talk to each other. It will build their interest and enhance their curiosity.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.byrdseed.com\/curiosity-04\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Creating Cultures of Curiosity:<\/strong><\/a> The biggest factor in our students\u2019 curiosity at school is us! Teachers can create (or kill) cultures of curiosity. We\u2019ll look at four qualities and a couple experiments run by Susan Engel.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Teachers have <em>enormous<\/em> power to encourage or discourage curiosity. Every word and action can either build a culture of curiosity or a culture of compliance.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Curiosity Guide &#8212; from byrdseed.com Ian Byrd Excerpts: Anticipation and Dopamine: In part one of this curiosity series, we explore the connection between curiosity, anticipation, and dopamine and discover why we remember things better when we are allowed to wonder. So, to wrap up our first round of exploring curiosity: When we become curious, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[394,141,419,46,102,7,223,78,560,226,173,101,66,89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-attention","category-engagement-engaging-students","category-ideas-teaching","category-k-12-related","category-learning","category-learning-ecosystem","category-learning-theories","category-memory","category-parents-guardians","category-passions","category-pedagogy","category-psychology","category-student-related","category-teachers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62299"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62304,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62299\/revisions\/62304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}