Imagine a classroom where you don't have to convince children to engage, where
the learning starts before you've even said a word that classroom is possible.
And I have taught in it.
Welcome back to Blooming Curious.
I'm so glad you're here.
I'm Edwina Early Childhood Educator, and this is the podcast for parents
and teachers like you who believe that the early years really do matter
and that learning should be joyful.
Today I wanna talk about what really matters in a classroom or a home when
curiosity actually leads the learning.
It's not just a nice idea, not a slogan or a poster, but a
real lived daily experience.
And I wanna share some stories from my own classroom that I think
you'll recognize because you've probably seen glimpses of this too.
Let me paint you a picture.
It's early morning.
The children have just come in and before you've even called them
to the mat, the start of the day.
Two or several of them are already at the table pulling out the projects
that they've been working on.
One is drawing a diagram of a rabbit touch because last week she decided
she wanted to find out more about rabbits and what they need 'cause
they've just adopted a rabbit.
Another is writing a list of questions.
He wants to research about viruses, not because I signed
it, but because he chose it.
There's a low hum of purposeful conversation.
Children are helping each other.
They're disagreeing, they're thinking, they're revising.
I haven't even said a word yet.
That's what learning looks like when curiosity leads.
Now I know what some of you might be thinking.
That sounds wonderful, but where's the evidence for this?
Or is that just feel good teaching?
Well, there absolutely is evidence.
Apart from my very own classroom lived experience.
Of course, there is a 2023 study published in Early Child Development and Care, and
this one is really interesting because it looked at how interest develops in
young children, specifically children around ages of four and five, and
the researchers found that curiosity
is a natural asset for learning in the early years, but what really
matters is when that curiosity shifts into real interest, and they call
this authentic interest a sustained, enduring state of attention.
And both curiosity and authentic interest were found to contribute to cognitive
development and success in learning.
I'll leave a link to the research for you in the show notes or in the description.
Now, in other words, what they were saying is that it's not just curious
kids that are more fun to teach.
Students with authentic interest are more likely to pay attention.
They're more likely to be engaged and ultimately perform well.
And here's the neurological angle that I found really compelling.
From a neurobiological perspective, the early years are an ideal time
to focus on generating curiosity and developing interest in things.
Synaptic formation in the prefrontal cortex is at its highest between
12 months of age and six years of age, meaning that the brain is
literally at its most malleable and most open to new stimuli during the
years that we are actually teaching.
We are working with the most receptive brains on the planet,
and that's not a small thing.
And yet the research has also found that children's curiosity tends
to decrease through schooling.
In fact, school enjoyment decreases even from preschool to kindergarten.
So something is happening between those early years of joyful natural
curiosity and that shoulder shrug of, I dunno, that so many of us see by the
time our kids reach primary school.
And that's the gap that I'm most interested in,
And I think curiosity led learning is a big part of closing that gap.
Let me tell you about a student I had in my year two class and
let's call the student C. This is not his real name of course.
C was academically gifted or probably still is.
He was the kid who picked up concepts really easily and quickly.
For children like this, there's always that real chance of boredom setting in,
and for some they even become disruptive.
Of course, I set this child more challenging work because
that's what you would do.
But the real kicker for him was when I started giving the class
dedicated project time twice a week.
The rule was simple.
You could choose anything you wanted to learn about or things that you
were genuinely curious about and you wanted to find out about, but it had
to connect to what we were learning, other words to the curriculum.
But the question, the angle, the way you explore it, the way
you present it, that was yours.
This child C chose to investigate the influenza virus.
He wanted to know, how it was spread and what could be done to prevent it spread.
And of course I let him present his findings, how he wanted, he was on fire.
But here's the thing that really surprised me, or perhaps not so much.
His engagement didn't just stay in that project bubble, that same
energy was brought to everything else, to his reading, his writing
tasks, math, because he remembered
or he knew what it felt like to be genuinely curious, and
that feeling spills over.
When you give a child like C a place where his mind can stretch, really
stretch, he stops just tolerating school and starts loving learning.
Now, let me tell you, in case you think that this type of
learning is just for the gifted.
Let me tell you now about a different student, and let's call her M. M found
reading and writing really hard, and there were actually several children like this.
Every literacy session seemed to remind her of what she couldn't yet do.
She developed what I could only describe as a protective shell.
She'd go quiet, look away, disengage, or find a reason to go to the bathroom.
She learned that school was a place that felt like failure, so she switched off.
But when I introduced Project Time, M chose to investigate rabbits.
She'd been given a rabbit and was captivated by them, and at
first she just drew pictures.
Then she started asking for help, how to write labels.
Then it was, how do you spell these words?
Words that were well above her reading level, but she wanted them
because they were her rabbit words.
They meant something to her.
The shift was quiet but profound.
She started taking more risks in other areas.
She attempted writing tasks she would previously have avoided,
and I don't think that that
was a coincidence when learning feels like it's yours when it connects to
something that you actually care about, it stops being something done to you
and becomes something that you own.
And for children like M who needed to rebuild their confidence as learners,
that ownership was everything.
If you are thinking, oh, I love this idea, but I genuinely,
I don't know where to start.
I've got you.
I have a blog post where I walk you through exactly how I introduced
inquiry in my own classroom, the simple framework I used, how I structured
the time and what I said to the kids.
I link it for you in the show notes or in the description here on YouTube.
So what actually changes?
When children are genuinely interested?
Quite a lot.
It turns out.
For literacy.
Children write more and they write with more intention.
They read.
Because they have a reason to read.
They want to find answers.
They want to record discoveries.
They wanna share their findings.
The reading and writing isn't the task any longer.
It's the tool and tools feel very different to tasks.
Excuse me for numeracy.
Curious children ask measurable questions, how many, how far?
How long they want to count, compare, calculate because the maths is in service
of something that matters to them.
For wellbeing, which is probably the most significant shift of all,
curiosity relates to children's enjoyment of learning and school.
When children feel.
That their interests are valued, that their questions are worth
asking, that school is a place where they can be themselves and
not be afraid of asking questions.
Their sense of belonging, changes and belonging matters enormously.
Particularly for children who've already had negative experiences with learning.
And you don't need a whole curriculum overall to make this work.
You don't need a special room or a big budget or tons of resources.
You need a bit of time and a genuine willingness to let children's
curiosity lead and the belief that their questions are worth following.
Twice a week.
That's all I gave my students initially, at least twice a week to explore something
that mattered to them, and the ripple effect went beyond those sessions.
It was like that thing when you drop the pebble in the middle of the pond and you
have those concentric circles that go out.
If you are a teacher, I'd encourage you to try it.
Start small, give them a question.
What do you wonder about?
And see what comes back.
You might be surprised.
And if you're a parent, the same applies at home.
Follow the snail.
Follow the question about why the sky changes in the color at sunset.
Follow the fascination wherever it leads.
That's curiosity in action.
And that's the beginning of a lifelong love of learning.
And if you want to see just how simple everyday experiences can nurture
curiosity, then download My free e-guide, which has 10 curiosity starters included.
I will link it in the show notes and the description for you.
Thank you so much for spending this time with me today.
If this episode resonated with you, I'd love if you share it with another teacher,
colleague, or parent who needs to hear it.
And if you have a story of your own, a moment where a child's
curiosity led somewhere unexpected, I'd genuinely love to hear it.
Until next time, take care of yourself and be blooming curious.