Unleashing Curiosity Series
Our Unleashing Curiosity guides are part of McREL’s Curiosity Works® resources. Based in part on a successful system-wide effort in Melbourne, Australia that improved student achievement by unleashing student curiosity, these resources give teachers and school leaders tips, suggestions, and ideas to encourage professional dialogue with other teachers and increase student curiosity. Combining these insights with McREL’s analysis of best education practices from around the world, our Curiosity Works resources support a better way of transforming schools—not through top-down pressure, but through helping teachers and school leaders work together to develop shared professional expertise and leverage the power of motivation and curiosity.
Series information
 |
Unleashing Curiosity with Challenging Learning Tasks Research shows that “scaffolding learning”—providing students with learning that falls in their zone of proximal development (ZPD)—enhances their curiosity and motivation to learn, and learning itself. We also know from numerous studies that intellectual challenge—the desire to become better at something we care about—can be a powerful intrinsic motivator. This 8-page quick referenece guide for teachers provides research-based insights and practical guidance for designing student learning activities that increase cognitive demand, provide students with meaningful choice, and scaffold learning. |
|
 |
Unleashing Curiosity with Feedback That Motivates McREL research shows that feedback may be the most powerful teaching strategy to help students learn. Studies also show, however, that when feedback is delivered in an evaluative or judging way, it shuts down students’ openness to learning and can foster a detrimental “fixed” mindset, casting doubt in students’ minds about their intelligence or abilities. When teachers interact with students in a warm, encouraging manner, their students demonstrate greater curiosity than students whose teachers are rigid, judgmental, or compliance-oriented. This 8-page quick reference guide provides teachers with research-based insights and strategies for providing feedback that encourages student effort and growth. |
|
 |
Unleashing Curiosity by Helping Students Commit to Mastery Learning Simply telling students what they ought to learn tends to quash curiosity. Instead, we want students to commit to mastery (and stay committed) because they’re seeking to satisfy their own curiosity. This 8-page quick reference guide provides research-based insights and practical strategies teachers can use to help their students set personal learning goals, see their pathway to mastering the learning, and connect their learning to purpose and a big picture. |
|
 |
Unleashing Curiosity with Dynamic Cooperation Small group work—cooperative learning—is a flexible and powerful strategy that can maximize learning and the development of the important workplace skills of collaboration, communication, curiosity, and creativity. And students who engage in cooperative learning can learn significantly more, remember what they learn longer, and develop better critical thinking skills. This 8-page quick reference guide gives teachers research-based insights and strategies for creating dynamic cooperative learning activities that help students develop social skills and positive interdependence while also retaining individual accountability. |
|
 |
Unleashing Curiosity with Quality Questioning A question can be more than a means to elicit information. When students answer questions, they begin to understand new information, construct ideas, apply knowledge, and demonstrate understanding. When they ask questions, they begin to form mental models; explore connections among ideas; consider di erent perspectives; elaborate, enrich, and broaden their understanding; and transfer and generalize their knowledge to new situations. This 8-page quick reference guide provides reseaerch-based insights and strategies for helping teachers craft questions that offer appropriate cognitive challenge, spark curiosity, match stages of learning, and support a community of student learners. |
|
|
|
Unleashing Curiosity by Assessing for Learning Using assessment as a learning tool often requires a shift in our views of the purpose of assessment, how students demonstrate learning, what is done with the results, and how classroom culture supports learning. This 8-page quick reference guide provides fresh thinking and practical advice to help teachers |
|
 |
Unleashing Curiosity Quick Guides - Complete Set McREL's Unleashing Curiosity quick reference guides present research-based strategies and practical guidance for teachers in a way that's easy to understand and adapt for use in your classroom. This complete set includes all six quick guides designed to help you develop your students’ intellectual curiosity, motivation to learn, and academic success—plus, bonus content to help you and your colleagues get started and keep going!
|
Our Unleashing Curiosity guides are part of McREL’s Curiosity Works® resources. Based in part on a successful system-wide effort in Melbourne, Australia that improved student achievement by unleashing student curiosity, these resources give teachers and school leaders tips, suggestions, and ideas to encourage professional dialogue with other teachers and increase student curiosity. Combining these insights with McREL’s analysis of best education practices from around the world, our Curiosity Works resources support a better way of transforming schools—not through top-down pressure, but through helping teachers and school leaders work together to develop shared professional expertise and leverage the power of motivation and curiosity.