Cultivating the Curious Mind: The Importance of Intellectual Curiosity in Higher Education

by Marni Finkelstein, Ph.D.

What is Curiosity?

Curiosity is a powerful motivator of certain behaviors. It is a basic instinct that allows intelligent beings to learn and master new things in their environment. It is important for survival, learning, and technological advancements (Arnone, Small , Chauncey, & McKenna, 2011).

Intellectual Curiosity

“The need for cognition, epistemic curiosity, and TIE are exemplary representatives of a group of investment trait constructs that describe tendencies to seek out, engage in, enjoy, and pursue opportunities for effortful cognitive activity – in short intellectual curiosity” (von Stromm, Hell, & Chomorro-Premuzic, 2011: 577).

Intellectual CuriosityIntellectual curiosity is comprised of three interrelated

concepts:

1. Epistemic Curiosity – seeking out opportunities for intellectual engagement, seeking out facts and knowledge. In other words, the drive to know things (Berlyne, 1954).

2. Cognition – The tendency to engage in and enjoy thinking (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982)

3. Typical Intellectual Engagement (TIE) – Measures people’s typical expression of engaging with and understanding their environment, and their desire to solve complex, intellectual problems (Goff & Ackerman, 1992)

Motivations for Attending College

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

0102030405060708090

100

To Get a Better JobTo Make More MoneyTo Earn an Educa-tion and Gain an Appreciation of Ideas

Source: Adapted from The American Freshman National Norms 2012. (p. 4) by Pryor, J.H., Eagan, K., Blake, L.P., Hurtado, S, Burdan, J. & Case, M.H. 2012. UCLA Higher Education Research Institute.

Intellectual Curiosity as a Motivator for Learning

Intrinsic Motivation Extrinsic Motivation

Motivation that comes from internal forces

Intrinsically motivated students are motivated because they enjoy the process of increasing their knowledge in regards to a particular academic assignment.

Intrinsically motivated students have more of a desire to learn, perform and succeed to satisfy themselves and their intellectual curiosity.

Motivation that comes from external forces.

Extrinsically motivated students are motivated by attaining or avoiding something outside the self.

Extrinsically motivated students will strive to earn a good grade, or some other type of external reward such as money, job promotion, or awards.

Intellectual Curiosity And Academic Success

Intelligence and effort are the main predictors for academic achievement. However, these predictors are often driven by a third factor – intellectual curiosity. Therefore, these three factors work together as the main pillars of academic success.

Academic

Achievement

Intellectual Curiosity

Effort

Cognitive Ability

Intellectual Curiosity Begins with Us.

“What faculty members exhibit themselves they also desire to instill in their students” (Maki, 2002: 2)

In order to cultivate intellectual curiosity in our students, we first must cultivate it in ourselves. We need to remind ourselves what we found fascinating about our fields in the first place. What attracted us to pursue further explanation or drive us to discover new information. What motivates us as educators to take an interest in contributing new knowledge to our fields.

We also need to remind ourselves why we wanted to teach in the first place. Was it only to train students in the skills they need to gain employment? Or will our teaching goals be better fulfilled by educating students to be critical thinkers and problem solvers, who ask tough question, research the evidence, and come to logical conclusions. Are we satisfied with simply having our students memorize course materials, or do we want to instill within our students a desire to seek additional information, and challenge or question existing theories and practices.

Intellectual Curiosity and the Active Learner Source: (Petriss, 2008)

Active Learning Passive Learning

Actively ask questions to clarify concepts, examples, logic, etc. These questions stimulate further learning.

Challenge ideas, procedures, content relationships, and priorities to allow for intellectual dialogue.

Exhibits a diminished motivation and intellectual curiosity that inhibits spontaneous learning.

Minimal transference of what is learned due to low intellectual curiosity and low enthusiasm for learning.

Active Learning Passive Learning

Extends their intellectual curiosity outside of the classroom by following up with additional readings, and discussions to validate their interest in what they have learned.

Maintain an enthusiastic attitude about learning.

Exchange viewpoints, share what they learned in class, and debate topics with others.

Low retention of what is learned beyond what they need to pass the class. Fails to make connections between what they learn in class and how it applies to their lives.

Does not ask probing, challenging, or logical questions due to lack of curiosity, retention and attention.

Methods to Cultivating the Curious Mind

Socratic Questioning

A teaching strategy used to encourage critical thinking. Intellectual curiosity is stimulated by asking probing questions. Students are encouraged to respond to discussion questions that require evaluation, critical thinking, the consideration of different perspectives, and the application of knowledge. Follow-up student responses with more probing questions (Paul & Elder, 2008).

Experiential Learning

A teaching strategy that incorporates participatory learning opportunities. Its goal is to take the student from a passive listener to an active participant in the class. It rouses intellectual curiosity by engaging the student’s desire to connect what they are learning in class to their own personal goals. Students don’t often retain much of what they have heard or read in class. However, they will better retain what they actively have done in class. The main goal of experiential learning is personal involvement of the student by having them apply concepts to real-life situations. Learning occurs when students apply concepts to different situations, and experience the issues firsthand (Hawtry, 2007).

Role Playing

Collaboration

“The willingness to take intellectual risks can be rare among students because they may be disengaged or they are fearful of taking a controversial stand and earning a bad grade” (Berret, 2012: 3)

As educators, it should be part of our goal to strive to stimulate and renew intellectual curiosity in our students. We need to encourage our students to tackle challenging work, and not to only reward them for their application of intelligence and effort. We need to find ways to also provide our students with opportunities to cultivate curiosity and reward creativity, critical thinking, and novel ideas. We should inspire students to be life-long learners.

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Berrett, D. (2012). Habits of the mind: Lessons for the long term. Chronicle of Higher Education, 59(7), A1-A6.

Cacioppo, J.T., & Petty, R.E. (1982). The need for cognition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42, 116-131.

Fabris, N.J. (2010). Curiosity in contemporary American education. ENCOUNTER: Education for Meaning and Social Justice, 23(2), 1-4.

Goff, M., and Ackerman, P. (1992). Personality-intelligence relations: Assessment of typical intellectual engagement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 84, 537-552.

Hawtry, K. (2007). Using experiential learning techniques. Journal of Economic Education, Spring, 143-152.

Maki, P. (2002). Moving from paperwork to pedagogy: Channeling intellectual curiosity: AAHE Bulletin (May) . Retrieved from http://www.aahea.org/bulletins/articles/paperwork.htm.

Paul, R., & Elder. L. (2008). Critical Thinking: The Art of Socratic Questioning, Part III. Journal of Developmental Education, 31(3), 34-35

Petriss, K. (2008). What is meant by active learning? Education, 18(4), 566-569.

Pryor, J.H, Eagan, K., Blake, L.P, Hurtado, S., Burden, J., & Case, M.H. (2012). The American Freshman: National Norms 2012. Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Higher Education Research Institute.

Von Stumm, S., Hell, B., & Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2011). The hungry mind: Intellectual curiosity is the third pillar of academic performance. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6(6), 574-588.

Walker, C.O., Green, B.A., & Mansell, R.A. (2006). Identification with academics, intrinsic/extrinsic motivation, and

self-efficacy as predictors of cognitive engagement. Learning and Individual Differences (16), 1-12.