Pages

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

curiosity killed the cat... or wait - maybe not

I ran across this TED talk last night and that really resonated with me.  Here are a few key points:
  • Curiosity is good and leads to questions
  • Questions are good and lead to a search for answers
  • Questions should come first then instruction vs. lecture then questions

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ted-talks-education/speaker/ramsey-musallam/
the talk is only 6 minutes long - I would highly recommend checking it out

OK so I know I am a total dork - but I have been thinking about this subject from several different angles: 

  1. My husband has a research lab and remarks that his students that do well are the ones that are able to think of questions about the process and then go out to search for the answers. I wonder if this is a skill that can be taught? How do you encourage this behavior or get someone to do it on their own when it is not an inherent skill?
  2. My 17 year old nephew is staying with me for the summer and I am not sure how to encourage the "curious learner" style.  I have tried all sorts of things like introducing Kahn Academy video learning, talking about grant opportunities (asking him to research), and asking open ended questions about what he wants to do after high school and how he might go about making it happen.
  3. Personally this relates to my own search for what's next.  I am constantly going down rabbit holes searching for more information on my chosen subject (knitting, personal finance, blogging!)  But then I question myself and wonder - am I spending too much time on the wrong thing? Am I looking in the wrong place?  The path is not always obvious....

Have you ever gone down a rabbit hole fueled with curiosity? What did you find? :)

No comments:

Post a Comment