Toward a Curiosity Mindset: Reframing the Problem of Student Disengagement from Classroom Instruction
The European Educational Researcher, Volume 5, Issue 3, October 2022, pp. 313-317
OPEN ACCESS VIEWS: 1295 DOWNLOADS: 1027 Publication date: 15 Oct 2022
OPEN ACCESS VIEWS: 1295 DOWNLOADS: 1027 Publication date: 15 Oct 2022
ABSTRACT
Reduced student engagement in formal instruction is a problem that pervades classrooms across the educational spectrum. Students have been shown to commonly experience the negative emotions of boredom and inattentiveness (Bunce, Flens, & Neiles, 2010; Mann & Robinson, 2009; Young, Robinson, & Alberts, 2011) as well as vigilance decrement (Grier et al., 2003). Studies have revealed that more than 40% of high-school students usually remain disengaged from learning (Usher and Kober, 2012) and few (as little as 8%) reach a developmental level characterized by intrinsic motivation, attention, and effort (Lawson & Masyn, 2015; Scherrer & Preckel, 2018). Because student interest in the instructional topics and pedagogical activities rapidly decreases or is completely lost, students withdraw their attention from instruction in favor of off-task behaviors such as daydreaming, doodling, or inappropriate use of technology (Adams, 2006; Bugeja, 2007; Fink, 2010; Gilroy, 2004; Nworie & Haughton, 2008). Despite teachers’ best efforts, maintaining high levels of student interest during class time and avoiding disengagement from the learning process constitutes a challenging pedagogical endeavor, particularly in the context of classroom discussions and lectures (Lemke, 1990; Nunn, 1996).
KEYWORDS
Curiosity Mindset, Student Disengagement, Classroom Instruction
CITATION (APA)
Oliveira, A. W., & Lathrop, R. (2022). Toward a Curiosity Mindset: Reframing the Problem of Student Disengagement from Classroom Instruction. The European Educational Researcher, 5(3), 313-317. https://doi.org/10.31757/euer.535
REFERENCES
- Adams, D. (2006). Wireless laptops in the classroom (and the Sesame Street syndrome). Communications of the ACM, 49(9), 25-27.
- Ainley, M. (2019). Curiosity and interest: Emergence and divergence. Educational Psychology Review, 31(4). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-019-09495-z
- Bugeja, M. (2007). Distractions in the wireless classroom. Chronicle of Higher Education, 53(21), 1-4.
- Bunce, D., Flens, E., & Neiles, K. (2010). How long can students pay attention in class?: A study of student attention decline using clickers. Chemical Education Research, 87, 1438-1443.
- Cain, J. (2019). We should pay more attention to student curiosity. Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning, 11(7), 651–654.
- Christenson, S., & Thurlow, M. (2004). School dropouts: Prevention, considerations, interventions, and challenges. American Psychological Society, 13(1), 36-39.
- Fink, J. (2010). Why we banned use of laptops and “scribe notes” in our classroom. American
- Gilroy, M. (2004). Invasion of the classroom cell phones. Education Digest, 69(6), 56-60. Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 74(6), 1-2.
- Grier, R., Warm, J., Dember, W., Matthews, G., Galinsky, T., Szalma, J., et al. (2003). The vigilance decrement reflects limitations in effortful attention, not mindlessness. Human Factors, 45, 349-359.
- Grossnickle, E.M. (2014). Disentangling curiosity: Dimensionality, definitions, and distinctions from interest in educational contexts. Educational Psychology Review, 28(1), 23–60.
- Jirout, J.J., Zumbrunn, S., Evans, N.S., & Vitiello, V.E. (2022). Development and testing of the curiosity in classrooms framework and coding protocol. Frontiers in Psychology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.875161
- Lawson, M.A., & Masyn, K.E. (2015). Analyzing profiles, predictors, and consequences of student engagement dispositions. Journal of School Psychology, 53(1), 63–86.
- Lemke, J. L. (1990). Talking science: Language, learning and values. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
- Leslie, I. (2015). Curious: The desire to know and why your future depends on it. New York, NY: Basic Books.
- Lindholm, M. (2018). Promoting curiosity? Possibilities and pitfalls in science education. Science and Education, 27. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-018-0015-7
- Litman, J. A. (2010). Relationships between measures of I- and D-type curiosity, ambiguity tolerance, and need for closure: An initial test of the wanting-liking model of information-seeking. Personality and Individual Differences, 48(4), 397–402.
- Litman, J. A., Collins, R. P., & Spielberger, C. D. (2005). The nature and measurement of sensory curiosity. Personality and Individual Differences, 39(6), 1123–1133.
- Mann, S., & Robinson, A. (2009). Boredom in the lecture theatre: An investigation into the contributors, moderators and outcomes of boredom amongst university students. British Educational Research Journal, 35, 243-258.
- Moore, S., Armstrong, C., & Pearson, J. (2008). Lecture absenteeism among students in higher education: A valuable route to understanding student motivation. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 30(1), 15-24.
- Nunn, C.E. (1996). Discussion in the college classroom: Triangulating observational and survey results. The Journal of Higher Education, 67, 243-266.
- Nworie, J., & Haughton, N. (2008). The unintended consequences of the application of technology in teaching and learning environments. TechTrends, 52(5), 52-58.
- Pekrun, R. (2019). The murky distinction between curiosity and interest: State of the art and future prospects. Educational Psychology Review, 31(4), 905–914.
- Scherrer, V., & Preckel, F. (2018). Development of motivational variables and self-esteem during the school career: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. Review of Educational Research, 89(2), 211–258.
- Shin, D.D., & Kim, S. (2019). Homo curious: Curious or interested? Educational Psychology Review, 31(4), 853–874.
- Tan, D., & Maeda, Y. (2021). Perceptions of science teachers’ growth-mindset practices and U.S. high school students’ initial science identity and its development. International Journal of Science Education, 1–20.
- Uekawa, K., Borman, K., & Lee, R. (2007). Student engagement in US urban high school mathematics and science classrooms: Finding on social organization, race, and ethnicity. Urban Review: Issues and Ideas in Public Education, 39(1), 1-43.
- Usher, A., & Kober, N. (2012). Student motivation: An overlooked piece of school reform. Retrieved online from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED532666.pdf
- Watson, K., Matthews, B., & Allman, J. (2007). Brain activation during sight gags and language-dependent humor. Cerebral Cortex, 17, 314-324.
- Young, M., Robinson, S., & Alberts, P. (2011). Students pay attention!: Combating the vigilance decrement to improve learning during lectures. Active Learning in Higher Education, 10, 41-55.
LICENSE
![Creative Commons License](https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/4.0/88x31.png)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.