Students lack curiosity in classrooms<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): As a university lecturer, one quality I
\nabsolutely want to see in my students is a healthy dose of
\ncuriosity. Unfortunately, this is real life we're talking about,
\nwhere you don't always get what you want.<\/p>\n
As much as I want to see curiosity, it's not there sometimes.
\nThe students come to class like empty vessels waiting to be
\nfilled.<\/p>\n
In some cases they are vessels with holes in the bottom, so
\nthat no matter how much you pour in, by the next week you'll find
\nonly a scant trace left. I would very much prefer my students to
\nbe sponges instead of vessels.<\/p>\n
By sponges I mean that they should be ready to absorb all the
\nknowledge available out there and hold that knowledge in the
\nsmall pores of the sponge.<\/p>\n
Somehow, without us knowing it, curiosity died.<\/p>\n
This is very sad because without curiosity how is it possible
\nto learn? Without curiosity, how is it possible for new
\ninventions to be conceived? Without curiosity, how is possible to
\nbe creative?<\/p>\n
Remember back to your childhood when you would question just
\nabout everything: Why do stars shine? Where do butterflies come
\nfrom? Why does it rain? And, perhaps, even the question which
\ngave your parents headaches in explaining: Where do babies come
\nfrom? All of these questions are signs of curiosity.<\/p>\n
Now remember how creative you were as a child, taking a bed
\nsheet and turning it into a castle, or taking a stick and
\ntransforming it into a mighty sword.<\/p>\n
Curiosity and creativity are definitely related. Children are
\nvery curious and as a result they are very creative as well. They
\ninvent things to fill up their magical, make-believe world.<\/p>\n
However, something happened in the growing up years. Children
\nlost the curiosity they had. It's almost as if being a grown up
\nmeant that you should no longer ask questions. This can clearly
\nbe seen in the classroom.<\/p>\n
Every time the teacher asks: "Any questions?", there is dead
\nsilence. Suddenly students find that the dirt on the sole of
\ntheir shoe is more interesting.<\/p>\n
It's even worse when the teacher asks a question. The
\nstudents' eyes dart this way and that, looking at everything
\nexcept the lecturer, as though eye contact would mean the
\nlecturer would expect them to answer the question.<\/p>\n
Students are both afraid of asking questions and answering
\nquestions. The reason for their fear varies. Some students don't
\nask questions fearing friends might laugh at them. Some students
\ndon't ask questions fearing that the teacher would bite their
\nheads off for not understanding something that had already been
\nexplained.<\/p>\n
Other students don't say a word in class because either they
\nthink that "silence is golden" or they have their minds somewhere
\nelse so they wouldn't even be able to come up with a relevant
\nquestion.<\/p>\n
It's difficult to change the students' attitude toward the
\nhabit of asking questions. The students have been accustomed to
\nstaying silent in class for 12 years.<\/p>\n
Teachers should really encourage their students to ask
\nquestions. Questions are signs of curiosity. If they are asking
\nquestions that means that they want to broaden their knowledge.<\/p>\n
Jordan Ayan, author of Aha! 10 Ways to Free Your Creative
\nSpirit and Find Your Great Ideas, uses a funnel to describe the
\nrelationship between curiosity and knowledge. The flow from the
\nneck of the funnel represents what you have learned over a life
\ntime, that is "what you know".<\/p>\n
Contained in the large part of the funnel is all the knowledge
\nthat you know is out there, but which you have not yet had the
\ntime to learn. This is "what you know you don't know".<\/p>\n
Above the funnel is a vast open area which is the amount of
\nknowledge out there without you being aware of its existence.
\nThis is "what you don't know you don't know".<\/p>\n
In being curious, you are trying to get more of the "what you
\ndon't know you don't know" area to the "what you know you don't
\nknow" area so that later on it could flow through the neck of the
\nfunnel to the "what you know" area.<\/p>\n
There is so much knowledge out there above the funnel and so
\nlittle time to make it flow through the funnel. It is time to
\nencourage questions in children instead of telling them that
\nthey're asking too many questions.<\/p>\n
If we encourage this in children from a tender age, we might
\nsave ourselves the trouble of sending kids to extra classes after
\nschool because they would already have the curiosity to learn
\nmore about the new things they encounter in the classroom.<\/p>\n
Let's do what we can to bring curiosity back to life again.
\nThere may be a flat line on the EKG (Elektrokardiogramm) but
\nmaybe we can jump-start it back to life.<\/p>\n
-- Laila Faisal<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/students-lack-curiosity-in-classrooms-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }