Teaching the Skill of Curiosity

Curiosity is a skill.  

Okay, here’s the deal—if that sentence bothered you, you may need to stop reading immediately. If we accept that belief drives behavior (and given that this is a principle, its truth is not dependent on our acceptance of it), then it follows that if we do not believe curiosity is a skill, our behavior will not allow for us to teach this skill.

And if we are not actively teaching this skill, we are shortchanging our students.

Still reading? Wonderful—that means I can talk about my energizing conversation with Dr. Jen Bennett who teaches entrepreneurship at Indiana Wesleyan University. I regularly seek out university professors in the entrepreneurship space to better understand how we, as K-12 schools, can prepare our students. And when I asked Dr. Bennett how she teaches entrepreneurship, her answer surprised me at first.

“Stephen,” she said, “I start by teaching the skill of curiosity. And this begins with removing the blockers of curiosity.”

Turns out, according to Dr. Bennett, there are three primary blockers that keep us from developing our curiosity—and the first one is our phones. This should be no surprise to any of us as we ourselves often use these devices to divert our attention as soon as we encounter a free moment.

Next is our routines—if we stick to the same routine, day after day after day, we fail to encounter new experiences that often lead to opportunities. While routines are wonderful for establishing habits, they can be detrimental when we are working to develop curiosity.

The third blocker is comfort zones. This one struck me powerfully as it resonated with the words of Dr. Tim Holcomb, director of the John W. Altman Institute for Entrepreneurship at Miami University—Tim told me that the two skills he works to develop in his students include problem solving and getting comfortable with being uncomfortable.

If, at the university level, students are being encouraged to develop the skill of curiosity by getting comfortable with being uncomfortable, how can we, in K-12 schools, best prepare students for this environment?

Simple—remove the blockers. Once we do that, it is time to encourage the entrepreneurial mindset: asking “what if?” and “why not?” means seeing problems as opportunities and then seizing those opportunities and seeing what happens.

The future of education is bright indeed!  

‍

Ready for Engaging Entrepreneurship Curriculum?

When it comes to teaching entrepreneurship, it is essential to start with mindset—if we can help students think like entrepreneurs, they are being set up for success in all areas of life. This means teaching (and effectively teaching) growth mindset, grit, redefining failure, and opportunity seeking.  

It also means relying on the experiences and best practices of others. If your students would benefit from lessons designed specifically to teach the entrepreneurial mindset in a project-based manner that blends hands-on approaches with innovative education, then we’ve got the curriculum for you.

Connect to learn more—Let’s Go!

‍