Here's Why Students Need Intellectual Curiosity to Learn
What causes a student to want to learn? Is it the same reason why students want to seek out course-specific knowledge? The standard formula in higher education is to add students and an instructor to a pre-built curriculum, and the result is the creation of a learning environment. To bridge the gap between students and the learning process are planned activities, along with resources to help students engage with the activities. But intellectual curiosity, a process which cannot be controlled, is either inherent or prompted by completion of planned activities or involvement of an instructor. Learning within a formal classroom environment can be an intellectual activity. When the intellect of a student is engaged, cognition is elevated from automatic thinking to higher order thinking, and possibly critical thinking. Intellectual curiosity then, becomes the desire to understand why, when reading new information, the search for an underlying or fundamental premise within what is read tha