Sunday, January 9, 2011
How do you encourage intellectual curiosity?
For the first time, I'm at a loss to engage my sixth graders' interest in research. In past years, students were interested in the topic (directly from their social studies curriculum) and in using new research methods. They were doing high level synthesis and answering the thesis question with analysis that was equal to the high schoolers I used to teach. Every year for the past five the level of interest and quality of analysis has dropped. Is anyone else seeing this? How are you engaging the young tech savvy learner to want to think deeper?
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What if you encouraged students to choose their own topic to research and develop their own thesis?
ReplyDeleteAmanda, I've tried that. It was a disaster. They didn't take it as seriously. The results were the shallowest analysis and thesis I've ever received.
ReplyDeleteThat's a tough predicament. I teach math so it's hard to give much insight into the research aspect. I too though have seen a shift similar to this. I try to stay in touch with their world as much as possible and I think it helps. So if I have to do any type of research I try to give them ideas from the pop culture world as much as I can. I think it kind of helps that I act like a middle school kid myself sometimes :). Good luck!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment. I'm thinking about changing the topics, but hate to give in. I think students need to be able to look beyond their own immediate interests and step outside their comfort level. As teachers, aren't we supposed to challenge them. On the other hand, if they're not engaged the skills aren't being applied and mastered. Any insights?
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