Page 89 - Microsoft Word - The Future of Learning April 2017.docx

Curiosity
From a learning perspective, curiosity is difficult to define. It is not a feeling or emotion, but rather an intense sensation that drives us to want to learn and understand our world. Curiosity is an instinct that is embedded within us all. We cannot control our curiosity, and its allure affects everyone. Educators can leverage this universal instinct and engage learners through prompts to be curious, so that they want to learn, rather than them feeling that they must learn.
If we do not consciously challenge ourselves to become learners we can easily become fearful; afraid of possibilities, insecure or embarrassed by not knowing how to learn. Curiosity can be cultivated in everything we do and it is now increasingly viewed as one of our senses.
Being a learner is a state of mind that we need to willingly embrace and not fear.
It is important that the focus of the learning is on what is relevant to the learner and their world. ‘Real-world’ mathematics can be just as tedious and traumatic as abstract mathematics if the contexts used have no relevance to the learner.
In a recent interview, two learners described their learning journey in this way:
In the Learning Process, there is a different attitude to being stuck. If you are stuck it is an okay thing; you are not failing. So, when we are stuck we are in something called ‘the pit’. Sometimes it can be a bit like, you know ... (not great) and you might want to give up but we have a set of tools which gives us clarity about how to get out of the pit. The Learning Process is the main tool that we use. So, the Learning Process is divided up into stages .... Tobias and Jamie.117
77
Resource 35: The language of learning Resource 37: The Language of Learning
117 Treadwell M. July 2012. Stonefields2. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGbGiMeLk_M