Stimulating Curiosity and Science Acquisition

This longitudinal study of students from elementary school through high school examined pathways from parental stimulation of children’s curiosity per se to their science acquisition. Controlling for socio-economic status, parental stimulation of curiosity bore positive and significant relations to science intrinsic motivation and achievement, which in turn related to science acquisition. Results showed that gender neither related to stimulation of curiosity nor contributed to the model. Findings highlight the importance of parental stimulation of children’s curiosity in facilitating trajectories into science, and relevance to science education is discussed.

Gottfried, A. E., Preston, K. S. J., Gottfried, A. W., Oliver, P. H., Delany, D. E., & Ibrahim, S. M. (2016). Pathways from parental stimulation of children’s curiosity to high school science course accomplishments and science career interest and skill.  International Journal of Science Education, 38(12), 1972-1995. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2016.1220690

Longitudinal Study of Gifted Students

The Fullerton Longitudinal Study examines the course of development for intellectually and motivationally gifted children across a breadth of developmental domains including academic, cognitive, self-perceptions, temperament, behavioral, social, family/environmental processes, and adult educational achievement. Major findings regarding these two distinct dimensions of giftedness are presented, with some implications for practice and directions for future research.

Gottfried, A. W., Gottfried, A. E., & Guerin, D. W. (2006). The Fullerton longitudinal study: A long-term investigation of intellectual and motivational giftedness. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 29(4), 430-450. Waco, TX: Prufrock Press Inc. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ746291.pdf

Learning from Errors

This study found that although error avoidance during learning appears to be the rule in American classrooms, it may be a counterproductive strategy, at least for neurologically typical students. Results show that errorful learning followed by corrective feedback is beneficial to learning. Interestingly, the beneficial effects are particularly salient when individuals strongly believe that their error is correct: Errors committed with high confidence are corrected more readily than low-confidence errors. Corrective feedback, including analysis of the reasoning leading up to the mistake, is crucial. Aside from the direct benefit to learners, implications from these findings indicate that teachers can gain valuable information from errors, and error tolerance encourages students’ active, exploratory, generative engagement. If the goal is optimal performance in high-stakes situations, it may be worthwhile to allow and even encourage students to commit and correct errors while they are in low-stakes learning situations rather than to assiduously avoid errors at all costs.

Metcalfe, J. (2017). Learning from errors. Annual Review of Psychology, 68, 465-489. https://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010416-044022