Year: 2011
Type: article
Abstract: There is a debate in the psychological and educational communities over the definitions of epistemic and diversive curiosity and their relative importance.Schmitt and Lahroodi (2008) propose epistemic curiosity is the drawing of one"s attention to a topic and a motivationally original desire to know it.The purpose of this study is to support this definition, add a positive affective component, and characterize both types of curiosity in the lives of non-science and science professors and students using qualitative methods.A sample of eight college freshman and seven professors were interviewed using a questionnaire designed to take participants through an instance of epistemic curiosity they experienced and then explore curiosity"s role in their life in general.The proposed definition of epistemic curiosity was supported and extended to include recursive motivation.Qualitative differences were found between the epistemic curiosity experiences of science and non-science participants.In addition, differences were found between professors" and students" approaches to investigating epistemic curiosity.All groups reported that curiosity played a large role in their lives.The author discusses how to use students" epistemic curiosity to improve science education following Tinker"s (1997) model, which should nurture students" diversive curiosity and lead to more students pursuing science fields upon graduation.ivFor my dad, who always believes in me.v Acknowledgements This thesis would not have been possible without the love, support, and encouragement I received from my husband, parents, and sister.As I learn more and more about educating children, I can only marvel at the skill and dedication my parents put forth to educate me and my sister from infancy to the present day.I can not imagine getting this far without their hard work, and I am eternally grateful.I would also like to specially thank my husband, who spent several days and many late nights proofreading the many versions of this work.I would also like to acknowledge my professors.I have benefited greatly from the mentoring I received from Rebecca Schneider and the comments I received from Revathy
Author: Rebecca L. Mays Dinwoodie
Institution: University of Toledo
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2188330408