Question asking practice fosters aspects of curiosity in science content in young children

Abstract

Children who are more curious learn more in school, but little is known about how to promote curiosity-driven behaviors. In a preregistered experiment, 103 children (54 boys, 49 girls, ages 5-7 years) were randomly assigned to a condition in which they were encouraged to ask questions, or to listen carefully, during eight one-on-one science lessons over 2 weeks. Children in the question-asking condition valued new science information significantly more than children in the listening condition (Wilcoxon r = 0.23). Children with less background knowledge, as measured by their baseline vocabulary and science achievement, showed greater curiosity and learning benefits from question-asking. These results suggest that practice with question-asking can boost some aspects of curiosity and learning in science domains.

Fig. 1. Spearman correlations among curiosity measures by condition.

Correlations across both groups are shown in gray text in the top rows. Correlations within the Question-asking condition (QA) are shown in dark blue. Correlations within the Listening (L) condition are shown in light orange. * p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001 uncorrected.

Fig. 2. Main effects of question asking.

Data distributions are shown within the question-asking and listening conditions for four measures of curiosity driven behavior: (a) willingness-to-pay (trade stickers) for new information (a novel video), (b) number of questions asked about a novel animal, (c) exploration following a pedagogical cue during play, and (d) persistence on a challenging task. Science learning (% of post-test questions correct) is shown in (e). Box-plots indicate the following: center line, median; box limits, upper and lower quartiles; whiskers, 1.5x interquartile range. Data points are slightly jittered to prevent overlap.

Fig. 3. Moderations of curiosity and learning outcomes by baseline cognitive skills.

The Listening group is shown in light orange and the Question-Asking group is shown in dark blue. a Scatterplot of the association between baseline science knowledge and willingness-to-pay, by condition (WJ-IV Science x Condition: b = −0.40, 95% CI [−0.70, −0.10], t(97) = −2.65, p = .009; main effect of WJ-IV Science: b = 0.40, 95% CI [0.17, 0.63], t(97) = 3.45, p = .001). b Scatterplot of the association between WISC vocabulary raw scores and science learning, by condition (WISC Vocabulary x Condition: b = −1.80, 95% CI [−3.40, −0.20], t(97) = −2.23, p = .028; main effect of WISC Vocabulary: b = 3.21, 95% CI [1.84, 4.58], t(97) = 4.65, p < 0.001).