Research: Exploring the Link Between Childhood Curiosity and School Achievement
The more curious the child, the more likely he or she may be to perform better in 学校 — regardless of economic background — suggests a new study published in Pediatric Research.
Researchers at University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital and the Center for Human Growth and Development analyzed data from 6,200 kindergartners from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, 出生队列. The cohort is a nationally representative, population-based study sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education that has followed thousands of children since birth in 2001.
The U-M team measured curiosity based on a behavioral questionnaire from parents and assessed 阅读 and 数学 成就 among kindergartners.
The most surprising association offered new insight: Children with lower socioeconomic status generally have lower 成就 than peers, but those who were characterized as curious performed similarly on 数学 and 阅读 assessments as children from higher-income families.
“Our results suggest that while higher curiosity is associated with higher academic 成就 in all children, the association of curiosity with academic 成就 is greater in children with low socioeconomic status,” says lead 研究er Prachi Shah, M.D., a developmental and behavioral pediatrician at Mott and an assistant 研究 scientist at U-M’s Center for Human Growth and Development.
The findings present an opportunity for families, educators and policymakers.
“Curiosity is characterized by the joy of discovery and the desire for exploration and is characterized by the motivation to seek answers to the unknown,沙阿说。. “Promoting curiosity in children, especially those from environments of economic disadvantage, may be an important, underrecognized way to address the 成就 gap.”
When it comes to nurturing curiosity, the quality of the early environment matters.
Children who grow up in financially secure conditions tend to have greater access to resources to encourage 阅读 and 数学 academic 成就, w在这里as those from poorer communities are more likely to be raised in less stimulating environments, 沙阿说. In less-stimulating situations, the drive for academic 成就 is related to a child’s motivation to learn, 或好奇心, 她指出.
沙阿说 that fostering early academic 成就 in young children has been a long-standing goal for pediatricians and policymakers — with a growing awareness of the role social-emotional skills have in 学校 readiness.
“Promoting curiosity is a foundation for early 学习 that we should be emphasizing more when we look at academic 成就.”
读了 全文 on the University of Michigan’s Health Lab blog. The study abstract is available 在这里.
