Open AccessBeyond the Books: Teacher Practices and Perceptions of Teaching Caring and Curiosity
Author(s) -
Louis S. Nadelson,
Sandra Nadelson,
Ann Broyles,
Janet Edgar,
Jeryca Einhorn,
Annette Hatchett,
Tabitha Scroggins,
Alicia Skipper,
Cara Ulrich
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of curriculum and teaching
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1927-2685
pISSN - 1927-2677
DOI - 10.5430/jct.v8n3p84
Subject(s) - curiosity , perception , psychology , pedagogy , mathematics education , focus (optics) , empathy , social psychology , neuroscience , physics , optics
Caring and curiosity are fundamental to learning and working well with others. Individuals who are both caring andcurious have empathetic curiosity and want to know about other people and take the initiative to learn aboutperspectives, needs, and goals of those around them. Empathetic curiosity can be enhanced through activities inschools. The goal of our project was to determine teachers’ perceptions and practices associated with teaching andlearning caring and curiosity. The data we collected from 183 K-12 teachers revealed positive perceptions ofteaching caring and curiosity. We found that the instructional methods used to teach caring shifted with the curricularcontent. Our research also revealed that the focus of curiosity changed when the teaching concentrated on contentrather than the instruction method. The teachers relatively limited focus on caring for others when teaching caringsuggests that they may not be considering empathetic curiosity as a learning goal. Based on our findings we interpretour results and provide implications for teaching and learning.