How to encourage curious thinking? 10 practical tips for home and the classroom
Why curiosity matters for learning
Why?
It may be one of the most powerful questions a child can ask. Why is the sky blue? Why can birds fly? Why did I react that way? Why does someone else see this so differently? Curiosity begins when we realize there is something we do not yet know or understand. That small gap between what we already know and what we want to discover can prompt us to ask questions, investigate, and think more deeply.
That is what makes curiosity so valuable for learning. Research has found connections between curiosity, attention, exploration, and the retention of new information. Research also suggests that curiosity is not simply a fixed trait: the environment can help foster it.¹ ² That matters in a world where information is becoming increasingly easy to access. With a search engine or AI, children can find an answer within seconds. But getting an answer is not the same as understanding what you want to know, why it matters, and whether the answer is actually accurate.
In an earlier article, I wrote about why gifted children need to learn how to think, not just know the answers. But how can we create room for this kind of curious thinking at home and in the classroom?
Curiosity can spark learning
Curiosity is sometimes viewed as a personality trait: some children are simply more curious than others. There are indeed individual differences. But that does not mean curiosity is entirely fixed.
Curiosity can arise when children realize there is something interesting to discover. An unexpected outcome, a question without an obvious answer, or information that conflicts with what they thought they knew can create a desire to find out more. That does not mean a curious child automatically learns better. Effective instruction, prior knowledge, practice, and guidance remain important. But curiosity can provide an entry point into learning.
A child who genuinely wants to understand why something happens has a reason to seek information, make connections, and spend more time exploring a question. And that, to me, is an important role of education: not only providing answers, but also creating situations in which children want to know more.
What about gifted children?
When it comes to gifted children, we need to be careful not to tell an appealing but overly simple story. Not every gifted child is constantly curious. Not every gifted child enjoys open-ended assignments or inquiry-based learning. And there is no single way to motivate all gifted children. Research does suggest that motivation and interest are important factors in gifted education, while also showing that gifted students are a diverse group. Their educational needs therefore cannot be inferred from one general profile.³ ⁴
For some cognitively advanced students, curiosity may be sparked when learning offers sufficient intellectual depth. When a student has already mastered certain material, more repetition is not automatically the best way to engage them in new learning. A more complex question, an unfamiliar problem, or an opportunity to investigate a topic in greater depth may create new opportunities for thinking.
So the goal is not simply to protect the “natural curiosity of the gifted child.” A more useful question is: What kind of learning environment gives this child, at this moment, a reason to want to keep thinking?
Being curious about yourself and others
When we think of curiosity, we often think of science, technology, or questions about how the world works. But children can also be curious about themselves and other people. Why did I get so angry? Why does this make me nervous? Why is it easier to work with one person than another? Why does my classmate see the same situation so differently? Questions like these can help children pause before immediately judging or reacting and instead explore what is happening. That is different from claiming that curiosity automatically leads to empathy, self-confidence, or social-emotional development. Those relationships are much more complex. But an investigative mindset can create room for perspective-taking and reflection.
Instead of thinking, “He is always so annoying,” a child might learn to wonder, “Why might he be reacting this way?”
And instead of, “I just can’t do this,” they might ask, “What is happening here that is causing me to get stuck?”
In this way, curiosity becomes not only a way to explore the world around us, but also a way to step back and examine our own thoughts, feelings, and behavior.
Curiosity needs room to grow
A child will not voice every thought, question, or doubt. To do so, children need to experience that their questions are taken seriously, that it is okay not to know, and that giving a wrong answer will not immediately lead to rejection. This does not mean that curiosity and psychological safety simply have a direct, two-way causal relationship. But the way adults respond to questions, ideas, and mistakes does influence how much room children feel they have to speak up and explore.
A curiosity-supportive learning environment therefore does not begin with a spectacular activity. Sometimes it begins with something much smaller. A teacher who says, “Interesting. How could you find out?” A parent who does not immediately provide the answer. Or a classroom where two different explanations can coexist while students investigate which one is better supported by the evidence.
Can you encourage curiosity?
Yes, to some extent. A meta-analysis of 41 studies involving a total of 4,496 participants found that interventions designed to enhance curiosity had, on average, a positive effect on curiosity. The effects varied depending on the approach, but the research does support the idea that curiosity is not entirely fixed.² That does not mean that each of the strategies below has been scientifically proven as a separate “curiosity intervention.” Instead, think of them as practical ways to create more room for questions, investigation, reflection, and different possibilities.
10 ways to encourage curious thinking
1. Don’t always give the answer right away
When a child asks a question, our first instinct is often to answer it. Sometimes that is exactly what is needed. But at other times, you might first ask, “What do you think?” “How could we find out?” or “What possibilities can you think of?” This gives children time to draw on what they already know, develop a possible explanation, and put their reasoning into words. You can, of course, still add information or provide an explanation afterward. Curiosity-driven learning does not mean children have to discover everything on their own.
2. Value good questions, not just correct answers
At school, the correct answer is often highly visible: it earns a check mark, a point, or praise. A good question receives far less attention. Try occasionally pausing to acknowledge an interesting question: “I hadn’t thought of that.” Or, “That’s a question we could investigate further.”
This shows children that learning is not only about demonstrating what they already know, but also about discovering what they do not yet understand.
3. Ask children to make predictions
Before explaining what will happen, ask children what they expect and why. Whether you are exploring an experiment, a story, a historical question, or a natural phenomenon, making a prediction can encourage children to activate what they already know and form an expectation. The actual outcome then becomes more interesting: Was the prediction accurate? If not, what might we have overlooked? The goal is not to guess correctly. It is to create a reason to want to understand the outcome.
4. Let children see that you don’t know everything
“I actually don’t know. Should we find out?” For an adult, this may sound almost too simple. But for a child, it can communicate something important: not knowing is not a problem you need to hide. It is often the beginning of learning. You are also modeling something valuable: adults look up information, revise their ideas, and continue discovering new things too.
5. Ask questions that open up thinking
Not every open-ended question is automatically a good question. “What do you think about it?” can easily lead to a superficial answer. More useful questions invite children to reason: “How do you know?” “What other explanation might be possible?” or “What would change if…?” This shifts the focus from the answer itself to the thinking behind it.
6. Make room for wonder
Not every interesting moment needs to be immediately turned into a learning objective. An unusual cloud, an insect on the window, an unexpected experiment, a work of art, or a strange news story can simply be an opportunity to pause, observe, and ask questions. We do not need to make the moment bigger than it is. Sometimes, “Huh, I wonder why that happens?” is enough.
7. Laat kinderen iets uitproberen
Build a bridge that can hold as much weight as possible. Act out different reactions in a role-play. Explore which materials float. Experimenting makes a question concrete. A child comes up with an idea, tries it, observes what happens, and then adjusts the approach. The value is not only in making or doing something. The conversation around it can make the learning much richer: Why do you think that happened? What did you change? What would you like to test next?
8. Ask for another possibility
The first answer is not always the only answer. When a child has found a solution, you might ask, “Could it be done another way?” or “Can you think of a solution that works completely differently?”
Not because more solutions are always better, but because it can be valuable to deliberately move beyond the first idea. Then children can compare possibilities: Which solution is most useful, original, fair, or effective, and why?
9. Investigate mistakes instead of simply correcting them
A mistake does not have to be celebrated for us to learn from it. Instead of only pointing out what went wrong, explore it together: “Where did your reasoning change?” “What did work?” or “What might you try differently next time?” In this way, a mistake becomes information. I
It is also important not to casually assume that children automatically “learn from their mistakes.” Sometimes they need explanation, prior knowledge, or guidance before they can understand why something went wrong.
10. Give children problems that matter
A question such as “How could we reduce the amount of waste our school produces?” is very different from a worksheet where all the answers are already known. With meaningful problems, children often first need to determine what the problem actually is, what information they need, and what conditions a possible solution needs to meet. That can spark curiosity because there is genuinely something to investigate.
But the same principle applies here: an open-ended problem is not automatically good teaching. Children need sufficient knowledge, structure, and guidance to learn from it effectively.
Curiosity is not a gimmick
Encouraging curiosity does not mean every lesson has to be spectacular, surprising, or completely student-directed. Sometimes good instruction is exactly what a child needs. Sometimes something simply needs to be practiced. And sometimes students need more knowledge before they can meaningfully investigate an interesting question.
Curiosity-driven education is therefore not about replacing knowledge with questions. It is about the interplay between the two. Knowledge gives children more and more to think about. Curiosity gives them a reason to want to know more.
Curious thinking can be developed
Curiosity is not simply something a child either has or does not have. Research on curiosity-enhancing interventions suggests that the environment can influence it.² At the same time, we should be cautious about the popular comparison of curiosity to “a muscle” that automatically becomes stronger the more it is exercised. Curiosity depends too much on the topic, the individual, and the situation for that comparison to be quite so simple.
For The Curious Mind Expedition, curiosity is therefore not an isolated skill for children to check off a list. It is a starting point for learning. We want to offer children not only knowledge, but also opportunities for that knowledge to spark new questions. Opportunities to explore different perspectives, reconsider their own ideas, think together, and discover that not knowing does not have to be the end of the process.
You can see this approach reflected in the enrichment programs from The Curious Mind Expedition. We combine intellectual challenge with investigation, discussion, creativity, reflection, and social-emotional development.
Not because every child is curious in the same way.
But because education can make room for something that is easily lost when only the correct answer matters:
The desire to keep learning and discovering.
References
- Van Schijndel, T. J. P., & Jansen, B. R. J. (2025). Integrating lines of research on children’s curiosity-driven learning. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 252, 106168.
- Schutte, N. S., & Malouff, J. M. (2023). A meta-analytic investigation of the impact of curiosity-enhancing interventions. Current Psychology, 42, 20374–20384.
- Kuznetsova, A., Liashenko, V., Zhozhikashvili, N., & Arsalidou, M. (2024). Giftedness identification and cognitive, physiological and psychological characteristics of gifted children: a systematic review. Frontiers in Psychology, 15, 1411981.
- Fernández-Batanero, J. M. et al. (2021). Analysing educational interventions with gifted students: Systematic review. Children, 8(5), 365. De review benadrukt juist de diversiteit van onderwijsbehoeften en het belang van geïndividualiseerde aanpassingen.
Curiosity starts with one good question!
Curiosity is the driving force behind learning. Download a free lesson from The Curious Mind Expedition and discover how children can learn to investigate, think deeply and ask meaningful questions. They’ll experience that the best discoveries often begin with a single great question. You’ll also receive occasional inspiration, practical teaching tips, and new insights.
