If curiosity kills the cat, it does the opposite for us humans. Curiosity is an essential ingredient of a meaningful life, says Scott Shigeoka, an internationally recognized curiosity expert, TED speaker, and author of Seek: How Curiosity Can Transform Your Life and Change the World (Balance, 2023). Scott’s experience includes a fellowship at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center and a stint as the Head of Curiosity Cultivation at the Eames Institute. In this ISTE+ASCD interview, he shares how to reignite curiosity in learning—and in life.
What drew you to study curiosity at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center?
The Greater Good Science Center is interested in popularizing the research around what a meaningful life looks like and what it takes to build one. So that’s all about well-being: relationships, awe, compassion, happiness, and curiosity.
One of the big reasons why I love curiosity is because we all can connect to it universally. We can remember moments as children or adults where curiosity led us to explore and learn new things and have “aha” moments. That’s a gratifying experience.
But what I’m really excited about is how do we take curiosity, which is a desire to understand and know things, and apply it to our hearts, not just in our minds? What I mean by that is, how do we use curiosity as a way to turn toward other people and to really understand them in a deeper way—whether those are people we know well or those we know very little about, like strangers we’re meeting for the first time or people in our community.
This idea of building a world where we prioritize understanding one another in our deepest, fullest humanity—not operating off labels that don’t fully define us—excites me. A world that is about this playful, gratifying experience of learning and that has deep connection rooted at the center of it, all of which can be achieved through curiosity.
How can educators use curiosity to strengthen relationships with students?
It’s not just students, right? It’s about how they can use curiosity with fellow educators, with administrators, with parents, with community members. It goes in many different directions, and even toward themselves. How do I better understand myself as an educator? What drew me to this work? What are my strengths and competencies that I want to lean into?
Get curious about what other educators are doing to cultivate curiosity. I’ve heard of such beautiful activities that teachers are leading. For instance, in a 2nd grade class, a teacher starts off with a curious question as soon as the students come in the door, and that question changes every day. It’s an opportunity to not just have students reflect and share their own perspectives and lived experiences, but it’s a way for the teacher to norm curiosity as something they value.
I’ve also heard of high school teachers inviting their students to get curious about a community or a part of their neighborhood that they’re not familiar with. Maybe they go to a cultural festival or check out a nonprofit or a community center to get exposed to new perspectives and new kinds of people. There’s something strategic about making that a homework assignment—giving students the courage and the push that they sometimes need to actually be curious and to go to places that maybe stretch beyond what they’re comfortable with.
If a teacher wants to connect with a hard-to-reach student, what kind of questions could they ask? How could they show genuine curiosity?
First, you have to really get to know the person in front of you as a full human outside of academics: What are they interested in? What are their likes and dislikes? What does home feel like to them?
Second, it’s important to reveal things about yourself. You’re not the only person who needs to exercise their curiosity; you also can invite students to exercise their curiosity toward you. One of the best ways you can do that is by revealing things about your life, while of course being thoughtful about disclosures. This is a reciprocal human interaction that requires our curiosity to go in both directions.
Third, remember that this desire to want to fix things or this desire for urgency doesn’t need to always be met. Sometimes when we’re dealing with someone who might be a little bit more challenging to us for whatever reason, we’re tempted to make change happen now. How do we use our curiosity to actually slow down and say, wow, this is about me understanding where you’re at—about gaining a better handle on the environment and the situation—and what you have and haven’t tried. It’s me exploring with you. We’re on a journey together. Most behavioral changes don’t need to happen immediately.
How do we use curiosity as a way to turn toward other people and to really understand them in a deeper way?
Beyond using AI to answer questions, could AI or other digital tools help students generate better questions or discover new directions for their curiosity?
Yes. Using AI requires a lens of curiosity because you have to write the right prompts. Helping students develop a strong sense of inquiry and craft sharp questions will only strengthen their ability to use these technological tools to their advantage.
AI has to be paired, in my opinion, with something deeply human that exists outside of the technology space. Encourage students to explore questions, but also remind them that it is only one source of information. It is not always correct. There are stories and wisdom and knowledge that exist outside of these platforms that they should be encouraged to explore.
Think about it as a pairing exercise: If you’re going to use AI to explore this question that you’re really interested in as a student, what is the other more human tool or practice that you’re going to use to pair that with? That might be talking to someone and doing research through conversation. One of the best things you can do is remind students that AI is not the sole place where they should go to get their information.
Every teacher knows that moment when curiosity fades—the vacant eyes, the boredom settling in. How can educators sustain curiosity past that initial spark?
Students need to learn that curiosity is something that can be embodied. Maybe you can take them on a color walk—that’s really big on TikTok right now. You pick a color, like blue, and go around the school or neighborhood and spot all the things with the color blue in them.
Or you do a curiosity walk and have students find things that are novel or new that they didn’t notice before. Using the power of observation and creating a relationship with the natural world is a fantastic way to spark and reawaken curiosity.
It’s important to remember that students are probably getting bored and they’re probably not engaged because there is a lack of curiosity. Curiosity is an energizer. It releases dopamine. It encourages action and facilitates our engagement with intellectual pursuits. If you’re sensing that boredom is happening, that’s probably a good barometer that curiosity is diminished. That’s a reminder for you as an educator to find new ways of awakening curiosity.
I want a world where we are so curious that we don’t cancel, but we call in.
What’s one of your favorite curiosity practices that educators can use with students or with their colleagues?
One that comes to mind is being an “admitter,” which is basically a person who has intellectual humility, someone who recognizes the limits to their knowledge or to their understanding of the world. They say, “I don’t know the answer to that question,” or “I thought I knew the answer, but I was wrong. Here’s the truth.”
Encourage students to take the same approach, because there is such an epidemic of perfectionism that exists right now, especially in a lot of the high schools that I visit. I talk to students and they’re like, “I have to have everything right, and I have to be perfect, and I have to be so dialed in.” And I’m like, “No, it’s OK to loosen your grip and to embrace cringe as something creative that can lead you to really interesting places. Perfection is not where you should be focusing your energy.”
You can practice this at the staff level, too. On your next professional development day, gather into a circle and have each of your educators step into the center one by one and proudly proclaim something that they got wrong or didn’t know about the work or about the school. When they proudly declare that, have everyone in the circle cheer them on and scream in excitement and support. Again, just normalizing the behavior of intellectual humility will unlock curiosity for everyone involved.
Scott Shigeoka delivers a keynote speech at ISTELive 25 and the ASCD Annual Conference 25. Photo courtesy of Scott Shigeoka.
Your book introduces the DIVE framework for growing our curiosity. How can teachers use it to help students move from shallow to deep curiosity?
Shallow curiosity is about understanding someone at the surface level, getting bits of information about who that person is. It’s really important because it builds trust; it helps move you along the spectrum toward the deep end, which is where the more transformative qualities of curiosity exist. That’s where you get really rich details and stories and emotions and insights. The quality of your questions is going to change when you’re living in the deep end of curiosity.
To move folks from the shallow to the deep end, you want to create a space of psychological safety. You want students to exercise their curiosity, but in very controlled, vulnerable ways.
In the first couple of weeks of class, you might ask questions like, “What are you getting curious about?” or “Where are your interests?” or “What is something that made you laugh today?” You start at that basic level to build trust and to build the relationship. Then slowly over the span of the school year, you ask deeper questions like, “What does it mean for folks here to feel like they belong?” or “When are you feeling really challenged at school? How do you overcome that?”
See this as a long-term journey that you’re taking students on. It’s like lifting weights. You don’t want to go into the weight room and bench press 300 pounds on your first day. You want to pick up the five-pound dumbbells, or whatever you’re able to lift, and build the muscles slowly over time.
What do you think is the lasting gift of a curiosity-rich education?
This is the world that I want: A world where we are so curious that we don’t cancel, but we call in. We try to understand different perspectives. We want to be engaged and informed, so we seek out the real personal stories of how policies are impacting people, of communities that we’re not a part of.
We are so curious that we are able to have strong relationships with ourselves and with the people around us, with our families, with our friends. We feel less alone. Research suggests that curiosity unwinds anxiety. Especially in the world we live in today, having a tool like curiosity that lessens anxiety is such a beautiful gift.
A curious life is one that is full of meaning. It is one that allows you to look back at your life not with regret, but with a fullness, with a feeling that you explored and tried new things and dared to follow your heart. It is one of deep humility to know that you won’t have all the answers when you leave 12th grade or when you leave college. Every day on this journey of life, you will continue to learn and grow and you will probably get things wrong, but you will have self-compassion. Others will get things wrong, but you will have grace.
That is what curiosity provides for us. It creates a life in which we remind ourselves that there is so much that we have to learn from one another, that every person who we come into contact with can be our greatest teacher, even the folks that we had once deemed our enemies because they hold a different perspective than us.
That kind of life is so light and so connected and so gratifying. I want that for everyone. That’s why I do this work.
Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
