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The influence of selected discrete emotions on socialization-related learning and perception of workplace adaptation was examined in an exploratory study. Data were collected from 233 service workers in 4 small and medium-sized companies in metropolitan Washington, D.C. The sample members' average age was 32.5 years, and the sample's racial makeup reflected that of the surrounding community. The Workplace Adaptation Questionnaire was used to measure perception of workplace adaptation, and the State-Trait Personality Inventory was used to measure curiosity, anxiety, and anger. Basic demographic data (age, gender, and race) were also collected. The study substantiated the hypothesis that emotions contribute meaningfully to socialization-related learning processes and perception of workplace adaptation. Gender, job satisfaction, anger, and curiosity all proved to be positive, independent predictors of socialization-related learning and workplace adaptation. Anxiety was an independent, negative predictor. Age, race, formal orientation, employee status, and rapidly changing workplace were not significant predictors. Job satisfaction was concluded to be not only an outcome of the socialization process but also a significant factor in the socialization process itself. The study results suggested that models of socialization-related learning and workplace adaptation are useful for discerning the relevance of selected demographic, background, emotion, and learning motivation variables in the socialization process and workplace adaptation. (Contains 29 references.) (MN)

Marsick and Watkins, leaders in research on informal learning in the workplace, suggest that this type of learning is a process that occurs in everyday experience and place it in a category that includes incidental learning. It may occur in institutions, but is not typically classroom-based or highly structured. It is unique to the individual, and control rests primarily in the learner's hands. Two studies offer compelling support for adoption and implementation of strategies aimed at facilitating informal learning in the workplace. The Education Development Center study suggests that trainers can specify the learning process of employees through four taxonomies condensed by content and then broken down to include content of learning, types of activities, and occasions of learning. The United Kingdom's Department for Education and Employment study offers support for implementing strategies for facilitating informal learning in the workplace and identifies conducive environmental factors and components. The literature shows the importance of the workplace environment and its role in supporting informal learning. The environment should foster curiosity; remove barriers to learning; permit humility; and provide rewards for learning in order to purposefully create conditions that increase the probability that work-related informal learning will occur. Two strategies that facilitate informal learning in the workplace are mentoring and career development and planning. (Contains 10 references.) (YLB)

Affect, curiosity, and socialization-relation were explored as potential mediators of the relationship between both state and trait affect and job performance. The cross-sectional sample consisted of 81 women and 152 men between the ages of 17 and 50 or older. The typical participant was a male Caucasian under the age of 40 with some college education and an annual salary of less than $30,000 per year. The participants were obtained from four well-established service industry companies in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. The data collection measures included the State-Trait Personality Inventory, a modified version of the Workplace Adaptation Questionnaire, a self-reported measure of job performance, and demographic survey. Two a priori determined "recursive" path models suggesting the causal influence of anger, anxiety, and curiosity on socialization-related learning and (ultimately) job performance were tested. The study provided empirical support for the notion that anger and anxiety, which are two types of emotion that are often overlooked by organizational researchers, can either foster or deter workplace job performance through their influence on individual learning. The study also yielded evidence suggesting that curiosity might be an important mediator between emotion and job performance. (Contains 26 references.) (MN)

Based on the view that young children have a different intellectual culture from adults' in the way they know and understand nature, this paper explores ecological human brain development, children's intellectual culture of naturalist intelligence, and developmentally and culturally congruent curricula for young children. The paper discusses the theoretical connection between developmentally and culturally appropriate practice (DCAP) and the ecological human brain. Gardner's view of naturalist intelligence is presented as the ability to recognize and classify plants, minerals, and animals needed to survive. The paper argues that across all cultures, children have a unique affinity for the natural environment different from that of adults and that adults often respond in intellectually incongruent ways to children's knowledge constructions about nature. The paper contends that failing to support children's knowledge construction about nature during critical periods can have serious implications for how children will relate to the natural world over their lifespan. The paper describes the ecological brain as dependent on social-cultural input and as constantly changing structure and function in response to external experiences. The paper also describes the DCAP base curriculum as an exploratory curriculum that responds to, validates, and reinforces children's naturalist intelligence. The paper concludes by asserting that responses to children's naturalist intelligence should be based on their curiosity-center intellectual culture and reflected in daily exploratory curriculum. (Contains 44 references.) (KB)

This study seeks answers for the questions: How do young children express wonder and curiosity in the classroom culture? and How do teachers of young children foster wonder and curiosity? Teacher behavior has an effect on students, fostering students' curiosity and wonder or the opposite. This study also explores the efficiency of an observation instrument used to assess the state of wonder and curiosity. In young children, wonder is highly inherited and for adults in certain professions like scientists and artists, highly valued and cultivated. (Contains 47 references.) (YDS)

This paper discusses the development of a learning approach based on the unique needs of adult learners who are required to learn and use new information technologies. It establishes how the "Inquisitivism" learning approach has evolved from a synthesis of key cognitive learning theories into one cohesive approach and how the implementation of Inquisitivism in the development of learning environments, curriculum, and courses can meet the needs of today's adult learner. The first section explains why there is a need for a new approach to adult learning. Contemporary cognitive learning theories upon which this new approach is based are identified in the next section, including constructivism, discovery learning, activity theory (active learning), functional context, and minimalism. The third section describes the learning approach of Inquisitivism. The following key concepts of Inquisitivism are summarized: (1) fear removal; (2) stimulation of inquisitiveness; (3) using the system to learn the system; (4) getting started fast; (5) discovery learning; (6) modules can be completed in any order; (7) supporting error recognition and recovery; (8) forum for discussions and exploiting prior knowledge; (9) real world assignments; and (10) developing optimal training designs. (Contains 23 references.) (AEF)

Research on the motivational aspects of multimedia games may provide ways to design more engaging user information systems which increase users' exploratory and information-seeking behaviors. Two small-scale exploratory studies examined the effects of introducing information on the intrinsic motivation of users of a CD-ROM game. Results of the first study showed a negative relationship between age and both trait and state curiosity, and a negative relationship between tolerance for ambiguity and state curiosity. The first study showed a significant decrease in state curiosity after subjects received informational clues while the second study found that subjects who received informational help sheets had significantly greater curiosity. (Contains 44 references.) (Author)

While the ARCS (Attention, Relevance, Confidence, Satisfaction) model has provided educators with a heuristic approach to generally increasing the motivational appeal of instruction, it may also provide a model for stimulating and sustaining curiosity in particular. Such a model is of great use to educators who are concerned with encouraging curiosity as a prime intrinsic motivator for learning and to designers of computer-based systems who wish to incorporate specific strategies for arousing and sustaining the curiosity of users. This conceptual paper explores the construct of curiosity and examines its relationship to all of the ARCS components. A review of research on curiosity includes curiosity as a state of arousal leading to exploratory behavior; levels of arousal; specific, diversive, trait and state nature of curiosity; curiosity as it relates to elementary school children; the importance of information seeking, processing, and evaluating behaviors; sensory and cognitive curiosity; feedback; and correlation between curiosity and Intelligence Quotient. The relationship of curiosity to each of the ARCS components is examined. Discussion includes strategies for gaining and sustaining attention, external motivation, tying instruction to the learner's experiences, informative feedback and anxiety reduction, and the ARCS components in relation to the Zone of Curiosity. (Contains 46 references.) (AEF)

The relations among curiosity, intrinsic motivation, and the "flow" state of absorbed participation as defined by Csikszentmihalyi are explored. Specifically, the roles curiosity plays in triggering and maintaining a flow state in learners who are engaged in an interactive lesson are considered. There has not been much research on curiosity, but studies tend to confirm the presence of curiosity through observable and quantifiable behaviors. They suggest that its presence results in improved learning and performance, that it can be aroused, and that aroused learners will persist and be self-sufficient in pursuing learning goals. In interactive learning, curiosity would seem to have a central, although not completely understood, role. At its most basic, Csikzentmihalyi's flow state is simply a description of people enjoying themselves. It represents a desired state for those who create educational environments, including computer-assisted instructional environments. The flow state becomes a practical goal in computer-assisted instruction. (Contains 39 references.) (SLD)

This study investigates the effect of curiosity in first and second grade children as an individual difference variable in learning in a computer-based interactive learner control environment and discusses the implications for instructional designers and educators. The instruction was an art education lesson containing both facts and concepts. The study used two learner control treatments: learner control without advisement, in which learners made decisions about content selection, sequencing, pace, remediation, and other issues; and learner control with advisement, in which learners made the same type of decisions but were advised about their options. There was a significant difference in achievement scores in favor of high curious children in both learner control conditions. The results suggest that differences in curiosity influenced performance within either type of learner control lesson. The differences were independent of grade level or gender. There was a significant interaction between grade level and treatment. First grade subjects performed significantly better with advisement, while second grade subjects performed significantly better without. The data indicate that first graders heeded advisement more than second graders. A possible explanation for the high scores of second graders who functioned without advisement may have been the predominance of high curious subjects in that group. (Contains 44 references.) (KRN)

With the emergence of interactive learning technologies, there are many questions which must be addressed concerning young learners. Such sophisticated technology combined with thoughtful instructional design has the potential for both encouraging achievement and stimulating important scholarly attributes such as curiosity and other aspects of motivation. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of variations in learner control (also referred to as lesson control) on children's level of curiosity and learning from computer-based interactive video (CBIV). The lesson content was art education and contained both facts and concepts. It was presented as a videodisc visit to the Everson Museum in Syracuse, New York. A posttest only control group design was employed with 103 first and second grade subjects who were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions (designer control, learner control, or learner control with advisement) or a control group. The independent variable for this study was the degree of lesson control which the subjects had over the content. The dependent variables were the posttest scores in achievement and curiosity. Results indicated that children in the learner-control with advisement group scored significantly better in the achievement posttest than did the learner control subjects. They also tended to score higher on certain of the curiosity subscales. (7 tables, 32 references) (Author/BBM)

This paper reviews human development theories that could be utilized in the study of museums as well as theories or approaches to curiosity that appear to be of significant interest for museum exhibit designers and educators. An overview of each theory is followed by a general evaluation of the theory and research that appears relevant. The implications for practice as well as potential future directions for research in informal settings also are discussed. (55 references) (DB)

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of seven chemistry learning centers for use in an ongoing preschool education program. The seven centers piloted were: (1) Observing Color Changes; (2) Making Bubbles; (3) Using a Thermometer; (4) Balancing; (5) Classifying Colors; (6) Cooking; and (7) Sink or Float. All of the centers piloted were designed for use in a play-based early childhood program, since this was the approach already being used for other content areas in the test site. The goals of this play-based center approach for preschool chemistry were delineated and involved socioemotional, cognitive, and language goals of learning. The average time each student spent at each of the chemistry learning centers was determined from videotapes and was thought to be a measure of one of the socioemotional goals dealing with student curiosity. The class average ratings for the socioemotional goals of autonomy, persistence, cooperation, enthusiasm, and curiosity were determined from the ratings given to each individual student based on teacher notes and videotapes. Cognitive data for classifying, ordering/seriation, spatial relationships, and temporal relationships is also provided. In addition, centers were evaluated with respect to how they encouraged students to identify problems and come up with their own ideas. Language goals were evaluated in a 10-minute span with respect to average number of: questions asked by students; words spoken by students in direct response to the teacher; words spoken by students in response to other students; words of student initiated conversation with teacher; words of student initiated verbalization to other students; and total words per students. Also, total different words verbalized per student was averaged. It was found that all chemistry centers were successful and appropriate for the preschool child with regard to cognitive, socioemotional, and language goals. However, there were important differences between the centers with respect to how well each met delineated goals. Preschool students demonstrated various metacomponents of intelligence when non-verbal as well as verbal data were analyzed. Certain aspects of both Piagetian as well as Vygotsky's theories were supported in this study. The objectives, materials, and procedures for each activity are provided. (45 references) (KR)

This report by the Schools Council Project in England examines questions and responses of children aged 8-16, and in particular, the role that curiosity and questions can play in learning. Chapter 1 compares comments of various government-sponsored reports. The second chapter reviews ideas and evidence about both curiosity and questions and the link between them. Chapter 3 analyzes the linking between perceived value, relevance, and surprisingness, via interest, to the amount of questioning. Chapter 4 looks at a number of problems outside the constraints of traditional classroom experimentation. While the fifth chapter yields a clear picture of social class differences in reported boredom, chapter 6 does not yield a similar result for questions, and recasons for this are discussed. Chapter 7 reports the findings of social class differences in the efficiency with which individual questions are posed by 7- to 10-year-old children. These findings are analyzed in relation to the discovery that this same social class difference was not obtained with middle and working class adolescents. Chapter 8 looks at factors associated with the selection of persons to whom questions can be posed. Chapter 9 poses two basic problems: Does the posing of questions in fact facilitate learning? Will the teacher's questions encourage learning as much as the pupil's own questions? Chapter 10 provides an overview and discussion. (CS)

This study was designed to test four groups of pupils entering the second grade in the York County School Board area--two groups in open schools and two in traditional schools--chosen because of the similarity in the schools' size and location and in the socioeconomic status of the pupils. The students were tested once each year for three years and comparative data were analyzed for 198 subjects who were in the same schools throughout the three years. Results showed no consistent differences in curiosity and creativity between the two types of school systems. However, there was an increasing difference between the students of the two types of schools in their attitude toward schooling. This difference favored the open school system. (Author)

This longitudinal study examined the effects of one year of full-day Head Start day care experiences on the long-term motivational and cognitive changes in 29 low-income black children aged 51-61 months. The children were separated into two groups; one attended a full-day kindergarten similar to Head Start, and the other was sent to half-day public kindergarten. A control group, composed of 20 children who attended private nursery school and subsequently attended kindergartens in their own neighborhoods, was also used. During the day care program and through the middle of the first grade year, data were collected in seven time periods for three areas of motivational/cognitive interaction: (1) changes in the relationship between personal interaction variables, (2) changes in intrinsic need to interact effectively and competently with the environment, and (3) changes in the impulsivity/reflectivity dimension. Comparison of the data from the two experimental groups showed little indication that the kindergarten program had produced significant effects; the small effects shown late in the year would have required an extension of the program for verification. However, there were no indications of fade-out effects of Head Start for either group. In addition, the disadvantaged groups performed comparably to the economically advantaged group except on tests which depended on high verbal ability. (GO)

This study compared the effects of group day care, family day care, and full parental care on such aspects of children's social-emotional adjustment as curiosity, attachment, self-concept, sex role, achievement motivation, impulse control, cooperation, and sharing. Initial differences between groups were controlled by matching on race, sex, number of parents in the home, number of siblings, and mother's education. Data on the 282 4-year-olds participating were gathered in three ways: (1) interviews with the mothers concerning their attitudes toward their child and their child rearing practices, (2) observational behavior ratings of the child by the primary caretaker and (3) games and tasks designed to elicit samples of particular types of behavior in a laboratory setting. Some of the trends observed in the data were: (1) family day care may tend to foster curiosity, independence, and delay of gratification; (2) home-rearing may allow girls more freedom to express interest in opposite sex toys and activities; (3) late entry into a center may lead to increased parent orientation; and (4) day care experience may decrease the tendency for children to overestimate their abilities in selecting both physical and academic tasks. The overall results of the project, however, suggested that day care experience did not produce outcomes that were markedly different from home experience outcomes. (JMB)

This paper describes a study designed to investigate: (1) children's interest in, anxieties about, attitudes toward, and reactions to fire; (2) the relationship of particular personality characteristics to attitudes about and behavior with potentially hazardous fire material; (3) socialization techniques and teaching strategies of mothers in situations involving the controlled use of fire materials; and (4) the relationship of mothers' attitudes about fire and teaching techniques to their child's attitudes about and observed performance with fire materials. Subjects included all 5-year-old boys (18) and all 6-year-olds (14 boys and 15 girls) in a nursery school. Assessments of subjects had been accumulated as part of an ongoing longitudinal study of ego and cognitive development. Mothers were interviewed concerning their child's health, development, illness, and accident histories, and interest and experience with fire. Methods used by parents to teach children about fire were explored. The Q-sort method was used to quantify teaching behaviors observed. Children responded to pictures of fire viewed among a series of other pictures; were asked to list "all the things that children sometimes do that are bad"; and took part in a marble guessing game that assessed the tendency to make premature judgments or take risks. Finally, subjects and their mothers were observed as the mother taught her child three fire related tasks. Results for mothers and children are analyzed separately, and generalizations suggested by the results are listed in a discussion section. (Author/SB)

This study attempted to provide some initial normative data to help professionals and researchers to distinguish between playful and stimulating suicidal fantasies as opposed to serious and compulsive thoughts and behaviours characterized by negative affects. It is argued that the former is a natural consequence of cognitive development, the entry into formal operational thought, which results in the extension from reality into the world of possibility which begins during the period of adolescense. However, when the precipitating mood and consequent affects become negatively coloured, perhaps in part, due to misunderstanding the "normalness" of such thoughts as well as the absence of feedback from significant others, then pathology is likely indicated. When we can make this distinction and monitor such shifts, that is, from spontaneous curiosity and excitement to obsessive thoughts and depression, we shall have taken a large step forward in predicting suicidal attempts and remediating them. (Author)

By structuring the manner group members use to reach a decision, managers can affect the processes and outcomes of decision making. Business administration undergraduates (N=78) were randomly assigned to three groups and told to make group decisions based on the process their manager selected, i.e., they were either to seek concurrence, debate opposing views, or express their own views as they made their decisions. During discussion, managers acted as observers rating quality of the decision, acceptance of it, and interpersonal attitudes. Participants also rated the decisions and the group interrelationships. Analyses of results indicated that participants in the controversy condition were uncertain about both their knowledge and the decision, but explored the problem in depth. Participants in the concurrence seeking condition felt confident about their understanding and the decision, though they did not explore the problem fully. They indicated they liked each other and felt their relationship was cooperative. Participants in the consensus condition were more confident about their understanding and decision but did not actually explore the problem as thoroughly as participants in the controversy condition. The findings suggest that controversy generates the greatest problem exploration. (Author/JAC)

While prospective investigations of social support, coping, and stress are accumulating, there is relatively little empirical knowledge regarding how these variables are related to each other among adolescents, and virtually no empirical knowledge regarding their relationship to subjective states in that population. This study examined the relationships of perceived social support from friends and from family, coping, and life events to concomitant and subsequent states of anxiety, anger, and curiosity. Subjects were 90 predominantly lower middle-class, minority girls attending an all-girls high school in an urban area. Subjects completed a demographic cover sheet, the Perceived Social Support from Family and from Friends scales, Problem-focused Coping Scale, Adolescent Life Events Checklist, and the State-Trait Personality Inventory on two occasions one month apart. The results indicated that perceived social support was related to state anxiety and anger, as well as to coping; life events were related to anxiety. Partial correlations suggest that perceived family support may contribute to subsequent state anxiety and anger, and anxiety may contribute to subsequent life events. These findings have implications for prevention, and suggest a need for future research into the relationship between subjective states and maladaptive behavior. (Author/NB)

An exploratory course was designed to give secondary school students exposure to all languages in the foreign language curriculum, in sequence, so they may decide which, if any, to enroll in. This course was begun in 1979 to counter an elitist image of foreign language courses. Course topics encouraged students to explore the languages fully by: being activity-oriented; facilitating adaptation to new sound and grammatical systems; dealing with major cultural concepts; including intriguing sounds, expressions, and gestures of the target languages; addressing the relationship of geography to occupations, food, clothing, and so on; dealing with the language's history and contributions to American culture; attempting to elicit interest in the target countries; being addressed, when possible, in a single class period; encouraging values clarification; and promoting career awareness. The languages (French, German, Latin, and Spanish) each were responsible for 20-22 class meetings during the semester. Each of the four language teachers involved developed activities from the standard unit topics provided. The course has been well received by teachers, students, parents, and administrators. Appended materials include: lists of specific activities for each language, a 1982-83 course schedule, results of teacher and student surveys regarding the course, student grade statistics for 1981-82, and the district's total foreign language enrollments for the fall semesters of 1975 through 1982. (MSE)

To foster individual development, educators must seek the gifts in every child, in those not demonstrating academic abilities as well as in the most brilliant. Instead of stifling thinking, creativity, and interest development, educators must encourage these behaviors. Currently, a big discrepancy exists between the child's potential and what schools actually value or stimulate. This bulletin first examines some barriers to developing children's creativity, thinking, and interests, such as low self-concept, lack of training opportunities, testing for facts instead of relationships, fragmented curricula, short-term views on course content, and negative attitudes toward creativity. Chapter 2 discusses the meaning of creativity and explores whether it should be nurtured in all children or only in the gifted and talented through a continuum of creative behaviors. Chapter 3 looks at ways to support cognitive development and the relationship between thinking and creativity. Chapter 4 treats the importance of interests in the child's learning and development and discusses types of interests, how they are structured, and the relation of interests to creativity. The final two chapters discuss practical strategies for supporting creativity, thinking, and interests at the district, school, and classroom levels. To produce Renaissance or visionary men and women will require a reexamination of play, interest development, self-regulation, and autonomy in early creative development. Included are 7 figures and 146 references. (MLH)