Are you in the ‘curiosity zone’?
Sam Cunnane, Group Director of Business, IT and Media Arts has joined the class after being invited by tutor, Rebekah Harman, to speak about curiosity.
Photo by: Kae Evans
It’s the
final day of semester in the School of Media Arts and a hardy group of students
have gathered early on Friday morning for their final Professional Practice
class.
Sam
Cunnane, Group Director of Business, IT and Media Arts has joined the class
after being invited by tutor, Rebekah Harman. Rebekah asked Sam to speak about
one of his favourite topics, curiosity. As part of the discussion, the class looked at
how being curious relates to their work and their ability to achieve their
goals.
Cunnane introduced
the class to Day’s ‘Zone of Curiosity’ model, a bell curve scale showing different
levels of efficiency and activation.
At the
lower end of the curve is the zone of relaxation. This is where people may not
feel very efficient or motivated or may be feeling disinterested. Sam said that
this space can also be where you have finished the tasks in front of you and
are ready to disconnect.
According
to year 1 communication student Emmalea Taylor “the relaxation zone can be a
nice space to be in. You can take a deep breath here and not panic”
About 60
percent of the class said they were at the relaxation stage and were ready to ‘check
out’ having completed their work for the semester. Year 1 Contemporary Art
student Kayla Bason said she is definitely in the relaxation zone as “I have
completed everything”. Bason attributes this to her “great time management
skills”.
The highest
achieving and efficient part of the curve is the middle zone, of
curiosity. For student Blake Pedersen,
anything to do with working on his car has him in this motivated, active and
curious zone, but he says it can sometimes be harder to achieve that zone with
study.
The bell
curve drops into the final zone of anxiety where Day’s model shows behaviour like
avoidance, defensiveness, disinterest, and inefficiency.
First year communication student Kae Evans says this zone can affect students if they have been given too much work to do or lack time management skills. They say “outside events can also affect your time to focus on study”.
Year 1
Spatial Design student Alex Peacock says she is having a more stressful time. “I’m
in the anxious zone because additional work was added to my assessment last
minute”
As students
finish their semester of study and head into a four-week break, they will be
hoping to enjoy more of the relaxation zone before ramping up into the ‘zone of
curiosity’ again in semester 2.
Semester 2 for School of Media Arts students starts on 19th July.
