What is wonder?

The last opportunity I had to write I was wondering about wonder fading.  But what is wonder?  Well, that’s complicated.  There are lots of ways we can approach this – philosophically, scientifically, educationally.  Tracing back to the philosophers in ancient Greece, wonder was a place of openness and curiosity that propelled humans to question meaning, existence, and truth.   Scientifically, wonder is studied as an emotional–cognitive state.  Educationally, wonder can be intentionally cultivated through rich questions, constraints, and experiences that invite learners to notice deeply, think divergently, and sustain engagement over time.  Most importantly, understand that wonder is a world of contradictions, both a feeling and a thought, a noun and a verb, an action and a reflection.   Despite all these complications, we know it when we see it and that might be enough to help us apply wonder in our classrooms. 

Wonder is not just a fleeting moment of curiosity; it’s a heightened state of thinking and feeling. It’s sparked by meaningful experiences that truly resonate with us. These experiences ignite our passion and drive us to explore, question, and connect ideas in new and creative ways.  When we embrace wonder, we're inspired and motivated to look beyond the ordinary. It's about opening our minds and hearts to new possibilities and perspectives.  This process of exploration through wonder can lead to profound personal and intellectual growth which is what our gifted learners need. 

On a continuum, wonder falls between curiosity and awe.  Curiosity focuses on “What”, a search for information, and once that’s found, it’s mostly complete.  Wonder pushes further; we’ve reached our limits of understanding, and we realize our gap goes much further than we originally thought.  We are left considering Why, What If and How Might, looking for new possibilities and connections.  We might not know where wonder will take us, but we are open to that experience.  Awe is the feeling that often arrives when wonder deepens.  Awe happens when what we notice feels bigger than us: vast, beautiful, powerful, or unexpectedly meaningful. It’s the moment when wonder shifts from “I want to know more” to “I feel changed by this.”

After a lot of wondering and research, this is my working definition for wonder: “Wonder is a heightened state of thinking and feeling sparked by a meaningful experience that inspires and motivates one to explore, question, and connect ideas in new and creative ways.”

​You can see how it connects academic and emotion through meaningful explorations, building on tasks of value, adding a level of excitement and expanding possibilities for our learners.  We want our learners questioning and connecting, finding ways to interact with and relating to the content in unexpected ways.