In my recent readings, I've been excited to find educators promoting the role of wonder in learning, something I promoted through Born to Read at the Maine Humanities Council as an important component of the read aloud experience. In Living the Questions, the teacher Andrea Smith, writes about "The Power of Wonder Questions," describing her successful experience with a focus wonder in her science unit with three-four multi-age classroom students. On today's early morning walk, I thought about the many kinds of wonder (and hence 'wonder questions') there are, as I wondered what it would be like to have built a mini-mansion on the Belfast waterfront with 50 steps down to the shoreline, then I wondered why I was hearing the traffic on the bridge one mile away this morning when I haven't heard it other mornings, and then I wondered if I should change my walking course to take in some of the hills of the town before calling it quits. All of these questions can lead to more questions, all of them could lead to more in-depth inquiry and even possible research, but some of them are closer to the exploration of an idea than others are. But the beauty of wonder is that it places us in that place of being open to our own lack of answers; it opens us to a happy experience of cognitive dissonance and bardo.

I also think about the link between wonder and inspiration and the pivotal role inspiration can have in learning. Once my son Luke is given the opportunity to wonder how high Rajon Rondo can jump or how many miles he runs in a week and how that affects his basketball playing, then Luke is inspired to apply these calculations to his math education. Wonder combines the power of emotion with the power of the intellect, transforming "doing what the teacher says" to self-motivated inspiration ie., it solves the problem of "how can we motivate a student to learn."

I was sure Will Richardson (willrichardson.com)  wrote about wonder in his blog, but cannot now find the reference. Much of what he says resonates with the concept though (see blog link in sidebar). See his refreshing thoughts on education generally and on the "uncommon core" when he says, "We don’t give kids time to go deep, we don’t honor failure, and we’re not about “learning to learn” as much as we are about “learning to know.”