Making the Science Classroom a Place for Wonder

Abstract

What is the role of wonder in a classroom? And how does a teacher activate this most human of emotions? This paper investigates the role wonder—and the subjects most closely associated with it, art and science—should play in our students’ school lives. The work connects my lived experiences as a high school teacher and college professor with the philosophy of John Dewey and contemporary literature on pedagogical practices. My findings suggest that it is a moral imperative to encourage wonder in our classrooms and to do so in an authentic way.