Designing for Wonder, Not Just Outcomes

When did we stop designing for wonder? It’s a question that haunts many educators as we wade through spreadsheets of predicted grades, curriculum coverage grids, and attainment tracking systems. Outcomes matter, of course they do. But so does the emotional and cognitive landscape we build around those outcomes. The truth is, we often focus so much on what students achieve that we lose sight of what they experience along the way. What if the metric that mattered most wasn’t just progress, but awe?

The Problem with Outcome-Obsessed Design

Traditional educational design tends to reverse-engineer from desired results. We define learning objectives, align assessments, and backfill the experiences needed to get there. This backward design has its strengths, but when overused, it risks reducing education to a formula, predictable, measurable, and tragically joyless. We end up producing students who can perform under exam conditions but may not remember a single thing that made their heart race or their mind race with curiosity. In cognitive terms, we’re designing for recall, not inspiration.

The Case for Wonder

Wonder is not fluffy. It’s not a “nice-to-have.” It’s a neurological and psychological state that primes the brain for deep learning. It’s curiosity activated. It fuels intrinsic motivation, increases dopamine, and opens neural networks to new patterns of thinking. In short: wonder changes the brain. Educational psychologist Paul Silvia defines wonder as “a complex emotion involving surprise, curiosity, and the desire to understand.” It is foundational to learning but too often it is accidental rather than intentional.

Designing for wonder means placing emotional and intellectual stimulation at the heart of the learning experience.

What Does Designing for Wonder Look Like?

Here are some core principles of designing for wonder in the classroom:

Start with the Question, Not the Answer Design around big, bold, beautiful questions. Instead of “What do students need to know about algorithms?” try “Can a machine ever think for itself?” Start with the provocation. The awe. The dissonance. Let curiosity pull them forward.

Build Cognitive Ambiguity Draw from desirable difficulties and create learning that is just the right amount of disorienting. Students remember moments when they felt something, especially when they had to wrestle with uncertainty. Give them mystery, paradox, and problems with more than one answer.

Design Emotional Peaks Incorporate moments of emotional intensity: surprise, pride, connection, frustration, discovery. Peak-end theory reminds us that learners remember the high points and the final moments. Craft those deliberately.

Create Space for Autonomy and Flow Wonder thrives where learners can explore, create, and lose track of time. Build in opportunities for autonomy, agency, and deep work. Think fewer worksheets, more studio time. Fewer checklists, more “choose-your-own-adventure” tasks.

Connect to the Human Story Whether it's a computer science lesson or a history talk, wonder emerges when we see the human side of knowledge: the passion of pioneers, the ethical dilemmas, the dreams of designers, the failures behind the breakthroughs. Contextualise the content in stories.

Wonder and Coaching

In a coaching-informed pedagogy, we don’t just deliver content, we co-create meaning. Coaches don’t tell students what to wonder about; they cultivate the environment where wonder is likely to emerge. This requires presence, attentiveness, and restraint. It also means knowing when to stand back and let students take the reins of their own curiosity.

As educators, we must ask: Are we designing for compliance or wonder? Are we offering students a map or giving them the thrill of discovering new territory?

The Future We Build

Imagine a classroom where the dominant emotion is not anxiety but intrigue. Where learners feel drawn into learning, not dragged through it. Where the teacher is less an examiner and more an architect of possibility. Designing for wonder isn’t a rejection of outcomes. It’s a reminder that the route to the outcome matters as much as the result. Because students may forget the content, but they’ll never forget how learning made them feel.

Let’s stop designing just for grades. Let’s start designing for wonder.