Cultivating Awe

Enhancing personal meaning and connection through imagination and reflection

The feeling of awe encompasses a range of emotions including reverence, admiration, fear and wonder. It is evoked by things that are grand, sublime or extremely powerful, such as a virtuosic musical performance, great political figures, the galaxy, giant sequoia trees, a big social gathering or the conceptual understanding of a complex system.

Awe can be a deeply personal experience and researchers have identified two key cognitive mechanisms that underlie it: the perception of vastness and a challenge to mental processing.

Experiencing awe is associated with a host of positive outcomes, including increased helping behaviors, pro-environmental behaviour, enhanced life satisfaction and decreased aggressive attitudes. The aim of this exercise is to learn, both experientially and cognitively, how to facilitate awe experiences to cultivate greater connectedness and appreciation in different domains of life (e.g., study, work, family and friends).

Learning outcome

The student is able to relate to others and the world with appreciation, gratitude and joy by enabling awe experiences

The student practices awe experiences to enhance appreciation, gratitude and joy in different domains of life.

1.Introduction to Awe

50 mins

Introduce the experience of awe by leading a collective activity that will facilitate a moment of awe in the classroom. This could involve showing an awe-inspiring story or video, taking an Awe walk outside and asking students to observe the world around them, paying attention to the sounds, sights and smells, or any other activity that can evoke a sense of wonder and amazement.

Take the time to reflect collectively on the experience of awe during this activity.

The aim of this activity is to create a shared experience of awe that will help to set the stage for further exploration and learning about this powerful emotion.

Tip: see more information on facilitating an awe experience.

2.Writing about Awe

20 mins

Invite students to take a few minutes to think about experiences, fairly recently, when they felt immense awe. Ask students to select one experience and to describe it in about two full paragraphs.

Encourage them to focus as much as possible on the experience itself rather than what led up to it or what happened afterwards. Encourage them to be as descriptive and specific as possible by paying attention to the sounds, sensations, images and feelings they experienced during the moment of awe.

Remind the students that this is a personal reflection, so there are no right or wrong answers.

3.Reflecting

30 mins

Ask students to reflect on the experience of awe they wrote about in Step 2.

Encourage the students to think deeply about the questions and to write down their reflections. By reflecting on their experiences of awe, students will gain a deeper understanding of what makes these moments so powerful and how they can cultivate a greater sense of appreciation and wonder in their daily lives.

Please note, as part of assessment as learning, students reflect using the reflective questions.

4.Intentional Awe Experience

50 mins

Ask the students to seek an experience that will evoke a sense of awe. Encourage them to plan this activity in advance and to make sure that it is safe and feasible to carry out. After completing the activity, ask the students to reflect on their experiences.

Encourage the students to write about their experience in detail and to be as specific as possible. This activity can be done alone or with others, depending on the student’s preferences.

By intentionally seeking awe experiences and reflecting on their impact, the students will gain a greater appreciation for the power of these moments and develop strategies to cultivate more of them in their lives.

Please note, as part of assessment as learning, students reflect using the reflective questions.

5.Cultivating Awe in Mundane Activities

50 mins

Encourage students to connect their awe experiences to their daily lives, relationships with others and their understanding of the world. Encourage them to use their imagination to facilitate an awe experience, even in mundane activities such as washing dishes, waiting for a train or cleaning up a workspace. Ask them to consider how simple acts or objects in their activity are connected to a bigger whole. For example, think about the life cycle of the water used to wash dishes.

Encourage students to find and practice awe in daily life and use their imagination to facilitate awe experiences. Invite them to infuse a routine task with a sense of awe and reflect on their experience using the provided questions.

Tip: ask students to put their awe strategies in a collective document (e.g., shared doc, whiteboard), to exchange ideas and use it for future reference.

Please note, as part of assessment as learning, students reflect using the reflective questions.

As awe experiences are highly individual, students will evaluate their own experiences through self-guided reflection questions during the activities. The purpose is to guide students in recognising their personal encounters with awe and finding ways to foster awe in a context that resonates with them. It is recommended not to assess students’ results quantitatively, as it may hinder their personal connection with the exercise.

Purpose

Assessment as learning aims to strengthen the learning process and the development of metacognitive skills. It empowers students to direct their own learning and to become independent, critical self-assessors.

Roles

Self-assessment

Characteristics

Authentic

Materials

Reflective questions

Download Reflective questions (Step 3)

Download Reflective questions (Step 4)

Download Reflective questions (Step 5)

Allen, S. (2018). The Science of Awe. In Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley. Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley.

Kaufman, S. B. (2018, oktober 17). Can You Quantify Awe? Scientific American Blog Network.

Yaden, D. B., Kaufman, S. B., Hyde, E., Chirico, A., Gaggioli, A., Zhang, J., & Keltner, D. (2019). The development of the Awe Experience Scale (AWE-S): A multifactorial measure for a complex emotion. The journal of positive psychology.