Flow, or the mental state
in which a person is completely immersed in a task, fully engaged, energised and motivated exclusively by the process of completing said task, is that same state that colloquially we refer to as being in “the zone”, and is actually a psychological
term first compiled by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and defined in the world of
education as one of the 8 mental states that can happen during a learning
experience.
We have all experienced
flow at some point in our lives, doing different activities both academically,
artistic or simply for leisure. For me,
the easiest way to get in flow state is by reading a book. More specifically,
fiction novels. This is my favorite
leisure activity, precisely because It makes me enter in flow state, it allow
me to disconnect, it makes me lose track of time, it makes me happy, it makes
me feel accomplished, while at the same time challenges me, makes me analyze
and reflect on different situations and realities. The moments in which I can read, are my happy
moments, I feel like the book disappears in front of me and I find myself
immersed in the story, I feel what the characters are feeling, cry, laugh, and merge
with them.
I want my students to be able to experience this same state as well, I am sure they have, in different ways and under different circumstances. But what if, I can make my classroom and my lessons, into a space and a moment in which I facilitate this to my students?
Going back to reading, how important is it for our students to enjoy reading? What would be the trick, what can we do to help our students to get to a flow state over a book?
After watching the Ted talk by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and looking at the literature regarding flow, one aspect comes to attention. I mentioned before that flow is just one of the 8 mental states of a learner. These 8 states are the different variations that have been identified based in two very important components of every learning activity: Challenge and Skills. As it is illustrated on the picture to the left, the flow state is generated with the perfect combination of the highest challenge and skill level, that is, if we want to help our students to get into the flow with a book, one way to achieving it, is by helping them find the perfect book that provides them with the right amount of challenge and usage of their skills.
With this in mind, here are a couple of resources I found in this field:
Besides reading, there's another passion of mine that I feel important to mention in this post. As a technology teacher, I have been able to witness students in state of flow in different occasions, one of the activities that I've seen takes them easily to this state is programming. The nature of this activity is one that facilitates the awakening of creativity, it is challenging and engaging, but at the same time is an activity that everybody can perform (with proper training), one in which the goal is normally clear and therefore achievable.
This relates to what is stated by Jamie Suttie (Suttie, 2012) in her article about fostering flow in the classroom. Some of the components she identified and that have also been identified by psychologist in their study of the flow state, are easily achievable by a programming exercise. Particularly, 6 out of the 8 tips are directly implementable by a programming exercise as follows:
Challenge: With programming an entire class can work in a complete variety of projects or exercises that could have different levels of difficulty for every level of skills. This means simply that every student can be challenged by a programming activity, as you can make any of them, as simple or as complex as you want them to be. Programming is open to be modified, to grow, to change, and therefore is an easy challenge to everybody.
Relevance to real life: Programming is one of those in class activities that gives students a skill that they could later easily translate to a work environment. Students can be solving a small problem but with a clear understanding that the skills they are developing will build up and easily translated to real life situations.
Choice: Again, flexibility, the opportunity to develop whatever you want, and solve a problem in the most creative way. Even limited to one problem for all, every member of the class could be doing something completely different and resolving the same problem in a very unique way, tied to each individual preferences and experience.
Clear goals: An expected result draws a path that help you walk towards that goal. Nothing is more clear in programming that your expected goal. To resolve a set problem, is clear, measurable and achievable.
Hand-on activities: Students will be there, protagonist of their own learning, exploring their own skills, and developing them. Nothing says hangs-on like solve a problem!
A very important part of my personal learning network is devoted to resources for implementing programming courses or activities in the classroom. These resources can guide any teacher interested in providing this opportunity to their students. From platforms such Scratch in which student get to create and explore as much as they want, to more structured curriculum resources such as the ones you can find in the CSTA website.
In conclusion, a very fascinating topic indeed. Helping your students feel the joy of a flow moment should be every teacher goal. And most likely it is, we want our students to learn and to be happy, by turning our classroom into a "flow" possibility, we are helping them find an opportunity to develop a passion and to maximize their learning experience at school.
Sources:
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2004, February). Flow, the secret to happiness. Retrieved October 07, 2016, from http://www.ted.com/talks/mihaly_csikszentmihalyi_on_flow
Flow (Csíkszentmihályi) - Learning Theories. (2016, February 27). Retrieved October 07, 2016, from https://www.learning-theories.com/flow-csikszentmihalyi.html
Suttie, B. J. (2012, April). Eight Tips for Fostering Flow in the Classroom. Retrieved October 07, 2016, from http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/eight_tips_for_fostering_flow_in_the_classroom
Great job Mery! Some interesting information you found.
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