Flow is that magical moment when you’re completely immersed in an activity. Where you’re so engaged that all worries, sense of time, and sense of self just fade away. It’s a state of hyper focus. It’s being “in the zone.” Flow was first coined by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmilhalyi, and a highly desired outcome by teachers around the world. It’s an educational concept with goals to deepen learning and promote long term interest in students.
For example, I experience flow when I play ukulele. I picked it up as a hobby during quarantine. When I play ukulele, I’ll play until my fingers roughen up and bleed. I’ll sit, open up some tabs or watch a youtube tutorial, and lose 6 hours of my day. This in no way means that I’m good at it. When I zone out and regain my self-consciousness I feel bad for people that live within earshot of me. But it does mean that I love it. And my love for it means that I’m improving fast.
I also feel it when I produce stories. It’s something I picked up in journalism school years ago, and has stuck with me to this day. It’s the reason why I’m making this video here. When I’m working on a documentary, vlog, podcast, or other multimedia project… I get into that state of hyper focus. It’s fun for me. I’m creating something that I can show to the rest of the world. It’s a feeling that I personally never got during math class or filling out grammar workbooks when I was a kid. It’s a feeling I absolutely do not get when I’m working on my taxes or other boring governmental applications.
My cellphone is a litmus test for whether or not a task is engaging enough. These days, I normally feel anxious if it’s not next to me. If I’m working on something that I don’t like, I’ll check it every 3-15 minutes. I could be checking for an email or a text message and end up scrolling on social media for an hour. If I’m in flow, however, I forget that thing even exists.
But how do we foster “flow” in the classroom?
The difference is between making space for true engagement vs. requiring on task behaviour. David J. Shernoff, an associate professor of educational psychology at Northern Illinois U has said that flow is the result of Environmental challenge + environmental support. Students need to be challenged with an important task with clear goals in an environment built through positive relationships, motivational support and constructive feedback.
Flow can be fostered in developing partnerships with the community, creating learning opportunities not confined to school grounds. Educators need to find tasks students want to do. emphasize student choice, and minimize distraction.
Here’s an example. Let’s pretend we’re in a first grade language arts class. I might give the kiddos a newscast project. I’ll ask them to work in teams and tell stories of their choice. I’ll give them the freedom to vote on the news sections as a class. Say they decide to tell news stories about the school, about climate change, about coronavirus, about toys, and their families. I’d outline different roles and students would be able to choose what they wanted to do themselves. Students would practice our multimedia and technology skills and hone their storytelling skills. Hopefully they think it’s fun too!
And I’ll make a video of the kids making a video. The Key Learning Community High School in Indianapolis (After opening in 1987, the school closed in 2018) produced a documentary for each student from the beginning to the end of the school year. They hired a videographer to document key moments and package into something the children can build and reflect on. It helps them Set goals and reflect on their progress.
I will definitely try a version of this for my class in September. Since I’m just 1 homeroom teacher and likely won’t have the time to produce an individual movie for each student, I’d produce one for the whole class. I like making videos, so this would fit nicely into my own flow.
Flow, play and learning go hand in hand.Incorporating flow and play in learning means creating an environment for students to explore freely. During play, students can make mistakes, discover strengths and boundaries, develop creativity and imagination, and make connections with peers. What could be better than learning while you’re having fun?
Jenn Leah Ko 