A new school year is off and running once again. My daughter Katie started her first day of her 2nd year in high school yesterday and I started teaching classes at UVA on Tuesday. One of the things I love about working on an academic calendar is the fresh start fall brings. As the summer winds down, the promise of cooler fall days is welcome for many. Beginning the year in autumn, rather than the dead of winter, feels more natural to me.
The time is here for many to begin new classes, arrange new schedules, and prepare for another year of expanding the past into the present, with thoughts toward the future. Learning, in particular when the topic is of personal interest, is inherently enjoyable for most. That enjoyment, I contend, as an educator specializing in what engages learners most, is the key to the door of success.
When we find ourselves experiencing joy while engaged in some activity, we are glimpsing at a peak learning opportunity. Enjoyment is an excellent motivator for humans to lean even closer in to whatever it is we are doing, to engage in it more fully. Here is where we find our most fulfilling interests, where we find the activities that we are most intrinsically motivated to do. We don't need an external prize to motivate our concentration, it comes with ease. In fact, in this state of ease we rarely notice external distractions at all. This is that place where time begins to flex and can pass without us even noticing.
What can call this elusive, highly engaging and energizing state of peak concentration? Is it an ineffable experience? Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has been researching this very topic for decades and gave it a name: Flow.
Csikszentmihalyi's research defines this experience as universal to humans across culture, age, gender, class, race, and activity. Any and all of us can and likely have experienced this and know the good feeling that comes with Flow. Though we know what it is and how it feels, can we call a flow experience into our day? Is Flow random or predictable? Can invite and ask for more Flow in our lives?
I believe that we can do just that. We know what the typical conditions for Flow are and that these conditions are transferable to different types of activities, thanks to Csikszentmihalyi's research. Therefore, we certainly can invite Flow, watch for it, and celebrate it when we find it in our lives. The benefits of Flow to us as individuals, and in larger community (both local and global), are limitless. When we are in Flow, we are experiencing success. This is When Success Flows!
I think I heard of this FLOW theory before... makes me miss a certain little guy I once knew.
ReplyDelete- Cathy
Sounds like a interesting theory that can be applied to our daily lives. However the psychologist seems to put a name to something that takes place in everyday life.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kristin. Once we find something that we engage in, it is predictable of us to continue to find out and learn more about the topic.
ReplyDeleteI agree that once we find something that we truly enjoy we don't need any prize to keep us going, its the enjoyment of doing what were doing that motivates us. I have had a couple Flow experiences in my life.
ReplyDeleteOften times focusing on the prize diminishes the enjoyment of exerting the effort to learn something new. Our attention turns toward the end result and how that end result compares to the results others attain. Competition can motivate people to achieve great results. But why is it that some people are discouraged by not achieving number one, and others experience a serious loss of confidence? Maybe it has to do with our response to feedback. If we see the feedback as confirmation of our self-worth, anything that indicates we need improvement leads some to a personal sense of failure. Others see this feedback as valuable information leading to a path to success.
ReplyDeleteI agree that if you enjoy what you're learning, then you can concentrate better. It's great that Csikszentmihalyi's research can help us apply this concept of Flow in order to experience success.
ReplyDeleteI agree that being in the flow can lead to the best learning. If you like what you are learning, you're more likely to be engaged in the material. When you are engaged and in the flow, I believe this allows you to achieve the highest level in Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning easily. Because you are interested, you don't get stuck trying to pass the lower levels like Remembering and Understanding. You ascend the levels at a more efficient pace because when you're in the flow, you genuinely want to reach higher.
ReplyDeleteadriannebb31...I like how you wrote about Flow in connection with Bloom's Taxonomy. Making this connection is a kind of synthesis. Higher level thinking is more challenging, more interesting, more enjoyable. Sometimes a lot of effort is needed to move beyond comprehension, which can be interesting work. Then comes the fun, the enjoyment of DOING something with the new knowledge!
ReplyDeleteWhat comes first the interest or the enjoyment? The interest or the higher level thinking?
When I am learning something that I fully understand and am enjoying to understand I can see how the word "flow" could apply to the situation. Everything does seem to come more easily and you can flow through things more easily. As for the question of what comes first, I believe it has to be interest because with out interest how do we take the first step to get involved in something.
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