Flow

According to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, flow is the state of mind you find yourself in when you are fully immersed in an activity that gives you focus and enjoyment.  To achieve flow, the activity must require a skill level and challenge that is high enough to be engaging, but not to the point of frustration.  Educators have recently applied the study of flow to the classroom, and this week a few of our activities reminded me of why the concept is especially important to gifted students and the ASPIRE Academy.

We often hear that students and parents turn to ASPIRE so that the scholars will be challenged.  After all, if a learner has high ability and the work is not challenging, Csikszentmihalyi's model shows that it could lead to boredom and apathy.  However, if the skill level is not as high as the challenge, it can cause anxiety and worry.  This presents the task that ASPIRE (and all) teachers face, which is to find the right balance of challenge and skill.  Of course, this is different for all students, which demonstrates the need for differentiation.  However, I wanted to highlight a few recent activities that I believe either reached flow, or were very close.

The one that stands out the most was an equation puzzle.  Ms. Moore and I created an intermediate and expert one-step equation puzzle that required scholars to solve problems and match them with answers to form a 15 piece rectangle.  They were filled with challenging problems, misleading matches, and edge equations that didn't even have matches.  Students worked in pairs on the level of their choice.  You could feel the determination, struggle, excitement, frustration, and focus all at the same time.  It was definitely an unexpected "in the zone" activity that found the right balance.

Another activity from the week was the Circuit Analysis Lab.  Scholars gathered electric equipment of their choice such as batteries, switches, motors, lights, and wires, and built series and parallel circuits.  When they completed their circuits, scholars created digital products to reflect their components, energy transformations, and direction of current.  Skill level was already high because of circuit labs earlier in the week, but the challenge was new and open ended, which allowed scholars to adapt the activity to their level.  The scholars did a great job of creating a circuit that pushed the levels of their comfort zone, as some used multiple devices and pathways.

In addition, our "Soapy Raft" activity in social studies pushed the students to the verge of flow.  The scholars had to choose from a list of stakeholders, occasions, audiences, purposes, and subjects to express the aftermath of the American Revolution.  (For example, one choice was a British soldier writing a letter to King George as an apology upon his return home to England.)  Skill level was generally high, as the students had knowledge to draw on from our Revolutionary War unit, and the challenge was again adjustable to fit individual needs.  Students wrote poems, letters, speeches, proposals, and declarations.  Some had to research angles and perspectives that we had never considered during our studies.  The work was engaging and the final products revealed creativity, research, analysis, inferences, and effort.

What do all three of these activities have in common in addition to skill and challenge level?  There was always a tangible intensity in the room while the students were working, and all three activities required a stopping point for class change, specials, or lunch.  Every time there was disappointment, as they wanted to continue working.  Imagine, a class that does not want to stop for lunch!  Total immersion allows students to lose that sense of time, and makes school a worthwhile endeavor.  That feeling is my goal every time I create a lesson.  I don't always get there.  Boredom, apathy, and relaxation still exist in my classroom.  However, that doesn't stop us from constantly striving to improve until they are eliminated, and flow is a constant state achieved by all learners.