3 Flow And Motivation Practices For Students

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Marie Curie, the only person to have won the Nobel Prize in two different scientific fields, was well known for her passion and strenuous work ethic. She often got so absorbed in her that she would miss her meals, and one time even passed out in the library from exhaustion. However, what seems like a grueling routine to most, gave her a different kind of enjoyment, a sort of creative flow. “All that I saw and learned was a new delight to me. It was like a new world open to me, the world of science which I was at last permitted to know in all liberty.

What Marie Curie experienced in her labs is similar to what countless other scientists and artists have described when they are deeply engaged in their work. This feeling of being ‘in-the-zone,’ where one is fully focused on the task in front of them, is what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi called the state of flow

Csikszentmihalyi described flow as the state of intense focus, where all distractions melt away. Action and awareness merge, and one loses one’s sense of time. The flow experience is highly enjoyable and driven by intrinsic motivation, one reason why people continue to engage in the activity despite other costs.  

Flow is also integral to deep learning and building student motivation. When students engage in reasonably challenging tasks where they have sufficient autonomy, they are more likely to enter into flow states. Apart from improving learning outcomes, flow also builds a sense of well-being and has a positive effect towards school. Unfortunately, there are some practices that make it harder for students to get into a flow:

Key to Creative Flow 1) Reading: Teaching for Skill

In most classrooms, students spend the majority of their time reading short texts, followed by answering several questions designed to test their reading comprehension. Even when students read a novel in the classroom, it’s often peppered with extra work like taking notes in the middle or frequent discussion breaks. While some of these approaches help students build critical reading skills and prepare them for standardized tests, they disrupt the flow and prevent students from getting lost in the book. It’s no wonder that students lose their love of reading as they grow older – they stop associating books with pleasure. 

This excessive focus on reading for skills prompted Kelly Gallagher to propose a new word, readicide (and also the name of his famous book), which is defined as “the systematic killing of the love of reading, often exacerbated by the inane, mind-numbing practices found in schools.” 

Key to Creative Flow 2) Science: Over-Reliance on the Scientific Method

As typically taught in schools, the scientific method has six steps: problem statement, hypothesis, research, experiment, analysis, and conclusion. Unfortunately, as real-world scientists have often pointed out, science rarely ever follows the linear, rigid path outlined by the traditional scientific method. 

The origin of the scientific method can be traced to John Dewey, who outlined different elements of reflective thought commonly present in scientific investigations in his book, “How We Think.” In an eagerness to find an easy formula for teaching science, Dewey’s ideas were misconstrued as a step-by-step process. Despite Dewey’s clarifications – that the phases  “represent only in outline the indispensable traits of reflective thinking. In practice, two of them may telescope, some of them may be passed over hurriedly, and the burden of reaching a conclusion may fall mainly on a single phase.” –  the scientific method stuck. 

The problem with rigidly following the scientific method is that it deprives students of opportunities to engage deeply with what they are curious about. Instead of following a more natural thought process, students have to artificially try to fit their work to a prescribed approach. 

Key to Creative Flow 3) Creativity: Enforcing a Creative Process

Creativity and design thinking processes also outline different steps, typically including formulating a problem, brainstorming, prototyping and iterating. Students are expected to follow the steps linearly and document their process while working with an idea. 

The problem with this is similar to that of the scientific process – real-world creative accomplishments rarely follow a set pattern. Leonardo DaVinci, an undisputed creative genius, wrote thousands of pages of notes over his lifetime. Looking at his notebooks, it is clear that his journaling was driven primarily by curiosity and his detailed drawings were a mechanism to help him think better. Needless to say, there are no mentions of any structured processes that he followed as he invented. 

This isn’t to say that some structure isn’t useful. Students should be taught different brainstorming methods or prototyping and iterating as useful exercises. However, they should also get a fair amount of autonomy in how they create and what steps they choose to implement. If a student suddenly gets a creative idea without going through a formal brainstorming session, it’s still a valid idea that should be acknowledged. Not doing so carries the risk of making students think they are not really cut out for creativity because they didn’t do things the right way. 

Maintaining Creative Flow

To motivate students towards deeper learning and creative endeavors, it’s important for them to experience flow in the school environment. This time of ‘free cognitive play,’ where students focus intensely on freely exploring a concept or solving a problem, is not very different from free play that is also essential for healthy development. Unfortunately, such time for reflective abstraction has reduced significantly due to additional curricular and testing demands.  

Some strategies that can help increase opportunities for flow include:

Have dedicated time for free reading, where students get to choose the book they want to read without any additional constraints.

For creative or science projects where students explore a topic of their own choice, allow them to find their own path. It’s useful for students to know different phases of the scientific or creative process. But instead of mandating a process, encourage them to adopt what makes sense for them and have them reflect on their experience once they are done.  

Reducing the requirements on documenting or logging their work as they work. In some cases, like in experimental science, this is essential. However, in many other areas, excessive requirements can be a turn-off. Instead, focus on the end result of what was created.  

By creating opportunities for students to get into a flow state, we can improve not just their creative and critical thinking abilities but also motivate them towards deeper learning.

Further Reading

  1. edCircuit – Why Creativity Should Be Taught In Schools
  2. The Atlantic – The Atlantic Daily: When Will Kids Return to the Classroom?
  3. Education Week – ‘Stay Away From Negativity’: Educators Share the Best Teaching Advice They’ve Received

Author

  • Pronita Mehrotra

    Pronita Mehrotra is the Founder of MindAntix, a company that develops tools and programs to bring creativity into schools and organizations. Her work focuses on the neuroscience behind creative thinking and leverages cognitive thinking patterns in ideation and decision making. She has participated in several global conferences and conducted creativity workshops for educators and leaders. 

    Her work has been featured in leading publications like Harvard Business Review, Geekwire, ASCD and Education Week. MindAntix’s educational product was awarded EdTech Digest’s Cool Tool 2020 Finalist award in the 21st century skills category.

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