Introduction
In this four-part writing, I am sharing four memorable examples of learners finding flow, and each has brought much joy to the learner and teacher. They are amongst so many whom I have met, taught or coached in the same span of time who have found flow, but they some of the most memorable ones.
Flow here is referencing
the Hungarian-American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s theory
of ‘Flow’ (1990). Flow refers
to a mental state that is highly focused and energized. It occurs when one is
immersed in an activity that is delightful, satisfying and often productive.
Neuroscientists’ research found that such enjoyable engagement facilitated the
production of the neurotransmitter dopamine. In learning theory, a source of
joy in learning comes from identified attained competence, which in itself, is
a driver of intrinsic motivation.
1st wave of Flow –
From unmotivated to unstoppable
This happened when I was
teaching pre-service student-teacher in National Institute of Education. An
exchange student from Australia was very keen to visit a local school art
class, and I managed to arrange for her to visit a primary school Art Club
session.
In the session, the
students were given a task to work on a mixed media work to depict a colorful
tree, using paper collage and oil pastels. Some of the Art Club members were
restless but I noticed a boy was working quietly by himself despite amidst the
more restless and loud students. I saw his rendering of the tree branches with
oil pastel and saw glimpses of Claude Monet’s late paintings, where the vibrant
colors and brush strokes were more like Fauvist works. But his oil pastel
strokes were quiet rigid, so I decided to give him a little extra fuel. I
showed him a couple of ways to use the wrist to change the angles of the oil
pastels sticks that can create more varied and fluid types of strokes. They
were achievable techniques, and he was quite delighted to try. The work slowly
became more expressive and painterly. Then I turned on my phone and searched
for Monet’s later paintings of bushes and trees in his Givenchy home. I showed
the images to the boy and said, “What you are doing reminds me of these. Monet
is a famous French painter you know? Your work looks a bit like his” He smiled
and plunged right back into his work and worked on his oil pastels more
ferociously! When he was done, I suggested he could start another piece of a
different tree, and he jumped right into it. I took his work and showed the Art
Club teacher, “Hey, you have a next Monet in the club”.
At the end of the Art Club
session, the boy took the initiative to wipe down the tables and washed the
cloth. He was every inch the perfect club member! Another teacher, a friend of
mine who helped to facilitate the school visit for the exchange student came to
the Art Room to say hello. I showed her this boy’s work and said “Look at the
new Monet’s work”. Then I pointed to the boy “It’s his work”. My teacher-friend
then whispered to me that this student had motivation and behavioral issues in
other lessons. I leaned towards my friend and whispered back “You know, I saw
nothing of that today! He was the best of the whole group!”
Need I say more? I have just
described how the sense of competence has magically transformed a student, and
he found his flow. Now I am realistic, that the boy’s lack
of motivation in other lessons would unlikely be changed within a short time.
But what is a great premise for working on is to help him gradually attain
competency, and the intrinsic motivation will come, not from without but from
within him. No words of motivation like “you can do it” from a teacher will be
strong enough as a generator of motivation. Rather, it will be words like “See
what you have achieved! Now you know you really can do it”. The student
must first be given the scaffolding to attain some competence, and the evidence
of competence must first be observable and recognized by the student. When
competence is found and sustained with the teacher’s pedagogical support, the
productive engine will start – and when that competence-motivation engine is
ignited, it will be octane-driven and unstoppable!
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