Worry, relaxation, control, boredom, anxiety, arousal, apathy. Wonder whether you’ve ever noticed any of these states of mind in your students? I know I have. What I didn’t fully appreciate however was that these factors can be brought into play as a result of the interplay of two elements:
- the level of challenge in the task the students were facing and
- their capability or level of skill.
This relationship was first proposed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a Hungarian Psychology professor who noted that most people are happy when in a state of flow, the missing emotion from the opening list. Have you ever been so engrossed in and absorbed by a activity you chose to undertake that you missed the passing of time? All other needs fade into the background as your immersion in the task becomes complete. This is flow and is generated when the conditions are such that we experience a level of challenge at the limit of our capability, yet have sufficient confidence and ability to cope with changing demands. If the level of demand is too low, we may become bored with, or apathetic towards the task. If the level of challenge is too high, we may worry and experience anxiety.
Now think back to the students you encounter. What proportion of their time would you say they experience flow during their school/college day? An average school class, even one setted or streamed, will be composed of students of varying ability and that ‘ability’ will shift as they move from lesson to lesson; some are more capable musicians, some scientifically inclined and others have a facility with words. To enable all students in your class to achieve flow is consequently a real … challenge!
The next time a student says they’re bored or appears apathetic, perhaps it’s an opportunity to use the chart above to help explore possible causes with them? Or if they’re worried as exam season approaches, what does that tell you or them?
Thanks to Colin Maxwell for his post on Flow in Games which stimulated my thinking on this.
Images:
cc licensed ( BY SD ) flickr photo by streetslashphoto: flickr.com/photos/streetslashphoto/106684650/
Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Challenge_vs_skill.svg / CC BY-SA 3.0
Practically In the pICTure 
