Education needs Flow
Flow is a psychological concept named by Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Flow is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energised focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In essence, flow is characterised by complete absorption in what one does, and a resulting loss in one’s sense of space and time.
While working on a project or problem you would have experienced a time when you were lost completely in the work with no sense of time and place. That is flow. I have found myself and my team in flow sometimes. The days we reach the state of flow we are immensely productive.
I have read hundreds of books in last few years and have found the concept of flow being referred to in many of them. In fact I read Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow due to this reason.
Long durations of being in flow are rare but at least we can help kids to reach the state of flow sometimes everyday while studying. Flow is a form of positive psychology and will go a long way in making kids love education.
To be in flow we generally need the following conditions :
- The activity must have clear goals and indicators of progress
- The task at hand must have clear and immediate feedback
- There must be a good balance between the perceived challenges of the task at hand and one’s own perceived skills.
- One must have confidence in one’s ability to complete the task at hand.
Mobile and computer games are very good in fulfilling these conditions. In fact I came to know about the concept of flow which researching on game design. Flow is not just limited to games and sports. Any work can be converted to flow with right work design. I feel that the famous Agile software development processes have been so successful around the world because they help software development teams to reach a state of flow.
Thus we should design school and college experiences in such a way that the students reach a state of flow. Currently the standard system with multiple subjects and fixed schedule inhibits flow. Also the student has no say in designing his or her own curriculum.
We need to redesign education so that we can provide challenging projects to get students in the state of flow. Classrooms need to be more like maker spaces which provide students autonomy to choose their own projects and then work on them. Every project should involve learning cross functional skills. The projects should be designed in such a way that student should be in full control while doing the project. The role of teacher should be that of a guide.
Only then will students reach the state of flow.
I have founded an EdTech startup called Fun2Do Labs. To know more about it visit : http://fun2dolabs.com and https://www.youtube.com/Fun2DoLabs.
To view animated math stories please visit : https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLY7T1ZMVDoFr7rkKVOAkRxj92qQYQGjzv&si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE
We have created a virtual Math teacher called Uncle Math who teaches kids Math in a fun way.
