What Part Does “Flow” Play in My Life? In My School?
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, in an interview with Marge Scherer (“Do Students Care About Learning?”) explains the experience he calls “flow,” which occurs when there is a close match between a high level of challenge and the skills required to meet the challenge. Flow creates a spontaneous, effortless state in which a person is completely involved in the task at hand.
Think about times when you personally achieve flow. What activities create this experience for you? How frequently do you have this experience?
- The exploration of essential moral questions advocated by Katherine Simon (“The Blue Blood Is Bad, Right?”).
- Richard Sagor’s environment of competence, belonging, usefulness, potency, and optimism (“Lessons from Skateboarders”).
- A self-directed curriculum built by students around questions that matter to them, as advocated by Dave Brown (“Self-Directed Learning in an 8th Grade Classroom”).
- Project-based learning, as described by Diane Curtis (“The Power of Projects”).
What Makes a Good Teacher?
Inner-city middle and high school students describe their perspective on good teachers in Dick Corbett and Bruce Wilson’s article, “What Urban Students Say About Good Teaching.”
Use this article as a springboard for a group discussion of the keys to good teaching. Do you agree that the characteristics listed on page 18 are essential to good teaching? What additional characteristics are important? Do the essential knowledge and skills differ for teachers in urban areas and other types of communities?
Note that these students’ definition of good teaching seems to have little to do with meaningful learning experiences that authentically engage their interest—rather, the students define good teachers as those who are “strict enough to make me learn,” whatever the content they are studying. What is your reaction?
Do Our School’s Practices Invite Students to Learn?
- positive interpersonal relationships among teachers and students;a supportive learning environment;empowering classroom procedures;meaningful learning tasks.
If you decide that some of these areas are weak, develop some ideas for improvement.
