As we strive to educate children, we need to consider the passion they start out with, said Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, professor and author, during his Closing General Session speech. Unfortunately, he said, once they end up in formal education, they tend to lose that spontaneous passion and joy for learning.
In his session, Flow and Education, Csikszentmihalyi shared his thoughts about "flow," which he defines as a sense of ecstasy and of being outside reality that occurs when a person is concentrating intensely and is completely involved in what he is doing. When children have a flow experience, he said, their self esteem increases. They feel more competent and they expand their repertoire because the experience is intrinsically motivating. Teachers should strive to foster flow in their students, he said, and that comes when a student has the opportunity to use a high level of skill in a highly challenging environment.
Csikszentmihalyi
When a child is engaged in low-skill, low-challenge activities, apathy reigns. "Apathy for boys is a really dangerous place," he said, and on average, children spend 28 percent of their time in apathy. When a child is engaged in an activity that requires moderate skills but provides a low challenge, boredom sets in. To fight boredom, Csikszentmihalyi said, teachers need to increase the challenge in the learning activity. However, if the challenge is too high, anxiety takes over.
To reach a state of flow, children need good feedback and few interruptions. "The greatest challenge for teachers is to encourage young people to find pleasure in the right things," Csikszentmihalyi said. "We have to make sure we find that sweet spot between what the child can do and the challenge we offer them."