A high performing classroom is not a silent and obedient classroom. It is a classroom that encourages student achievement, a classroom in which students are competing with themselves and outperforming themselves every day. To ensure that all students in our class are high performers, we have to ensure that our students are deeply engaged in their learning process. And, to ensure that students remain engaged for an extended period is indeed a challenge for every teacher. 

Let us learn about the flow state concept and how we can use it to create greater levels of student engagement.

Very often, we find children deeply immersed in the screens of digital devices. More often than not, it’s not online education that’s happening. The child is focused on playing a game on the digital device, aloof of his surroundings and least concerned about our presence. What makes the child so disciplined and focused on the game, forgetting everything around him? 

It is because:
1) It gives the child a sense of control and achievement, a sense of empowerment
2) There is a perfect matching of skills and challenge level
3) It gives the child instant feedback (score)

I came across the concept of ‘flow theory’ while preparing for a talk on ‘Happiness’ some years back. It was introduced by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. It’s a classic and recommended reading for anyone interested in understanding happiness.

In Mihaly’s words, flow is “a state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience is so enjoyable that people will continue to do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it” Just what the child experiences while playing the game on the cell phone.

Have you ever experienced a state of flow? We all have experienced this state many times in our life. The times when we were absorbed in studying something very interesting, when we forgot everything about ourselves while hiking in the mountains, when we were deeply involved in playing a musical instrument or creating an art piece, when we lost track of time while reading a mystery novel while talking to a dear friend after a long time… All these were moments when we lost track of time, effort, and our surroundings. We were immersed in performing the activity just for the sake of it without any purpose or result in mind. And, these are among the sweetest moments that make our life precious.

According to Mihaly, “The best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times … The best moments usually occur if a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile”.

Mihaly describes the following eight characteristics of flow:

  1. Complete concentration on the task;
  2. Clarity of goals and reward in mind and immediate feedback;
  3. Transformation of time (speeding up/slowing down);
  4. The experience is intrinsically rewarding;
  5. Effortlessness and ease;
  6. There is a balance between challenge and skills;
  7. Actions and awareness are merged, losing self-conscious rumination;
  8. There is a feeling of control over the task.

Now that we have got an understanding of what is a flow state, let us see how we can use this understanding to create greater levels of engagement and performance in our students. Have a look at the following graph:

The graph is almost self-explanatory. We can see that when a challenge is bigger than one’s level of skills, one becomes anxious and stressed. On the other hand, when the level of skill required exceeds the size of the challenge faced, one becomes bored and distracted. And, whenever there is a matching of the challenge level and skill level, we are flowing in the flow channel.

As the experience of the flow-state is just in the middle of the graph, achieving the sweet balance is essential. Inducing a flow-state (whether in ourselves or our students) is about creating a balance between the level of skill and the size of the challenge at hand.

[Do see a more detailed graph at the end of this article for more interesting insights]

We can induce a flow-state in our students and achieve greater engagement and peak performance in our classroom by taking the following three easy steps:

  1. Students should be clear about the goal and benefits of the class/lecture:
    For this, before starting to teach a new topic, teachers should have a candid discussion with students revolving around what is the goal of learning a chapter, a subject, what are its benefits in real life, and how is it connected to other things. We should also discuss the relevance of the topic in terms of exams and marks.
    Before we jump-start teaching our topic of the day, we should spend some time discussing:What is the goal of today’s lecture of 40 mins? What is the importance of today’s lecture? What are we going to achieve today in the next 40 mins? What will you lose if you don’t focus?
    Making the goals clear in this way will give a purpose and direction to your class and generate interest among students.
  2. Rather than having a common goal for the entire class, the teacher can set up individual goals for students based on their skill levels. [These goals can also be set by students themselves]. There should be a matching of skills and learning challenges.
  3. There should be a feedback mechanism by way of asking students appropriate questions, appreciation, and recognition. Our feedback should be such that students know very clearly where they stand in the learning/skills hierarchy (just as they know their exact level while playing a video game).

We can also achieve the flow state through group activities.
In one study, researchers from St. Bonaventure University asked students to participate in activities that would induce flow either in a team or by themselves.
Students rated flow to be more enjoyable when in a team rather than when they were alone. Students also found it more joyful if the team members were able to talk to one another. This finding was replicated even when skill level and challenge were equal.
A final study found that being in an interdependent group while experiencing flow is more enjoyable than one that is not. So, if you want to get more enjoyment out of the flow, try engaging your students in group activities.

Now that we are aware of the flow-state of our mind and how it can be achieved, let us make our classroom a high performing classroom by intentionally creating as many flow-state activities as possible.

Artists are the luckiest ones to experience the flow state very frequently.