Comments on: Flow, curiosity, and engaging education

By: cmytko

cmytko — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 22:30:16 +0000

I came about your site quite circuitously, and being a science teacher, quickly checked out your science posts. I really enjoy the ideas of M. Csikszentmihalyi, and see many connections between his ideas and the learning process. In fact, I wrote an entry on the subject myself.

http://www.mytko.org/2006/11/going-with-flow_11.html

I also connect Csikszentmihalyi’s ideas to the practice of differentiation in the classroom. Since flow is such an individual balance, it requires individualized instruction. This is one of the most difficult, yet most rewarding, aspects of my job. Flow is tough to acheive in a typical public school setting….

By: Hanan Yaniv

Hanan Yaniv — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 12:18:10 +0000

What I read in this is when the skills level is growing and the challenge remains the same you find yourself bored. It’s interesting, isn’t it? Does it mean that the more people have experienced “flow” (which is a highly pleasurable state - for me), the more they will need it, the more restless they would become as they will constantly seek challenging situations? Is this why I keep finding myself in more and more challenging situations? Will it lead (as does the Peter Principle) to a level of incompetence? Can a teacher “afford” it ethically?

By: Weekly Links (2 December 2006) at teaching.mrbelshaw.co.uk

Weekly Links (2 December 2006) at teaching.mrbelshaw.co.uk — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 20:32:46 +0000

[...] Speed of Creativity - Flow, Curiosity, and Engaging Education - Wes Fryer on ‘flow’ and optimal experience. He includes a great diagram (I like diagrams!) [...]

By: Mechelle De Craene

Mechelle De Craene — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 04:25:16 +0000

Hi Wesley,

Dr. John Cuthell and I have been researching flow as a part of a larger international ethnographic study on child development and computers. Here’s a link to a article where we briefly talk about flow.

http://terry-freedman.org.uk/artman/publish/printer_714.php

Kind Regards,
Mechelle

By: Moving at the Speed of Creativity » Blog Archive » Boredom and engagement

Mon, 27 Nov 2006 19:23:18 +0000

[...] I saw this quotation today on Mike Temple’s blog, and was reminded of the reading and thinking I’ve been doing lately related to flow and learning: Children, taught either years beneath their intelligence or miles wide of relevance to it, or both: their intelligence becomes hopelessly bewildered, drawn off its centers, bored, or atrophied.- James Agee Listen to this blog post as a mp3 audio file [...]

By: Bee

Bee — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 20:59:24 +0000

Thank you Wesley for the inspiring post and sharing with us some of your readings. I’d say flow is a very intense personal experience and it is provoked by our own desire to discover or go deeper into something that interests us.
It is difficult to provoke it from outside at a given moment just at the click of your finger. You do not control or command engagement.

Teachers should in reality allow spaces and time for flow to happen.

By: Ann205

Ann205 — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 20:42:38 +0000

I completely agree with your analysis of the chart and the information you have gathered so far in your reading. I believe that the more we study the behavior and reactions of our children in their educational development, the more specifically we can address their individual needs. The balance between anxiety and boredom can be extremely difficult to find for each student, but that is the idea, right?

I also agree that this Thanksgiving we should be grateful for the small blessing of studies that can enhance our relationship with our students and help them to develop the confidence needed to be successful.