Flow theory in less than five minutes, I promise. It was the first game of the 1992 NBA Championship Series. The Portland Trailblazers were pulling ahead of the Chicago Bulls when Phil Jackson called a timeout. Michael Jordan emerged from this timeout with a sense of intense concentration.
And though it didn't seem like a big deal at the time, he would then go on... in the next 18 minutes to hit six three-pointers. At one point, he looked to the sidelines and shrugged his shoulders, seemingly surprised by his own success.
He later described this experience as being in the zone. Now, players in every sport describe this similar experience of being in the zone, where they tune out the crowd and the noise and the distractions and just play at their top performance. But it isn't limited to sports.
Artists and authors, musicians, engineers, composers, they all experience this same sense of being in the zone. It's a strange paradox where time seems to stand still, and yet it seems to be over in an instant. It feels effortless even though you're facing an extreme challenge.
There's a sense of relaxation, but it's also intense. You seem more present than ever, but you also seem to lose your entire... sense of self. You've probably experienced this before when you were so engaged in a task that you lost track of time and place.
There's a term for this. It's called being in a state of flow. And if we want students to be fully empowered to own the creative process, to engage in deep and meaningful work, well then we need to understand what it means for students to reach this state of flow. Although the idea of flow has existed for thousands of years, flow theory began in the 1970s and 80s when Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi became fascinated by artists who were so lost in their creative work that they would lose track of time and even ignore food, water, and sleep. And through his research, he noticed a similar experience with scientists and athletes and authors and all kinds of people who engaged in meaningful work.
It was a state of hyper focus and complete engagement. He described it as optimal experience. Researchers do not have one single working model for flow theory, but there are a few factors that the theorists have described as being vital for achieving the state of flow. Number one, it needs to be a task that you find intrinsically rewarding.
You're not going to hit a state of flow while necessarily mowing the yard or... cleaning toilets, unless that's your jam. Number two, you need clear goals and a sense of progress.
It helps if you are actually setting the goals yourself. Number three, the task needs clear and immediate feedback. You need to know what you're doing and where you're going. Number four, the challenge must match the perceived skills.
This requires a sense of personal control or agency over the task. In 1987, Researchers published the eight-channel model of flow shown here and notice that if a task is too easy you might experience apathy or boredom but if a task seems too hard you'll be anxious. The goal is to match both the skill level and the task at hand.
And number five it requires intense focus on the present moment. So what does this actually mean for schools? Well Here are a few ideas. Number one, tap into intrinsic motivation. Find tasks that students will want to do rather than tasks that they simply have to do.
Number two, embrace student choice and agency. Whenever possible, allow them to own their learning. Number three, provide the right scaffolding so that students can match the challenge level to their ability levels, or at least their perceived ability levels. Number four, minimize distractions so that students can focus on their learning.
It helps to change the pacing so that you have fewer tasks and more time to accomplish it. And number five, help students learn to monitor their own progress through metacognition. Teach them to set goals, analyze tasks, figure out what they need to do, make adjustments in the moment, and reflect on their progress at hand.