Kristin Murphy, a seasoned educator with more than 30 years of experience, emphasizes the importance of “flow” in the classroom — a concept introduced by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi — in an article in Education Week.
“Flow” is a state of being so focused or in “the zone” regarding a craft that practitioners lose track of time and place while creating, unaware of the outside world.
When students engage deeply, screening out the external world, they transform from extrinsic learners to intrinsic learners, who feel joy, cement concepts and formulate new questions.
Prepackaged curricula often hinder deep engagement, reducing teachers to conduits of information, Murphy argues. “A steady diet of scripted lessons can subtract spontaneity, deep learning, student passions and teacher expertise,” she says. Educators need to create tailored experiences that allow students to immerse themselves in their learning. Allowing students to partake in comprehensive writing tasks, they can experience flow, which fosters intrinsic motivation and a love for learning.
Kristin Murphy has taught grades 1 through 5 in Massachusetts for more than three decades. Her podcast, “Think, Pair, Teacher Share,” is available on podcast platforms. She responded to the question: Does your school day have time for “flow”?
“During my 32 years as an elementary teacher, it’s been a priority for me, but lately, as more prepackaged curricula make their way into classrooms, I am worried about the future of flow.”
Presenting packaged curricula without deviation gives districts false assurance that students learn every concept and demonstrate proficiency on standardized assessments and that teachers will deliver uniformly “equal” instruction to each pupil.
Says Murphy: “Because I value flow in my 3rd grade classroom, I make sure to pause during our writing instruction and allow students a summative experience that encourages not only flow but independence and completion of a real-world task. When studying narratives, after some instruction, I gave students a choice among several open-ended prompts for their stories. They set to work as if their sole purpose on earth was to weave a story to delight the nation. The class cheered every time I released them to do “their writing.” They groaned when writing was completed and recess was to start. When adults walked by the classroom, they saw students sprawled on the floor, hunched over desks, sometimes standing over tables or kneeling on chairs. They saw children applying the most important lessons they had learned. They saw authors in flow, who loved the feeling of being writers.
“This is the kind of learning that students remember and extend when they advance to the next grade. Creation like this fuels the happy, productive thrum that is the heart of learning. It is something that rarely results from delivering prepackaged lessons with total fidelity.
“Teachers should be free to select the best lessons from a variety of sources and be trusted to use their knowledge and expertise to craft an experience tailored for their own students. Students should be allowed to lose themselves in flow. This is the way to persuade young students to come to their desks with enthusiasm every single day.”
Education Week
