Flow Theory as a Useful Construct to Improve Math Education

Abstract

Math students sometimes lack math self-efficacy or feelings of enjoyment while learning math. When math students have negative math experiences, teachers have difficulty helping them develop intrinsic motivation for learning math. Flow Theory from positive psychology is a theory that attempts to explain how an endeavor such as math learning can be intrinsically motivating and enjoyable. According to Flow Theory, when a person is in “flow” during an activity, they have clear goals, focused concentration, and perceive a balance between the challenge of the activity and their skill level. During the flow activity, they often receive immediate feedback, experience a merging of action and awareness, feel a strong sense of control, have a loss of self-consciousness, and feel that time is distorted. They enjoy the experience so much that they want to repeat it again in the future. Because the enjoyment engendered by flow is a form of intrinsic motivation, math teachers may want to help their students develop more flow during their math learning to increase their math self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation for learning math. There are numerous aspects to the flow experience, and many of these aspects overlap with other psychological constructs. Because there exists ambiguity in the literature over what exactly constitutes a flow experience, understanding how to best engender flow in the math classroom is a challenge. Recent research has considered what it takes to “flow” in many different areas of human experience. This thesis reviews some of the research most relevant to math education and offers teachers some suggestions and resources they may consider using to create more flow for their students. Based on the reviewed flow research, teachers may help their students perceive a challenge-skill balance in the math classroom that can lead to flow by helping them develop growth mindsets and improve their math self-efficacy. They can create open, clear goals for student activities that allow them to experience autonomy, creativity, and a sense of control over their math learning. To create flow in the math classroom, teachers can give positive, immediate feedback to students to help them focus on improvement, growth, and enjoyment during the learning process. They can also use pedagogy that creates an encouraging environment where students are active participants in the learning process and their interests and backgrounds are integral to the design of learning activities. Teachers can help students reduce internal and external distractions that interfere with the high levels of attentiveness needed to experience flow. Finally, teachers can respect students’ emotions and help to create a supportive classroom environment where positive relationships help students to embrace high levels of challenge while developing intrinsic motivation for learning math.