Planning 4 Success

Csikszentmihalyi suggests 9 elements of the flow:

1. Clear goals

2. Immediate feedback

3. A balance between challenges and skills

4. Simultaneous processes of action and awareness

5. Setting aside destructions

6. No worry of failure

7. Disappearing of Self-consciousness

8. Loosing sense of time

9. The activity has an end in itself

To achieve flow in the classroom the instructor should deliver a lesson satisfying the above mentioned requirements. Nobody can ever tell if the lesson will be useful to particular group of learners. So the safe choice here is to start with planning. Perhaps, thorough lesson planning will not guarantee “flow” in the classroom, but at least it can minimize the risk of being not informative and dull. The worst that can happen in the adult classroom is wasting learners’ time, and thus their money. So how can we incorporate Csikszentmihalyi’s principles into lesson planning?

The best starting point is goal setting. It’s impossible to do something without knowing what you are doing. The great quote from Alice in Wonderland was given as an introduction to Learning Objectives module in the Procedures for Effective Teaching course of the current program:

Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?

The Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.

Alice: I don't much care where.

The Cat: Then it doesn't much matter which way you go.

Alice: … so long as I get somewhere.

The Cat: Oh, you're sure to do that, if only you walk long enough.

When adult learners can see a destination point, they do their best to find their way there led by their instructor. Sometimes it happens they find some other ways to achieve declared goals, sometimes they achieve them outside the classroom and/or certain amount of time later, because adults are lifelong self-directed learners. In any case I believe it is fair to tell my learners “where we plan to go” and “what they are supposed to do”. A great way to announce lesson objectives is to send an email newsletter a couple of days before the class. That will give learners enough time to do some research and to activate their prior knowledge.

Another important aspect of the adult EAL classroom is accepting the fact that learners are adults and their heads are overloaded with problems at work and in personal life. Although it is practically impossible to make them forget about everything in the classroom, an EAL instructor is still able to minimize an effect of destructors at the stage of lesson planning. The formula of success is not that complicated: take meaningful life-related topics and design engaging and interactive activities based on them. Time is flying when you have fun! Adults enjoy playing games and competing with each other.  Besides, interactivity (based on constant learner-teacher and peer-peer feedback) promotes to positive and supportive atmosphere in the classroom, and thus doubles the chances of getting into the zone.