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Inspiration by Design (adapted from “Approaching the Ineffable: Flow, Sublimity, and Student Learning”)

Inspiration by Design (adapted from “Approaching the Ineffable: Flow, Sublimity, and Student Learning”). Donna Heiland NEASC Annual Meeting and Conference December 7, 2011. Sublime Learning. A process that leads students to “aha moments” Four building blocks of my argument:

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Inspiration by Design (adapted from “Approaching the Ineffable: Flow, Sublimity, and Student Learning”)

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  1. Inspiration by Design (adapted from “Approaching the Ineffable: Flow, Sublimity, and Student Learning”) Donna Heiland NEASC Annual Meeting and Conference December 7, 2011

  2. SublimeLearning • A process that leads students to “aha moments” • Four building blocks of my argument: • Theories of the sublime • Flow experience • What kind of learning do such experiences make possible? • Can we assess this learning?

  3. Building Block #1 The Sublime • Burke and Kant • Transcendent or horrifying • Collapses boundaries between oneself and the world outside oneself • Oneness

  4. Building Block #2 “Flow” “ …we might even feel that we have stepped out of the boundaries of the ego and have become part, at least temporarily, of a larger entity. The musician feels at one with the harmony of the cosmos, the athlete moves at one with the team, the reader of a novel lives for a few hours in a different reality.” MihalyiCsikszentmihalyiCreativity : Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention (1996; NY: Harper, 1997),112-113

  5. Characteristics of “flow” • “There are clear goals every step of the way.” • “There is immediate feedback to one’s actions.” • “There is a balance between challenges and skills.” • “Action and awareness are merged.” • “Distractions are excluded from consciousness.” • “There is no worry of failure.” • “Self-consciousness disappears.” • “The sense of time becomes distorted.” • “The activity becomes autotelic.” MihalyiCsikszentmihalyiCreativity : Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention (1996; NY: Harper, 1997),111-113

  6. Building Block #3 What Kind of Learning is Sublime Learning? • Affective engagement • Cognitive achievement • The two are so imbricated in each other as to be inextricable: “the joy of discovery, of solving a problem …”(MihalyiCsikszentmihalyi , Creativity : Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention , 1997,122)

  7. Building Block #4 How can we assess sublime learning? • Need for cognition scale (John T. Cacioppo, & Richard E, Petty, “The Need for Cognition,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1982, 42: 1, 116-131; John T. Cacioppo, Richard E. Petty & Chuan Feng Kao, “The Efficient Assessment of Need for Cognition,” Journal of Personality Assessment, 1984, 43: 3, 306-307) • Formulate new questions • Is there a metacognitive dimension to this learning?

  8. What kind of assessment are we doing? • Direct assessment • Intense engagement generates substantive insight and becomes a form of learning

  9. Sublime Learning and Creativity • Traditional view of individual creativity as a process involving preparation, incubation, insight (“aha” moments), evaluation, elaboration (MihalyiCsikszentmihalyi , Creativity : Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention [1996; NY: Harper, 1997] 79-80) • Csikszentmihalyi views creativity as a process that takes place within a system (Creativity : Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention [1996; NY: Harper, 1997] 23-50) • In what system does sublime learning take place and how do we assess the effectiveness of the system in creating such experiences?

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