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: o Theories of the sublime o Flow experience o What kind of learning do such experiences make possible? o Can we assess this learning?

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

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.” Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi Creativity : Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention (1996; NY: Harper, 1997),

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.” Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi Creativity : Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention (1996; NY: Harper, 1997),

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 …” (Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, Creativity : Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention, 1997, 122)

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, ; John T. Cacioppo, Richard E. Petty & Chuan Feng Kao, “The Efficient Assessment of Need for Cognition,” Journal of Personality Assessment, 1984, 43: 3, ) Formulate new questions Is there a metacognitive dimension to this learning?

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

Sublime Learning and Creativity Traditional view of individual creativity as a process involving preparation, incubation, insight (“aha” moments), evaluation, elaboration ( Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi, 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 ( C reativity : 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?