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There is a state of mind called “Flow” which many people believe to be an optimal psychological state for learning and creativity: From Wikipedia: Flow is the mental state of operation in which a person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of […]
May 25, 2012
In high school I was notorious for falling asleep at my desk. My teachers would force me to stand at my desk (while my classmates sat) in order to stay awake. It was taken as a sign of disrespect that I was falling asleep. In some ways I was being disrespectful. I was telling the […]
May 25, 2012
People frequently say this when discussing a movie with a great cliffhanger. They understand that the experience of discovery that the movie presents is extremely enjoyable and they don’t want you to miss that feeling. Similarly I wish more educators and parents would think about the development and education of children this way. The process […]
May 24, 2012
Have you ever seen those creative answers to tests that make their way around the Internet? If not, here are a few: These answers were of course marked incorrect, but they are all actually correct. In many ways they represent the most useful skill we can encourage in students, creativity. In the real world the […]
May 21, 2012
I really wish people would stop talking about the personalization revolution in education, where technology will allow us to deliver a personalized learning plan for every student. If you want true personalization you don’t need technology, you need autonomy. The only truly personalized learning is one where the student decides what he or she is […]
May 17, 2012
I hope that students will be saying this as much as possible at The Puzzle School: “No, let me do it” As in, don’t tell me the answer, don’t help me, let me figure it out. I think this is a huge indicator of a great educational environment. Students believing that they can figure it […]
May 16, 2012
**** Update **** After thinking about this some more and reading the comment below I’ve decided at least for myself this statement is still too focused on the conclusion of the work rather than the process. I probably would not use this statement too much with students **************** This is what I want teachers and […]
May 15, 2012
More and more I’m finding that the best heuristic for my thinking around education and how I should focus my efforts with The Puzzle School is “The Daughter Test”, basically, “what would I want for my daughter”. It may sound obvious, but time and time again I’ve found that it becomes easier to explain my […]
May 12, 2012
There is a famous quote about selling property, “There are three things that matter, Location, Location, and Location”. With the consumer Internet, where I’ve spent most of my professional career, that quote becomes, “There are three things that matter, Distribution, Distribution, and Distribution”. If you can create a consumer product that spreads easily (goes viral) […]
May 11, 2012
Just read the following article describing a study demonstrating the importance of choice and autonomy in motivation: What’s the best way to encourage kids In one of the experiments, Ibrahim Senay, a psychologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and two co-authors asked a group of subjects to prepare for an anagram-solving task by […]
May 26, 2012
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