Golf Flow

skiers.
Green circles—beginners, easy bunny slopes.
Blue squares—novices, medium difficulty.
Black diamonds—experts, steep.
Double black diamonds—extreme expertise required, very steep, frequently icy or ungroomed, high danger.
    Now answer the following questions:
    How would an expert skier feel spending the day on green bunny slopes?
    Bored
    Alert
    Excited
    Frightened
    How would a novice skier feel on a double black diamond?
    Bored
    Alert
    Excited
    Frightened
    How would a novice skier feel on a blue slope?
    Bored
    Alert
    Excited
    Frightened
    Finally, how would an expert skier feel on a black diamond slope?
    Bored
    Alert
    Excited
    Frightened
    Answers:
Because bunny slopes do not offer enough challenge, the expert skier is likely to feel bored.
Because black diamonds are difficult, the novice skier is likely to feel frightened on such slopes (and likely to get injured).
Because blue slopes offer reasonable challenge, a novice skier is likely to feel alert or excited.
Because black diamonds offer extreme challenge, an expert skier (with extreme skills) is likely to feel alert or excited.
    This exercise demonstrates that, when a skier’s level of skill does not correspond with the appropriate level of challenge, the skier is likely to experience a negative psychological state. In examples 1 and 2, expert skiers on bunny slopes get bored and novice skiers on double black diamonds get frightened.
    Conversely, look at scenarios 3 and 4. When the level of challenge effectively matches the level of that person’s skill, the skier feels energized, excited, and generally alert. In other words, when challenge and skill correspond with one another, the skier feels an assortment of positive emotions. Within the confines of this metric, where correspondence is present between challenge and skill, flow states are most likely to occur.
    The challenge–skill (C–S) correspondence works across many domains of functioning, athletic and otherwise, from childhood through adulthood. If you walk into any elementary school classroom where reading instruction is taking place, you will notice that most schools organize student reading levels to correspond with C–S so that students read books that are at the appropriate grade level, as the jargon goes. Students who are able to read at a third-grade level become frustrated when given books written for readers who are functioning at a fifth-grade level. In fact, many motivation and behavior problems are not inherent in the child but rather emerge from classroom practices that do not stimulate and challenge students at an appropriate level. Too much challenge often leads children to become discouraged and subsequently causes behavior problems.
    Similarly, students reading at a high grade level are frequently forced to read books that don’t provide enough mental stimulation or intellectual challenge. Although the students who are challenged too severely get frustrated, students who are insufficiently challenged get bored. Their attention wanders, they are not engaged, and they too have behavior problems.
    As a frequent consultant to schools, I have seen firsthand how providing students with just the right level of interesting challenges turns their focus away from mischief and toward their academic studies. Only when teachers are able to find the sweet spot of learning where the academic challenge corresponds with or slightly exceeds the students’ skills does the learning environment turn out happy, engaged, productive students who love to learn.
    The C–S correspondence extends into adulthood. We choose books, movies, careers, and hobbies that are challenging and interesting to us. Similarly, we enjoy thought-provoking conversations that push us to the edge of our intellectual capabilities. We tend to gravitate to people whose perspectives we find pleasantly stimulating. Indeed, it is human nature to strive for the type of challenge that leads to growth. According to William James, we are all born with an innate impulse toward better understanding and mastery, which is why the feeling of personal growth—spiritually, intellectually, or physically—is one of the greatest feelings in human experience.

Figure 5.1 The zone of proximal development.
    The ZPD is defined by the distance between the level at which a student can solve problems independently and the level at which that student could potentially solve problems with proper guidance. Although he conceived the ZPD over 50