Cultivating Joy in Learning, Part I

Many years ago I had a conversation with a third grade student who had been back to school for a month following summer vacation.  “What do you like most about school?” I asked.  The student thought for a moment and replied, “Really, I don’t like any of it.”  “That’s too bad,” I said.  “Learning is supposed to be joyful, at least some of the time.”  The student thought about this for a minute and then replied, “There is no joy at school.”

Beginning a new school year can be stressful and anxiety provoking for many learners.  Nevertheless, the conversation primed my thinking about the role of joy in learning:

·      What is joy and why/does it matter in education?

·      Is there a difference between joy in the classroom and joy in learning?

·      How do parents, teachers, and/or coaches cultivate joy in learning?

This week’s blog post will focus on questions one and two.  Next week, I will address question three.

What is joy and why/does it matter in education?

Joy is an abstract concept; so abstract it’s possible no two people would describe it exactly the same way.  That said, when you see joy you tend to know it: A child splashing in a mud puddle, a group of kids play tag on the playground, a ten-year-old who just caught her first fish.  In each case, there is a sense of happiness, enthusiasm and contentment. 

Webster’s dictionary defines joy as “a feeling of great pleasure and happiness” (2019).  If you ask parents what they want for their child/ren, many will reply, “I want my child to be happy.” For a majority of our youth, the age span from five years old to eighteen years old equates itself with spending between six and eight hours a day at school. Given that students invest a significant amount of time in classrooms, it seems reasonable to contend that joy is a worthy aim of education.

Is there a difference between joy in the classroom and joy in learning?

While it may seem contrived to separate joy in the classroom from joy in learning, I believe both types of joy are necessary for the most powerful results in education.

Joy in the Classroom

When I was in second grade, one of my favorite classroom activities was playing a game called “Heads Up, Seven Up”.  When we were lucky, our teacher would select seven students to be “it”.  These seven students would form a horizontal line at the front of the classroom. The teacher would say, “Heads down, thumbs up,” and the rest of the class would put their heads face down on their desks, each placing a single fist beside his/her head with a thumb extended.  The seven people who were “it” would silently move around the room and select one person each by pressing down a thumb.  When the teacher said, “Heads Up, Seven Up” everyone would sit up and the seven people whose thumbs were pressed would try to guess which “it” had chosen him/her. The game brought me, and many of my classmates, much joy.  Unfortunately, the joy did not transfer to math or social studies.  This was evidenced by audible groans when game-time ended and we told to take out our textbooks.

Joy in the classroom is experienced when students feel a great sense of pleasure participating in activities with their teacher and classmates. While there are undoubtedly many factors that contribute to this feeling, the three I’d like to explore are Connection, Play, and Community.

Connection

One of the most important gifts we can offer students in a classroom setting is the gift of knowing others and being known.  Taking time to build a classroom community in which each child has a genuine sense of who his/her classmates are – and a feeling reciprocity in that relationship – allows students to trust the social setting.  Establishing this kind of familiarity requires a daily investment in speaking, listening, and relating.  Without a feeling of connection to classmates, it is difficult for students to relax enough to be open to joy.

I am always surprised when I enter a classroom in January or February and hear a student refer to another classmate as “That guy” or “Hey you”.  I’m not too proud to admit this has happened in my classrooms, from first grade through graduate level. Each time it has been a powerful reminder that I need to go slow to go fast.  As teachers we sometimes take for granted that the nature of our work forces us to get to know each child in the classroom.  If we are not deliberate about supporting students in getting to know one another, months – or even an entire year – can go by without students truly knowing the people they spend their time with. 

One of the most productive ways to assist students in getting to know one another is to employ circle time.  Whether during a morning meeting, a restorative circle, or simple check-in, circle time enables students to see faces and associate names with the stories, ideas, and questions shared.  Another important step in building community is to utilize strategic grouping.  Partnering students in dyads and triads for teambuilding tasks – and working to ensure everyone is partnered with all classmates over time – allows students opportunities to work together; to truly know and be known.

Play

Joy in the classroom also has roots in play.  No matter the age, children enjoy the opportunity to play at school. If you need proof, stand outside a school building at the moment the bell rings signaling recess. Play is vital to health and creativity, and is the basis for social, emotional, and cognitive development (Elkind, 2008).  While there is no doubt that play contributes to learning, games like Heads Up Seven Up remind us that not all play is equally educative.  Establishing playful routines in the classroom – especially when situated in a culture of connection as described above – will likely contribute to joy for students.  There is a chance the joy will make its way to academic learning, but it is not a sure bet. 

Community

Finally, a noted strength of classrooms is the presence of many others, the opportunity to be in community with peers. The joy experienced when playing a game is heightened by the presence of others to join in on the fun.  Borrowing from Mark Twain, “To get the full value of joy you have to have someone to divide it with.” 

Connection, play and community work together to cultivate joy in the classroom.  But, as the story of Heads Up Seven Up points out, this brand of joy does not necessarily transfer to academic learning.  This is where the distinction takes root.

Joy in Learning

Take a moment to contemplate what joy in learning looks like, sounds like, and feels like. Picture a child wearing rain boots as s/he splashes in giant puddles. Imagine a child running after sea gulls on the beach. Visualize a child throwing rocks into a pond or lake.  In each scene the following elements are likely to exist:  curiosity, exuberance, tenacity, communication (“Look at me!” Look what happens!)., and satisfaction. And, if we could get into the mind of the child, each scene is driven by questions, “What happens when…?, What if I…?, I wonder…”.

Each of the scenes captures a phenomenon educators refer as the cycle of inquiry.  A brand of learning driven by curiosity – or wondering with action – that results in understanding that has deep roots in lived experience. Each scene also points to a concept psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes as flow, “the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it at even great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it (1990, p. 4).”

While caretakers may lament just how engrossed children can become with splashing in puddles, the kind of focus, dedication, and wonder children invest in this style of learning – and the joy they simultaneously extract – is something we can lean on when it comes to cultivating joy in learning experiences in school or elsewhere.  Joy in learning happens when students are so interested and engrossed in the learning they are engaged in that they lose track of time, cannot wait to tell others about their discoveries or “aha” moments, and look forward to picking up where they left off the next day.

I’m not sure whether the third grader I referred to at the beginning of this post perceived a lack of joy in the classroom, a lack of joy in learning, or both.  I am sure that we can work to instill both classrooms and learning with joy, and that when we do everyone gains.

Next week’s blog will explore strategies to cultivate joy in learning. 

Citations:

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience.  NY:  Harper Perennial.

Elkind, D. (2008). The power of play: Learning what comes naturally. The American Journal of Play. 1(1): 1 - 6.