Inquiry and flow in science education

Ellwood’s and Abrams’s paper, Students’s social interaction in inquiry-based science education: how experiences of flow can increase motivation and achievement, describes two groups of students and their experiences in an extended inquiry unit. For one of these, the Off-Campus group, several educational aspects were enhanced compared with the group that stayed on campus for their fieldwork. In the analysis this was related to the nature and quality of students’ social interactions during the project and their experiences of flow. This forum article seeks to expand and reframe some of the interpretations made by the authors concerning the role of time, place and attention for setting up conditions for experiences of flow in general, and in scientific inquiry in particular. A comparison with the result from research on wait-time is made, and the significance of place and social interactions are related to a typology of attention helpful for understanding Flow theory. It is suggested that an additional finding may be that there are certain moments in an inquiry unit where slowing down the tempo of instruction to allow for feedback and discussion is particularly important, because doing so can significantly alter the subsequent development and quality of students’ social interactions, experiences of flow, and consequently learning. Implications for science teaching and teacher education are discussed.