page 6
opinions
Achieving flow: optimizing learning in law school
MICHAEL CAPITANO
Staff Writer
As we enter into Mental Health Awareness
Week, I can’t help but observe that, while wellintentioned, it does nothing to solve the underlying problems law students face when it comes
to combatting stress and anxiety, and optimizing their learning. How could it? But if this is
all the institution we pay tens of thousands of
dollars to each year can muster up, it leaves me
feeling uneasy that our solid legal education
isn’t as solid as we think.
Of the several articling students and lawyers
I’ve spoken with, the first thing that they will
tell you, emphatically, is that law school
doesn’t prepare you for legal practice.
Then what does law school prepare us for?
The Bar? Well, no: the topics covered on
the exam are not mandatory courses; as
a standardized test, it has its own study
system. If the answer is to learn about the
law and hone our critical thinking skills
towards legal issues (and why not, it is a
school, after all), is it really meeting our
expectations? I don’t think so. And it has
nothing to do with the quality of our professors, the boundless opportunities the
administration provides us with or the
community the students strive to make as
wonderful as it is.
The problem is one of misplaced goals.
It is the same problem that plagues most
levels of education. The focus is on generating candidates for the next steps of the
greater process; not on ensuring that learning students take part in preparing themselves
for it. For example, in the United States, the
No Child Left Behind Act is premised on setting
higher standards and establishing measureable
goals: to improve outcomes, not learning, and
incentives are designed around meeting those
standards. This doesn’t seem to make sense,
especially when considering that positive outcomes flow naturally from improving learning.
Transposing this idea onto law school, it is not
too difficult to see that the system is designed
in the same way. Law school does not care if
exams or long papers measure how well one
knows the law. It does not care that it fails to
emulate how our knowledge will be applied in
practice. The grading system exists solely to
rank students and position them for the next
step in the process. To change that requires a
leap of faith—a revolution—to remedy an institutional problem that those in power are too
afraid to take.
monday - october 28 - 2013
With all the current research in psychology,
it is disheartening to observe that few of the
insights gained from study after study aren’t
implemented into greater society; education is
no different. Implementing positive and educational psychology (both growing fields producing a lot of interesting research) into the
law school curriculum can go a long way into
making the experience far better.
Let’s start with mental health. MindfulnessBased Stress Reduction (MBSR) programs
have been around for over thirty years and
in the moment; in the zone; on fire; etc. Flow
is a mental state of complete absorption in an
activity and motivation is directed, in totality,
to it.
What bars this positive experience and perfect alignment of pleasure in work? Boredom
and anxiety—feelings that too often overtake
us. How do we enter into flow? When we are
challenged to actively apply our knowledge and
skills.
According to the flow model, mental
state correpsonds to challenge level
and skill level.
Flow theory postulates three conditions
for achieving this state:
1. Involvement in an activity with clear set
goals and progress (provides direction and
structure)
2. The activity gives clear and immediate
feedback (helps people negotiate changing
demands and adjust performance)
3. Good balance between perceived challenges and perceived skills (in stilling confidence is crucial)
FLOW OCCURS WHEN WE BALANCE
CHALLENGES AND OUR SKILLS.
the science behind mindfulness training has
received significant support for fostering selfcare, reducing stress and serving as a catalyst
for positive growth and development. For an
experience as stressful as law school, why isn’t
the approximately eight week, $300/per person
program (not too steep a price considering
tuition was over $20 000 this year) something
the administration makes available and mandatory for its students to complete? It will make
us better professionals and allow us to productively manage the educational challenges we
face.
Now that students are better equipped to
handle the overwhelming nature of law school,
the next step would be figuring out how to
immerse students in their work. In that regard,
there is a helpful concept in positive psychology
called “flow”. Colloquially, it is known as: being
It would be wonderful if the curriculum
was designed in such a way that could trigger flow more often. But with the majority of courses lecture-based and with 100%
exams, students are forced to be passive consumers of knowledge and expected to apply
it in a highly stressful setting with very little
experience doing so. That’s not to say flow
doesn’t happen in these circumstances. It is a
great feeling when writing an exam for flow to
overtake us; it means we prepared and studied
well.
Wouldn’t it be nice if courses built up to
achieving maximal flow, to make it a goal that
students learned so well that flow was easily
achievable by all? Well, that depends on the
benefits flow has. Evidence suggests that those
with increased flow experiences are pushed to
grow towards complexity, that is, to flourish;
creating an atmosphere that allows for flow can
increase happiness, achievement, better performance and competence. Perhaps “Dear Me,
Don’t Go to Law School”-type videos would be
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the obiter dicta