Background

Flow is a psychological state in which an individual is deeply immersed in the task they are completing (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). Recent literature indicates that flow has a significant positive impact on students learning outcomes (Akyol & Imamoglu., 2019). Specifically, students in flow state are significantly more motivated and perform higher comapred students not in flow. To the best of my knowledge, there has been no meta-analysis conducted examining the relationship between flow state and student motivation and performance.

 Aims

This highlighted the need to conduct a systematic search for evidence for and/or against the impact of flow on learners’ motivation and performance in the literature. Subgroup analyses were conducted to explore factors that may moderate the strength of the flow and motivation/performance relationship.

Method

The procedure was preregistered. The inclusion and exclusion criteria were defined. Next the keywords were decided which included words related to Csikszentmihalyi, student, motivation, and performance. These keywords were inserted into 3 databases including PsychINFO, WebofScience and Scopus. The review was conducted between May 2022 and September 2022. The final sample included 28 studies with over 5000 learners.

Results

The results demonstrated that flow had a significant, moderate positive effect on student performance (p<.001) and motivation (p<.001). Moderation analyses on student motivation demonstrated that the flow-motivation relationship is stronger for studies conducted in Asia than in America and Europe. Additionally, flow- performance relationship is stronger for studies conducted with higher education student than primary school students. 

Conclusion

Flow-inspired teaching methods can benefit students’ educational motivation and performance and be leveraged as a key learning tool across various subjects. Flow-centre initiatives and teacher training on flow state is vital for improving pedagogical practice. These changes can be implemented by teachers and parents around the globe in all levels of education. The findings emphasise that adapting instructional practices in classrooms to include more flow strategies is imperative for improving students’ experiences.