Flow

Most would agree that experiencing flow is exhilarating, but it can be difficult to make learning the theory behind the phenomenon seem as exciting. Flow: Achieving Excellence Through Challenge offers instructors an interactive new approach for teaching students about flow. The authors go straight to the source, finding people who are intensely involved in their chosen activities and talking to them about their experiences. The interviewees’ contagious excitement will bring this concept to life.

Flow: Achieving Excellence Through Challenge not only helps you introduce the theory of flow but also illustrates the concept in a way that makes it meaningful for your students. This multimedia package provides everything you’ll need to facilitate engaging class discussions:

• A full overview of the theory of flow and optimal experiences as well as teaching suggestions and information on additional readings and resources in PDF format that will prepare you to lead effective classes

• Action video clips that capture flow experiences as they happen so that students can better recognize and analyze these experiences in themselves and others

• Video interviews with people describing their experiences with flow in a variety of settings, including recreation, outdoors, adventure, sports, and performing arts, which will personalize the information and get students excited about the concepts

• Interactive learning activities, ready-to-print in-class and at-home assignments, and discussion starters that will help students understand how the information applies to both their personal lives and their future careers

Students will also be encouraged to consider how they can apply the theory to their working lives. Future activity leaders, such as recreation leaders, youth leaders, coaches, outdoor and adventure educators, and exercise instructors, will find the information especially useful. They’ll examine flow’s potential to enhance quality of life and look at the ways they might be able to put others in the best position to experience flow. The DVD includes specific sections on applying flow to recreation activities, outdoor and adventure recreation, sport and coaching, and the arts.

Designed by, for, and with people who have had optimal experiences and know the power they have to enrich lives, Flow:Achieving Excellence Through Challenge will help you take the theory of flow out of the textbook and make it a part of your students’ everyday lives.

Daniel G. Yoder, PhD, is a professor in the department of recreation, park, and tourism administration at Western Illinois University in Macomb, Illinois. In addition to teaching at the university level, he has worked in the leisure services field for several years. He is a member of the National Park and Recreation Association and the Illinois Park and Recreation Association (IPRA), having served in a number of positions with the IPRA. He is also involved in a variety of nonprofit organizations dealing with recreation and youth in his community. Yoder has served on various university committees and boards. Besides his teaching and community involvement, he is a husband, father, part-time farmer, full-time conservationist, and avid beekeeper. Because optimal experiences have profoundly affected Yoder’s life, he is committed to the exploration of this life-enriching phenomenon for himself and others.

Virginia “Ginni” Dilworth, PhD, is an assistant professor in the health, physical education, and recreation department at Utah State University. She has a BS in recreation administration from California State University at Sacramento, an MBA from Bentley College, and a PhD in recreation, park, and tourism sciences at Texas A&M University. She has been involved in research on a variety of topics, including nature tourism, transportation in national parks, and the experience of flow. Her current research focuses on active aging in outdoor recreation.

Michael D. Lukkarinen, PhD, is an assistant professor in the department of recreation, park, and tourism administration at Western Illinois University (WIU) in Macomb, Illinois. He has a BS in recreation, park, and tourism administration from WIU with a concentration in leisure services management; an MS from WIU with a recreation administration concentration; and a PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in recreation, sport, and tourism with a sport management emphasis. He has been involved in sport as a coach from the youth club level to NCAA Division I. His research interests are athletics, recreation, and sense of community fostered by participation in each as well as the flow experience.