Kevin Rathunde

Middle School Students’ Motivation and Quality of Experience: A Comparison of Montessori and Traditional School Environments

This study compared the motivation and quality of experience of demographically matched students from Montessori and traditional middle school programs. Approximately 290 students responded to the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) and filled out questionnaires. Multivariate analyses showed that the Montessori students reported greater affect, potency (i.e., feeling energetic), intrinsic motivation, flow experience, and undivided interest (i.e., the combination of high intrinsic motivation and high salience or importance) while engaged in academic activities at school. The traditional middle school students reported higher salience while doing academic work; however, such responses were often accompanied by low intrinsic motivation. When engaged in informal, nonacademic activities, the students in both school contexts reported similar experiences. These results are discussed in terms of current thought on motivation in education and middle school reform.

Toward a Psychology of Optimal Human Functioning: What Positive Psychology Can Learn from the “Experiential Turns” of James, Dewey, and Maslow

Past perspectives on optimal functioning and experience are discussed to inform current epistemological debates in humanistic and positive psychology. It is suggested that William James, John Dewey, and Abraham Maslow initiated “experiential turns” in American psychology, or turns toward immediate subjective experience, to explore questions about what makes life fulfilling and meaningful. Furthermore, these turns toward subjectivity were grounded in philosophical initiatives that challenged traditional, positivistic methods in science. The argument presented here is that a deeper appreciation of the benefits and inherent challenges of adopting an experiential perspective may help build a more unified psychology of optimal human functioning and avoid misunderstandings concerning the role of scientific research in humanistic and positive psychology.

The Social Context of Middle School: Teachers, Friends, and Activities in Montessori and Traditional School Environments

This study compared the time use and perceptions of schools, teachers, and friends of approximately 290 demographically matched students in Montessori and traditional middle schools. We used the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) and questionnaires and conducted multivariate analyses showing that the Montessori students (a ) reported more positive perceptions of their school environment and their teachers, and (b ) more often perceived their classmates as friends while at school. ESM time estimates suggested that the 2 school environments were also organized in different ways: Montessori students spent more time engaged with school‐related tasks, chores, collaborative work, and individual projects; traditional students spent more time in social and leisure activities and more time in didactic educational settings (e.g., listening to a lecture, note taking, watching instructional videos). These results are discussed in terms of current thought on motivation in education and middle school reform.

The Development of the Person: An Experiential Perspective on the Ontogenesis of Psychological Complexity

The obvious answer to the question “What is a person?” would probably focus on physical characteristics, for example, “An individual member of the human race.” Of the 14 major usages of the word listed in the Oxford Dictionary of the English Language, most refer to such natural, biological attributes.

Wisdom and abiding interest: Interviews with three noted historians in later life

This article explores the connections between wisdom-related attributes and abiding interest and draws upon material from interviews with three eminent historians in later life. It is proposed that one characteristic of wisdom, namely, the coordination of affective/attaching and cognitive/detaching modes of processing information, is related to abiding interest or the ability to self-regulate attention in a way that promotes lifelong learning. The article (a) reviews pertinent constructs in the literatures on adult development and wisdom; (b) presents selected excerpts from in-depth interviews; and (c) concludes by discussing the developmental implications of the ideas presented.

The context of optimal experience: An exploratory model of the family

Abstract The present article attempts to integrate psychological perspectives which emphasize the importance of optimal experience for human development with perspectives on how social contexts subtly influence an individuals attention. An exploratory model of the family is proposed which addresses how an integrated and differentiated family may beneficially affect the optimal experience and development of children.

Fostering Experiential Self-Regulation through Outdoor Adventure Education.

Learners thrive when they have the capacity to regulate interest and goal direction. Through direct experiences that are interesting and goal-relevant, learners can internalize and better understand their own agency in the learning process. This article further examines this premise in an outdoor adventure education (OAE) context through two interrelated studies. The aim of the first study was to investigate the potential of OAE to afford more frequent experiences that are interesting and goal-relevant. The aim of the second study was to build on the findings from the first study and determine if exposure to OAE programs might lead to more self-directed learning. The results partially support the premise that OAE can foster experiential self-regulation.

Adolescent Happiness and Family Interaction

Few family studies have investigated the subjective rewards that adolescents experience at home, which may build toward positive developmental outcomes. This despite the fact that extensive research into “optimal experiences” (interest, flow, intrinsic motivation, peak experiences) suggest they are among the most important influences on growth, such as the full utilization of potential, and the achievement of a sense of self-determination and creativity.

Experiential Wisdom and Lifelong Learning

This chapter explores the self-regulative concept of “experiential wisdom,” or the notion that creativity and lifelong learning are enhanced by the capacity to make experiential course corrections that lead to states of interest and flow experience. A person with experiential wisdom recognizes that these heightened states are more likely to occur when an affectively charged intuitive mode works in synchrony with a deliberative rational mode and is better able to cultivate situations where the interrelation of these two modes is optimized. The first part of this chapter provides a broad framework for thinking about experiential wisdom. It addresses implicit assumptions of the proposed model, the relationship of experiential wisdom to broader theories of human development, and the necessary conditions in childhood that facilitate the emergence of experiential wisdom in adulthood. The second part of this chapter explores in more detail the dynamics at work as a person negotiates a person–environment fit that is more conducive to optimal experience, namely, the flexible interoperation of spontaneous/intuitive and selective/rational modes of attention. Finally, part three of this chapter illustrates experiential wisdom by drawing on past interviews with three distinguished individuals—poet Mark Strand, social scientist Donald Campbell, and medical researcher Jonas Salk. It is argued that the experiential wisdom of these three helped keep them engaged on a path of creativity and lifelong learning.

Montessori and Embodied Education

Montessori education has been around for over 100 years; however, it still has much to contribute to a new vision of twenty-first-century education that supports well-rounded human development in democratic societies. A main theme in this chapter is that emerging interdisciplinary thought on the embodied mind has provided a new framework for understanding Maria Montessori’s contributions to education. Montessori philosophy, I believe, offers an alternative approach that might be called embodied education: education in tune with the intimate connection of the body and the mind. Such coordination of body and mind is important for education because it facilitates student experiences of deep engagement and interest that have been referred to as flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). Flow-like experiences, in turn, have been associated with intrinsically motivated learning and talent development (see Csikszentmihalyi, Rathunde and Whalen, 1997).