Generating Tact and Flow for Effective Teaching and Learning

This book draws from and analyzes teachers’ and students’ stories of great classes in order to promote teachers’ development of pedagogical tact and to encourage flow states for students. Taken together, these theoretical lenses―pedagogical tact and flow―provide a valuable framework for understanding and motivating classroom engagement. As the authors suggest, tactful teachers are more likely to see their students in flow than teachers who struggle with basic classroom routines and practices. Grounded in narrative research, and written for pre-service teachers, the book offers strategies for replicating these first-hand accounts of peak classroom teaching and learning.

Susanna M. Steeg Thornhill has been an educator for 20 years in elementary, undergraduate, and doctoral classrooms in the United States and abroad. She has cultivated expertise in literacy education, teacher education, and qualitative research methods. She especially enjoys interacting with dedicated educators who constantly seek to improve educational outcomes for learners.

Ken Badley lives in Calgary, Alberta, and teaches foundations of education at Tyndale University in Toronto, Ontario. He has taught in secondary, undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs in Canada and the United States, and has worked extensively with teachers in Kenya.