Ikigai Research Responses

Pedagogical structures in higher education classrooms dictate learner outcomes. Every student possesses the Japanese concept of ikigai, a sense of meaning and purpose in life. Yet, the way to attain it remains a mystery. To address this gap, this study explores undergraduate students' experiences of engagement, flow, and purpose in Education courses. These courses were intentionally aligned with the PERMA well-being model (Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, Accomplishment) and the Japanese concept of ikigai. To capture students' perspectives, forty-four students completed an end-of-semester survey. The survey measured learning environment preferences, perceived importance of instructional strategies, engagement indicators, and a 36-item Flow instrument comprising nine facets (e.g., Clear Goals, Challenge-Skill Balance, Autotelic Experience, and Unambiguous Feedback). Results from the survey reveal high overall Flow (M = 4.00, SD = 0.45). Internal consistency was excellent (α = .91), with Autotelic Experience and Challenge-Skill Balance being the highest-scoring facets. Additionally, collaboration emerged as the most effective learning environment, and students reported strong interpersonal connections. Spearman’s rho correlations revealed significant associations among Flow facets and engagement indicators (ρ = .79, p