From “Ringmaster” to “Experience Builder”: Rethinking the Joy of Learning

During the conference Professional Practices Supporting the Enjoyment of Learning: Teaching and Assessment, held as part of the 2026 ACFAS Congress, researchers exploring these questions shared practical insights for educators. What follows is an overview of the ideas presented by Jean-François Desbiens, Full Professor and Vice-Dean for Teacher Education at the Université de Sherbrooke, during his presentation, Building the Learning Experience Through Enjoyment.

Enjoyment has increasingly become the “cornerstone of educational success.” Yet it remains an elusive concept, often confused with entertainment or immediate gratification.

“Enjoyment has not always had a good reputation, and now it is only just becoming socially acceptable again. In the past, people tried to repress or sublimate it in order to civilize the young learner. Today, our relationship to it has completely changed. It has become the benchmark — and I choose my words carefully — by which we judge every cultural activity, including teaching. ‘Did you enjoy your class?’ ‘No, it was boring.’ Therefore, the course was automatically considered bad, regardless of the extraordinary ideas the teacher may have shared.”

Desbiens encourages us to move beyond simplistic notions of enjoyment and explore its neurobiological, psychological, and social dimensions.

Enjoyment: Much More Than “Fun”

Contrary to common assumptions, enjoyment in learning is not synonymous with comfort or ease. Desbiens reminds us that enjoyment can coexist with effort, challenge, and even sacrifice, much like an athlete enduring discomfort in pursuit of a meaningful achievement.

“Enjoyment is not idle, and it is not passive. I can work very hard to achieve it. And that is what makes it so interesting in education.”

He distinguishes between hedonism, which emphasizes pleasure and immediate well-being, and eudaimonia, which centres on meaning, personal growth, and a sense of competence. In education, the goal is not simply to make students feel good, but to foster engagement that supports growth, fulfilment, and lasting motivation.

Understanding the Pleasure Cycle: Wanting, Liking, and Learning

Drawing on neuroscience and Kringelbach’s model of the pleasure cycle, the researcher outlines three key phases that teachers can intentionally orchestrate:

Wanting: Creating the desire to engage. This involves designing learning experiences that spark curiosity, build anticipation, and encourage participation while reducing the sense of threat often associated with assessment.

Liking: Providing a rewarding learning experience. Teachers can reinforce students’ efforts and support their psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and belonging. This phase reflects the positive emotional experience that emerges from meaningful participation.

Learning: Consolidating connections and understanding. At this stage, students connect their efforts to a sense of accomplishment, strengthening both learning and future motivation.

Changing the Metaphor: From Ringmaster to Experience Builder

To conclude, Desbiens calls for a significant shift in teachers’ professional identity—one that places the joy of learning at the centre of educational success. He proposes moving away from the role of the “Ringmaster,” who skillfully manages classroom routines, materials, and discipline, toward that of the “Experience Builder.”

1. Integrating Organization in the Service of Meaning

The Ringmaster excels at classroom management through effective facilitation, strong organization, and smooth transitions. This foundation remains essential for minimizing disruptions and maximizing learning opportunities. However, the Experience Builder goes beyond logistical efficiency, using this expertise to focus on deeper dimensions such as lesson design, responsiveness to students’ needs, and collaboration with parents and colleagues.

2. Orchestrating the Pleasure Cycle

The Experience Builder does not seek to entertain students superficially. Instead, they intentionally design learning experiences that support the ongoing interaction between wanting, liking, and learning.

3. Prioritizing the “Third Pedagogical Moment”: Integration

The fundamental difference lies in what Desbiens calls the integration phase. While the Ringmaster may sometimes feel pressure to maintain momentum and move quickly to the next activity, the Experience Builder deliberately pauses to give students a voice.

• Naming the experience: Encouraging students to reflect on and articulate their successes, challenges, and emotional responses, whether confusion, clarity, frustration, or satisfaction.
• Memorizing and transferring: Helping students recognize and consolidate what they have learned so that they can apply it in new situations and contexts.

“We need students to name their experiences […] and position themselves in relation to how they feel about these challenges or successes.”

Transforming One’s Relationship to Learning

The Experience Builder recognizes that enjoyment is a complex motivational process that often requires effort and perseverance. Rather than viewing it as a reward, they see it as a force that sustains student engagement over time. By moving from managing classroom traffic to helping students build a meaningful relationship with learning, teachers become architects who help students make sense of both their learning and their lives.

In short, the Experience Builder does more than facilitate activities; they plan, collaborate, and adapt their worksite so that every student can build their own relationship with learning and the enjoyment it can bring. By becoming architects of meaningful learning experiences, teachers offer students far more than a lesson—they help them discover how to love learning.