Habits of Mind
Cloud made from text of 16 Habits of Mind, using Word Cloud, a free iPad app. Habits.... |
I first came across the "5 Habits of Mind" during a faculty meeting in January, where three of our teachers were presenting about their trip to the brain conference this year. Intrigued, I Googled about for more information and found Mission Hill School, and a listing of them. A couple of weeks later, during a trip to Coppell, TX - my mom was being hospitalized for the 3rd time in a month, and my sister was singlehandedly handling the support, bedside presence, and stress - I found the 5 Habits posted on the wall at High Tech High, a totally PBL-based school I visited while in Coppell.
I then came across the 16 Habits of Mind while reading Curriculum 21, by Heidi Hayes Jacobs, and ventured into Habits of Mind Across the Curriculum, by Costa and Kallick, their latest for teachers on how to implement. It is like being fed spiritual food! Their website is full of resources, tutorials, and you can download posters and a card game for free as well. Additionally, here is a curriculum of the Habits of Mind from Community High School of Vermont. The Habits aren't simply a list of "useful things kids should do". They are what successful people actually do. They haven't been created, the Habits of Mind have been derived. They have an authenticity about them that students recognise and value.
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Managing Impulsivity
adapted from Habits of Mind mini-course
Road rage, anger management, impulse buying, credit card dept. These are all signs of poor impulse control.
Planning, prioritising, calmness and orgaization. These are all signs of good management of impulsivity. We find that successful people are able to manage their impulses well. They are able to set goals, prioritise and keep their plans on track. They tend to be thoughtful and considered in their actions, rather than rash and hurried. It's interesting to note that this Habit was originally called "Reduce Impulsivity". Successful people aren't necessarily the ones that are going around quietly managing themselves, ticking off their goals as they go, being very straight... and lets face it, boring! There are times when we should hold back our impulses and times when we should go with them. The key is knowing which is which. Steven Covey refers to this disposition in his book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. He describes two types of people: reactive people and proactive people. Proactive people manage their impulsivity well in order to create a gap between the stimuli they encounter and their response. In this gap proactive people exercise their independent will, conscience, imagination and self-awareness to choose how they respond. Covey describes this as the first of his 7 Habits of Highly Successful People. Reactive people tend to jump to conclusions and are victims of their environment. Proactive people take time to consider, manage their impulses and make good choices about the best course of action. In this short video see if you can identify if the people involved are being proactive (managing their impulsivity well) or reactive (managing their impulsvity poorly). People who manage their impulsivity well tend to spend more time on tasks that are important but not necessarily urgent. They are able to prioritize well the most important tasks and put the lesser tasks temporarily to the side. |
Managing Impulsivity also relates to the ability to delay gratification, not to take the first reward that comes our way, but to hold out for our ultimate goal. This has been shown to have significant correlations to success. It also relates to the ability to withhold judgment before reaching a conclusion. A person who is able to manage their impulsivity well will take the time to consider alternatives, gather information and come to a considered conclusion.
The Marshmallow Test TED video is a great example of the importance of delayed gratification. |
Persistence - adapted from Habits of Mind mini-course
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Sometimes students think that if they need to persist at a task in class then they must not be smart enough. They learn not to value persistence because they see it as a sign that they are not smart enough to "get it" the first time.
Of course that's a generalization, but there's more than a little truth to it as well. This series of blog entries is about the Teachers Handbook that we all carry in our head. Those unspoken and unquestioned default ways of working that we call on every day, that might actually be robbing kids of the opportunity to develop their Habits of Mind. It might be one of these default ways of working that leads children to believe that persisting is a sign of being not smart enough. |
Consider this scenario. You've set the students in your class 10 questions to answer by the end of the class. With 5 minutes left in the class what would you normally do? Is it likely that you'd ask who's got all 10 questions finished? Is it also likely that you'd set any unfinished questions as extra work at home or after class? Sound pretty familiar? What's the message students get from this?
The message is that getting finished is what's important. That if you couldn't get through the work and needed to persist then you mustn't be smart enough. Students that finish quickly and easily are the ones that get recognised and rewarded.
Consider this strategy as an alternative to asking who's finished their work. Ask instead "who's got stuck at least twice today, and can tell me what they did to get unstuck?". The recognition goes to the students who were engaging in a process, that were learning how to learn. Further, the discussion that follows is one that is based on the learning process.
Some of the students who got to the last question may not have needed to persist - that would be a sign that the work was too easy for them. Should they be rewarded for that?
Another student was focused, tried 5 different ways to work through a problem until finally they solved it, but because they had work through it only got up to question 6. Shouldn't they be recognised and rewarded for their efforts? Ultimately aren't the students that are become more effective at over coming difficulties likely to become the most successful? Wouldn't you want other students to behave in a similar way?
In our default Teachers Handbook we reward work being completed - which it needs to be - but we sometimes do this at the expense of rewarding students for the way they complete work. In a classroom where everyone is working in their Goldilocks Zone every student should be regularly getting stuck. The measure of success is how they approach that situation.
Perhaps as teachers we can try to rewrite that page in our default Teachers Handbook that says " recognise and reward students who finish their work" and rewrite that page to read "recognise and reward students who go about finishing their work in the most thoughtful, effective ways". Of course sometimes these students will also have completed all the work, but often they will be the students, that if they continue working that way, will become the students who complete all their work!
Although we might encourage students to "be persistent" our actions often speak louder than words. If we don't actively recognise, encourage, expect and reward students who are developing this Habit of MInd, then they in turn will devalue the Habit.
The message is that getting finished is what's important. That if you couldn't get through the work and needed to persist then you mustn't be smart enough. Students that finish quickly and easily are the ones that get recognised and rewarded.
Consider this strategy as an alternative to asking who's finished their work. Ask instead "who's got stuck at least twice today, and can tell me what they did to get unstuck?". The recognition goes to the students who were engaging in a process, that were learning how to learn. Further, the discussion that follows is one that is based on the learning process.
Some of the students who got to the last question may not have needed to persist - that would be a sign that the work was too easy for them. Should they be rewarded for that?
Another student was focused, tried 5 different ways to work through a problem until finally they solved it, but because they had work through it only got up to question 6. Shouldn't they be recognised and rewarded for their efforts? Ultimately aren't the students that are become more effective at over coming difficulties likely to become the most successful? Wouldn't you want other students to behave in a similar way?
In our default Teachers Handbook we reward work being completed - which it needs to be - but we sometimes do this at the expense of rewarding students for the way they complete work. In a classroom where everyone is working in their Goldilocks Zone every student should be regularly getting stuck. The measure of success is how they approach that situation.
Perhaps as teachers we can try to rewrite that page in our default Teachers Handbook that says " recognise and reward students who finish their work" and rewrite that page to read "recognise and reward students who go about finishing their work in the most thoughtful, effective ways". Of course sometimes these students will also have completed all the work, but often they will be the students, that if they continue working that way, will become the students who complete all their work!
Although we might encourage students to "be persistent" our actions often speak louder than words. If we don't actively recognise, encourage, expect and reward students who are developing this Habit of MInd, then they in turn will devalue the Habit.
Think Flexibly - Adapted from Habits of Mind mini-courseIf you never change your mind, why have one?
-Edward deBono Successful people are good at flexible thinking. They are able alter perspectives, consider alternative points of view and change their minds when the data is no longer supporting their ideas. However, being flexible in thinking doesn't necessarily mean you're always changing your mind. It means you're open to changing your mind, to considering alternatives, weighing up options and then choosing the best way forward. A person who changes their mind all the time just becuase they've thought of something different, with out evaluation, can be seen as wishy washy or indecisive. Often the effort to see alternatives will help to generate a better solution. But many people find this effort difficult. We assume that we naturally come up with the best option - or at least a very good one. What we typically fail to recognise is that our mind works in patterns and it usually takes a deliberate effort to escape these patterns. Our brains are very good at recognising and using patterns. By using patterns in our every day life decisions become easier and we can switch a large part of our working cognitive capacity to other more important issues. For example, most of us don't have to consider the route we drive to work each day. It's become automatic, and in doing so frees up our mind to think of other things on the way to work. |
Our minds also form other, less obvious patterns. Patterns that are formed by way we usually approach problems, by the usual obstackles, predictions and assumptions we make about the things we encounter every day. Usually these patterns and assumptions make life simplier, but at the same time as they simplify our lives, they are also narrowing our perspectives and limiting what we allow into our conscous consideration.
For example, you may have heard the phrase "if the only tool you have is a hammer, the whole world looks like a nail". In many ways this describes a person who is poor at thinking flexibly. Our experience will tend to push us, unconsiously, towards looking at a problem in a particular way. This is one reason diverse teams are a good idea when problem solving. Each person comes to the problem with a different perspective and gives the team a different way of looking at things. The ability to think flexibly, to see things from different points of view, to consider options, is a skill that can be learnt. Their are many great resources available that teach tools and strategies to improve flexibility of thinking. Some of my favorites are the ones developed by Edward de Bono, but their are many more. Perhaps readers would like to suggest some of their own below? This short video gives a humorus example of how one person was able to see a different perspective... |
Questioning and Problem Posing - adapted, Habits of Mind mini-course
Successful people don't only ask questions, they search for questions to ask. They are curious and they deliberately craft questions designed to gather the sort of information required. This Habit is about asking questions, rather than answering them.
There are many different reasons to ask questions. Sometimes we need a specific answer. Other times we might want to open a discussion. Questions can be used direct or lead people to certain conclusions. Being skilled in this Habit means you are good at asking the sort of questions that will generate the data you need.
In Victoria, where I live, we recently had a Work Place Safety campaign to encourage apprentences and other new employees to ask questions. I was dumbfounded that we had to have a national educational campaign about what would seem such a basic skill. None-the-less, these two graphic videos (1 & 2) illustrate how some young people are going into workplaces without having developed an effective habit of questioning and posing problems.
In Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind Art Costa describes 5 characteristics of Powerful Questions. For people designing questions to stimulate thoughtful responses and inquiry these 5 characteristics are a wonderful guide. Costa suggests that powerful questions have the following qualities:
Plural: the question asks for multiple responses. So instead of asking "why did this happen?" we ask "what are the reasons this happened?" By introducing a plural to the question it invites the person or group being asked to give more open response with more than one answer.
Tenative: by including tentative words like "might" or "could" into a question it introduces an element of exploration and removes the feeling of the answer being right or wrong. For example asking "why might this have happened" is much more open and inviting than the question "why did this happen" which suggests the person has to give a right or wrong answer.
Invitational Stem: this is a subtle but powerful tool in questioning and simply invites the individual to respond to a question. By asking "why do you think this happened?" instead of "why did this happen?" you engage the listener directly. You are much more likely to get a response when using an invitational stem than without.
Naming the Cognition: By labeling and identifying the type of cognition that is required in a question we help to focus the cognition of the person answering the question. Good questioners weave into their questions the cognitive verbs that tell the person answering the question the type of cognition required. For exampe some cognitive verbs might include: reflect, analyse, predict, evaluate, list, describe, or generate.
Positive Presupposition. A positive presuposition is a phrase in the question that makes a statement that assumes the person answering the question will be able to answer it. This is very powerful. For example, the simple change from "why did this happen?" to "what reasons do you have as to why this happened" builds in the presupposition that the person being asked does in deed have some reasons.
For more on Powerful Questions see chapter 8 of Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind.