Which Habits of Mind Your Child Works On

Basia dresses for a dinner, Korea, 2015

What are Habits of Mind? 

The attributes that human beings display when they behave intelligently.

Adopted from “Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind” by Arthur L. Costa & Bena Kallick.

http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/108008/chapters/Describing-the-Habits-of-Mind.aspx

Basia washes hands before entering the temple, Japan 2015

The Habits of Mind incorporate the following dimensions:

• Value: Choosing to employ a pattern of intellectual behaviors rather than other, less productive patterns.
• Inclination: Feeling the tendency to employ a pattern of intellectual behaviors.
• Sensitivity: Perceiving opportunities for, and appropriateness of, employing the pattern of behaviors.
• Capability: Possessing the basic skills and capacities to carry through with the behaviors.
• Commitment: Constantly striving to reflect on and improve performance of the pattern of intellectual behaviors.
• Policy: Making it a policy to promote and incorporate the patterns of intellectual behaviors into actions, decisions, and resolutions of problematic situations.

Basia in China, 2015

There are 16 Dimensions of the Habits of Mind

http://www.chsvt.org/wdp/Habits_of_Mind.pdf - list

1. Persisting Success seems to be connected with action. "Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they never quit." - Conrad Hilton
2. Managing Impassivity. "Goal-directed, self-imposed delay of gratification is perhaps the essence of emotional self-regulation: the ability to deny impulse in the service of a goal, whether it be building a business, solving an algebraic equation, or pursuing the Stanley Cup." - Daniel Goleman
3. Listening with Understanding and Empathy. "Listening is the beginning of understanding. … Wisdom is the reward for a lifetime of listening. Let the wise listen and add to their learning and let the discerning get guidance." - Proverbs 1:5
4. Thinking Flexibly. "Of all forms of mental activity, the most difficult to induce even in the minds of the young, who may be presumed not to have lost their flexibility, is the art of handling the same bundle of data as before, but placing them in a new system of relations with one another by giving them a different framework, all of which virtually means putting on a different kind of thinking-cap for the moment. It is easy to teach anybody a new fact. … but it needs light from heaven above to enable a teacher to break the old framework in which the student is accustomed to seeing." – Arthur Koestler
5. Thinking About Thinking (Metacognition). "When the mind is thinking it is talking to itself." - Plato
6. Striving for Accuracy. "A man who has committed a mistake and doesn't correct it is committing another mistake." - Confucius
7. Questioning and Posing Problems. "The formulation of a problem is often more essential than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skill. … To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advances." - Albert Einstein
8. Applying Past Knowledge to New Situations. "I've never made a mistake. I've only learned from experience." - Thomas A. Edison
9. Thinking and Communicating with Clarity and Precision. "I do not so easily think in words. … After being hard at work having arrived at results that are perfectly clear … I have to translate my thoughts in a language that does not run evenly with them." - Francis Galton, geneticist
10. Gathering Data Through All Senses. "Observe perpetually." - Henry James
11. Creating, Imagining, Innovating. "The future is not some place we are going to but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made, and the activity of making them changes both the maker and the destination." - John Schaar, political scientist
12. Responding with Wonderment and Awe. "The most beautiful experience in the world is the experience of the mysterious." - Albert Einstein
13. Taking Responsible Risks. "There has been a calculated risk in every stage of American development—the pioneers who were not afraid of the wilderness, businessmen who were not afraid of failure, dreamers who were not afraid of action." - Brooks Atkinson
14. Finding Humor. "You can increase your brain power three to fivefold simply by laughing and having fun before working on a problem." - Doug Hall
15. Thinking Interdependently. "Take care of each other. Share your energies with the group. No one must feel alone, cut off, for that is when you do not make it." - Willie Unsoeld, mountain climber
16. Remaining Open to Continuous Learning. "The greater our knowledge increases the more our ignorance unfolds." - John F. Kennedy

The 16 Habits of Mind just described were drawn from research on human effectiveness, descriptions of remarkable performers, and analyses of the characteristics of efficacious people. These Habits of Mind can serve as mental disciplines. Students, parents, and teachers, when confronted with problematic situations, might habitually use one or more of these Habits of Mind by asking themselves these questions:

1. What is the most intelligent thing I can do right now?
2. How can I learn from this? What are my resources? How can I draw on my past successes with problems like this? What do I already know about the problem? What resources do I have available or need to generate?
3. How can I approach this problem flexibly? How might I look at the situation in another way? How can I draw upon my repertoire of problem-solving strategies? How can I look at this problem from a fresh perspective (lateral thinking)?
4. How can I illuminate this problem to make it clearer, more precise? Do I need to check out my data sources? How might I break this problem down into its component parts and develop a strategy for understanding and accomplishing each step?
5. What do I know or not know? What questions do I need to ask? What strategies are in my mind now? What am I aware of in terms of my own beliefs, values, and goals with this problem? What feelings or emotions am I aware of that might be blocking or enhancing my progress?
6. How does this problem affect others? How can we solve it together? What can I learn from others that would help me become a better problem solver?

Basia collects own pearls, China 2015

These Habits of Mind transcend all subject matters commonly taught in school. They are characteristic of peak performers in all places: homes, schools, athletic fields, organizations, the military, governments, churches, or corporations.The goal of education, therefore, should be to support others and ourselves in liberating, developing, and habituating these Habits of Mind more fully. Taken together, they are a force directing us toward increasingly authentic, congruent, and ethical behavior. They are the touchstones of integrity and the tools of disciplined choice making. They are the primary vehicles in the lifelong journey toward integration. They are the "right stuff" that make human beings efficacious.