Habits of Mind

Habits of Mind are ways of thinking about knowledge, and are often part of constructivist approaches to teaching.

Celebrated educator Deborah Meier (1995), in her experimental public schools, developed habits of mind as a way to encourage students to become critical questioners. Here habits of mind included:

  • Significance (why it is important?)
  • Perspective (what is the point of view?)
  • Evidence (how do you know?)
  • Connection (how does it apply?)
  • Supposition (what if it were different?)

Arthur Costa and Bena Kallick (2008) expanded on these ideas. Drawing on research on human effectiveness, descriptions of remarkable performers, and analyses of the characteristics of efficacious people, they detailed 16 habits of mind:

  1. Persisting
  2. Managing impulsivity
  3. Listening with understanding and empathy
  4. Thinking flexibly
  5. Thinking about your thinking (Metacognition)
  6. Striving for accuracy
  7. Questioning and problem solving
  8. Applying past knowledge to new situations
  9. Thinking and communicating with clarity and precision
  10. Gathering data through all senses
  11. Creating, imagining, and innovating
  12. Responding with wonderment and awe
  13. Taking responsible risks
  14. Finding humor
  15. Thinking interdependently
  16. Remaining open to continuous learning

Costa and Kallick added that all of these 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.

Sources:

Costa, A., & Kallick, B. (2008). Learning and leading with habits of mind. Alexandria, VA

Meier, D. (1995). The power of their ideas: Lessons for America from a small school in Harlem. Boston: Beacon Press.