Kristen Fraley Virginia Beach City Public Schools

Kristen Fraley, LKMS GRT, Updated November, 2007

Incorporating Habits of Mind in the Elementary Classroom

Based on the Work ofArthur L. Costa, Ed.D.

and Bena Kallick, Ph.D.

Kristen FraleyVirginia Beach City Public

Schools


What Are Habits Of Mind?A “Habit of Mind” means

having a disposition toward behaving intelligently when confronted with problems,

the answers to which are not immediately known.


Habits of Mind = Patterns of Intellectual Behavior

• When faced with dilemmas, our most effective actions require drawing forth patterns of intellectual behavior.

• When we draw upon these intellectual resources, the results produced are powerful, of higher quality and of greater significance than if we fail to employ those patterns.


Why Are the Habits of Mind Important to us as Educators?• We are interested not only in how many

answers students know, but also in knowing how they behave when they DON’T know.

• We are interested in how students produce knowledge rather than how they merely reproduce knowledge (i.e., not only having information, but knowing how to act on it).

• We can observe students reasoning, insightfulness, perseverance, creativity, and craftsmanship.


“When we no longer know what to do we have come to our real work and when we no longer know which way to go we have begun our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings.”

Wendell Berry


The Habits Of Mind Attend To…

VALUEChoosing to employ a pattern of intellectual behaviors rather than other, less productive patterns.

INCLINATION Feeling the tendency toward employing a pattern of intellectual behaviors.

SENSITIVITY Perceiving opportunities for and appropriateness of employing the pattern of behavior

COMMITMENT Constantly striving to reflect on and improve performance of the pattern of intellectual behavior.

CAPABILITY Possessing the basic skills and capacities to carry through with the behaviors.


The 16 Habits of MindHabit of

MindEvidence of the Habit

No Evidence of the Habit

# 1Persisting

•Stick to a task…•Analyze a problem & develop a strategy, system or structure•Have a repertoire of alternative strategies•Are comfortable with ambiguous situations

•Despair when answer is not immediately known.•Say, “I can’t do this,” “It’s too hard.”•Have limited repertoire of problem solving strategies.•Lack focus





#2Managing Impulsivity

• Have a sense of deliberateness.•Think before acting.•Form a vision of a product, plan of action, or goal.•Consider alternatives and consequences.•Gather info and reflect on it.

•Blurt out first answer that comes to mind.•Make immediate value judgments about an idea before fully understanding it.•Do not consider alternatives.•Lack an organized plan for problem solving.





#3Listening to Others with Understandi

ng and Empathy

• Spend an inordinate amount of time listening.•Can accurately paraphrase another person’s idea.•Can detect emotional states in oral and body language.•See through diverse perspectives.

•Rehearse in head what to say next rather than truly listening.•Ridicule, laugh at, put down the ideas of others.•Cannot build upon or operate on another person’s ideas.





#4Thinking Flexibly

• Have the capacity to change their minds as they receive additional data.•Are allocentric, macro- and micro-centric thinkers.•Create and seek novel approaches to problems.

•Have difficulty considering alternative points of view.•Egocentric-My way or the highway!•Have difficulty dealing with more than one classification system simultaneously.





#5Metacogniti

on(Thinking About Our Thinking)

• Ability to know what we know and what we don’t know•Maintain a plan of action over a period of time, reflect on and evaluate the plan upon completion•Form mental questions as one searches for information and meaning

•Do not take time to reflect on experiences (Don’t wonder why they are doing what they are doing.).•Don’t evaluate the efficiency of their performance.•Cannot explain strategies for decision making.





#6Striving for Accuracy

and Precision

•Desire for craftsmanship, mastery, flawlessness, economy of energy to produce exceptional results.•Review the criteria.•Bring laser-like focus to task accomplishment.•Continuous reworking.

•Turn in sloppy, incomplete or uncorrected work.•Anxious to get rid of the assignment.•Little or no regard for accuracy and precision.•Minimum versus maximum effort.•Expedience in lieu of excellence.





#7Questioning and Posing Problems

•Find problems to solve.•Ask questions to fill in the gaps between what they know and what they don’t know.•Make casual connections and relationships.•Pose hypothetical problems characterized by “iffy”-type questions.

•May not realize that questions vary in complexity, structure, and purpose.•Pose simple questions intending to derive maximal results.•May lack in overall strategy of search and solution finding.





#8Applying

Past Knowledge

to New Situations

•Learn from experience.•Call upon their store of knowledge to solve new challenges.•Abstract meaning from one experience and apply it to a novel situation.

•Do not remember how they solved a similar problem previously.•“Episodic grasp of reality” approach to each experience.•Encapsulated learning.





#9Thinking

and Communicat

ing with Clarity and Precision

•Communicate accurately in both written and oral form.•Use precise language, define terms, use correct names and universal labels and analogies.•Support their statements with explanations, comparisons, quantification, and evidence.

•Use vague and imprecise language (e.g., describe objects as cool, weird, nice, OK).•Use non-descriptive words such as junk, stuff, and things.•Use vague or general pronouns.•Use non-specific verbs and unqualified comparatives.





#10Gathering

Data Through All

Senses

•Solve problems through scenarios and role-playing.•Learn through hands-on experimentation.•Form mental images.•Engage in visual-spatial reasoning tasks.•Observe the environment around them and take it in through their senses.

•Are oblivious to textures, patterns, sounds, and colors around them.•Reluctant to touch, to get hands “dirty”.•Operate within a narrow range of sensory problem solving strategies.•Are non-participants and only want to describe but not role-play or illustrate solutions.





#11Creating,

Imagining, and

Innovating

•Have the capacity to generate novel, original, ingenious products, solutions, and techniques.•Examine alternative possibilities from many angles•Start with a vision and work backward.•Are open to criticism.•Constantly strive for novelty, perfection, and beauty.

•Are extrinsically versus intrinsically motivated.•Have difficulty seeing more than one solution to a problem.•Make statements that highlight their self-perceived inabilities.•Believe that creative human beings are just born that way.





#12Responding

with Wonderment

and Awe

•Seek problems to solve for themselves and to submit to others.•Enjoy figuring things out by themselves.•Continue to be lifelong learners.•Are curious about the world around them.•Passionate about inquiring.

•Avoid problems.•Perceive thinking as hard work.•“Turned off” to learning.•Make comments such as “This is boring.” or “When am I ever going to use this stuff?”•Avoid enrolling in challenging academic classes that they don’t have to take for credit.





#13Taking

Responsible Risks

•View setbacks as interesting, challenging, and growth producing.•Take educated not impulsive risks.•Have an urge to go beyond established limits.•Are challenged by the process of finding the answer..

•Hold back and miss opportunities.•Have a fear of failure.•More interested in knowing whether an answer is correct or not, not in the process of finding the answer.•Avoid ambiguous situations.•Have a need for certainty.





#14Finding Humor

•Have the ability to perceive situations from an original and interesting vantage point.•Appreciate and understand others’ humor.•Are verbally playful when interacting with others.•Thrive on incongruity, absurdity, irony, and satire.•Able to laugh at themselves.

•Find humor in all the wrong places-human differences, ineptitude, injurious behavior, vulgarity, violence, and profanity.•Have difficulty distinguishing between situations which demand compassion and those that are truly funny.•Unable to laugh at themselves.





#15Thinking

Interdependently

•Realize that many together are more powerful, intellectually, and/or physically.•Have a heightened ability to think in concert with others.•Are sensitive to the needs of others.

•Unable to contribute to group work.•May be a “job hog” or may let others do all of the work.•Prefer isolation and solitude.•Not open and willing to accept feedback.





#16Learning

Continuously

•Constantly search for new and better ways.•Seize problems, situations, and conflicts as valuable opportunities to learn and improve.•Enjoy exploring alternatives.•Have the humility to know and to admit that they don’t know and are not afraid to find out.

•Confront learning with fear.•Are certain and closed rather than doubtful and open.•Gives answers rather than inquire.•Do not enjoy exploring alternatives but rather prefer to know the “one correct answer.”


Creating a Math Classroom Where Students Develop

Habits of MindProblems should allow students to:• have a plan or strategy before they begin the

work.• communicate their ideas to others.• be aware of and can explain their thought

process.• push themselves to try things they are not sure

they can do.• think, then ask on a task

• be given feedback and can change an approach to a problem.

• be open to multiple strategies to solve a problem.• see the importance of accuracy and detail.• work hard even when answers are difficult to

find.• Create, trust, and use standards for evaluating

their own work.


What are some things that are inhibiting habits of mind in the

math classroom?• “hands on, minds off”• skill and drill, topic to topic• tricks and quick unconnected

explanations• memorization of formulas without

uncoverage


Taking a Reflective Stance in the Midst of Active Problem Solving

• 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?• How can I approach this problem flexibly?• How might I look at the situation in another way?• How can I draw on my repertoire of problem

solving strategies?


Taking a Reflective Stance in the Midst of Active Problem Solving

• How can I look at this problem from a fresh perspective?

• How can I make this problem clearer, more precise?

• How might I break this problem down into its parts and develop a strategy for understanding and accomplishing each step?

• What do I know or not know?• What questions do I need to ask?• What strategies are in my mind now?• What feelings or emotions am I aware of which

might be blocking my progress?


Math Forum Problems of The Week

• Math Forum problems can be used for all middle school math curriculums.

• There is an archive of problems to match what you are currently teaching.

• The current problems are able to be submitted and evaluated by math education professionals.

• A rubric is provided to give students scoring and evaluation guidelines.


Math Forum Problems of The Week

• A rubric is provided to give students guidelines for solution format.

• Past problems with solutions are available for students and teachers to view .

• Problems can be differentiated to meet students needs.

• Habits of Mind can be practiced.


Role of the Teacher• Modeling• Coaching• Scaffolding and Fading• Articulation• Reflection• Exploration


All Habits of Mind•Require a person to monitor their actions and reactions to situations.•Require one to “know thyself.”•Require that individuals recognize patterns of behavior.•Require that a person know that they will always learn and grow.•Allow a person to have a repertoire of strategies to engage a challenging task.Categories (Possible)PhilosophicalCognitiveAffectiveUnderstandingControlSensorialSupple/FlexibleExact/DetailCapabilityCommitment


Quotes"The sum of one's intelligence is the sum of

one's habits of mind."Lauren Resnick

"Powerful indeed is the empire of habit."Publicus Syrus, 42 BC

"Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going."Jim Ryuh


"Out of clutter, find Simplicity.From discord, find Harmony.In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity."Albert Einstein

"A great pleasure inLife is doingWhat people say youCannot do."Tommy John


"Natural abilities are like natural plants; they need pruning by study."Francis Bacon

"What happens is not as important as how you react to what happens."Thaddeus Golas

Successful people aren't born that way. They become successful by establishing the habit of doing things unsuccessful people don't like to do. The successful people don't always like these things themselves; they just get on and do them."William Makepeace Thackeray


"Perplexity is the beginning of knowledge."Kahlil Gibran

"Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man

with the wrong mental attitude" Thomas Jefferson

“The unfortunate thing about this world is that good habits are so much easier to give up than bad ones.”

Somerset Maugham

“ It is common sense to take a method and try it, if it fails admit it frankly, and try another, but above all try something.”

Franklin Roosevelt

“Personally, I’m always ready to learn; although I don’t always like being taught.”Winston Churchill


“If the shoe fits, you aren’t allowing for growth.”

Robert Coons

The chains of habit are generally too small to be felt until they are too strong to be

broken. ~Samuel Johnson

Men's natures are alike; it is their habits that separate them. ~Confucius, Analects


Connect Your Work to the 16 Habits!

Other Benefits• Students become familiar with

rubrics and exemplary work.• Differentiation occurs naturally.• District “buzz” words don’t phase

you!• Increased depth and complexity in

the classroom.• Students become self-directed

learners.


Thank You!

Email us @[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Kristen Fraley Virginia Beach City Public Schools

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