by Dr. Thomas Jefferson, Superintendent of Schools
In March of 2008, the Harvard School District affirmed a strategic plan that encompasses five primary goal areas. The first of these is that the entire curriculum will integrate core content knowledge with the critical thinking skills needed for success in the 21st century.
With this goal in mind, Hildreth Elementary School embarked on a process that led to the identification and adoption of the Habits of Mind model as a framework through which we can identify, teach, and reinforce those critical thinking skills and attributes. In today’s society, being well educated means more than merely mastering rote knowledge and routine skills. One emerging view of “intelligent behavior” we embrace today is a conceptualization that includes traits, characteristics, and attributes that successful learners demonstrate.
Increasingly, we are adopting the mental model that intelligence is a set of teachable, learnable behaviors that all human beings can continue to develop and improve throughout their lifetimes. We must help students to think powerfully about ideas, learn to critique as well as support others’ thinking, and become thoughtful problem solvers and decision makers.
For the past two decades or more, educational consultants Art Costa and Bena Kallick have extensively studied models of intelligence with an eye to the question, “What specific attributes foster deep learning, intelligent behavior, and effective problem solving?” The 16 characteristics they identified and have labeled as “habits of mind” are as follows:
- Persistence. Sticking to it. Seeing a task through to completion, and remaining focused.
- Managing impulsivity. Taking your time. Thinking before you act. Remaining calm, thoughtful, and deliberate.
- Listening with understanding and empathy. Seeking to understand others. Devoting mental energy to another person’s thoughts and ideas. Holding your own thoughts in abeyance so you can better perceive another person’s point of view and emotions.
- Thinking flexibly. Looking at a situation another way. Finding a way to change perspectives, generate alternatives, and consider options.
- Thinking about thinking (metacognition). Being aware of your own thoughts, strategies, feelings, and actions—and how they affect others.
- Striving for accuracy. Checking it again. Nurturing a desire for exactness, fidelity, craftsmanship, and truth.
- Questioning and posing problems. Developing a questioning attitude, considering what data are needed, and choosing strategies to produce that data. Finding problems to solve.
- Applying past knowledge to new situations. Using what you learn. Accessing prior knowledge, transferring that knowledge beyond the situation in which it was learned.
- Thinking and communicating with clarity and precision. Being clear. Striving for accurate communication in both written and oral form. Avoiding overgeneralization, distortions, and deletions.
- Gathering data through all senses. Using your natural pathways. Gathering data through all sensory paths: gustatory, olfactory, tactile, kinesthetic, auditory, and visual.
- Creating, imagining, and innovating. Trying a different way. Generating novel ideas, and seeking fluency and originality.
- Responding with wonderment and awe. Letting yourself be intrigued by the world’s phenomena and beauty. Finding what is awesome and mysterious in the world.
- Taking responsible risks. Venturing out. Living on the edge of your competence.
- Finding humor. Laughing a little. Looking for the whimsical, incongruous, and unexpected in life. Laughing at yourself when you can.
- Thinking interdependently. Working together. Truly working with and learning from others in reciprocal situations.
- Remaining open to continuous learning. Learning from experiences. Having humility and pride when admitting you don’t know. Resisting complacency.
No, in actuality they’re a set of attributes, attitudes, and approaches that span across all disciplines. Much of the work ahead will be to infuse the Habits of Mind into the curriculum we already have in place at HES. Our goal is that throughout their elementary career, our students will learn about all 16 habits and become adept at reflecting how they apply to their own life and learning.
The Habits of Mind model is growing in popularity as schools around the world are taking up the complex challenge of infusing critical thinking skills into their programs. Implementation of this model requires an exceptionally talented teaching faculty.
There are many books published on Habits of Mind and there is an active website at www.habits-of-mind.net. We encourage all interested community members to learn more about them. It certainly is appropriate for parents to reinforce and discuss particular habits as they are introduced in the schools. Upcoming issues of the Husky Newsletter will highlight the implementation strategies being put in place at HES.