In 2014 I ran an online Habits of Mind Expo*, bringing together successful Habits of Mind schools from all over the world to share their practice and experience with Habits of Mind. As part of the Expo we interviewed 8 teams of school leaders. Each from very different settings and with a long and successful […]
Waikiki Elementary, a Mindful School, on the slopes of Diamond Head Crater in Honolulu, has embraced the Habits of Mind for over 20 years. The results have been remarkable. More than instructional strategies, the Habits of Mind are infused into the organizational norms and are shared by the instructional and support staff, the students and […]
In this short video Art Costa describes how the Habits of Mind came about. In the video below Art describes some of the research that has been conducted into the efficacy of the Habits of Mind. Both these videos are part of a larger, free, ebook entitled “Insights into Habits of Mind” available in the […]
A Curriculum Storm School curriculums are constantly being stretched to accommodate new areas of knowledge. They are being crowded full of new learning and being challenged to accommodate “21st Century Skills”. Around the world curriculums are being redesigned, redrafted and reinvented to include thinking skills, key competencies, essential skills, learner profiles and other such qualities […]
A few weeks ago I took a close look at the definition of the Habits of Mind. I teased it apart with an educational audience in mind. That got me wondering about how we define the Habits of Mind for children and the general public. When we talk about “Habits of Mind”, what ideas do […]
The Habits of Mind have become defined as the dispositions that are skillfully and mindfully employed by characteristically successful people when confronted with problems, the solutions to which are not immediately apparent These dispositions were derived by Art Costa and his co author Bena Kallick, following meta-analysis of studies into successful people. There is much […]
I recently read a fascinating book all about Habits. Not specific habits, but rather the nature of Habits in general, and it’s given me some real food for thought in relation to the way we work with Habits of Mind. The book is called “The Power of Habit: Why we do what we do in […]
If there were one aspect of the Habits that stood out as being the most important to understand when learning out the Habits of Mind it would be this: Focus on Improving your Habits of Mind, not merely using them. One of the problems people run into when first discovering the Habits of Mind is […]
Are your students using their Habits of Mind well? This is a profound question, because if they are not using their Habits of Mind well it becomes the teachers responsibility to help them develop more mature, more effective Habits of Mind. This means teachers need to have a clear picture of what development looks like […]
Now that we have outlined the importance of focusing on improving, not simply using, our Habits of Mind, it’s natural to ask how do we improve our Habits of Mind? What sort of improvements are we trying to achieve? These are very important questions, because if we can’t describe what improvement looks like, we can’t […]
Habits are funny things. The reason that they are so useful is because you barely know you have them! When I introduce Habits of Mind to students I always begin with the idea of what a Habit is. There’s lots of great and easy to use resources for this. One of my favorite resources is […]
