Learning & Leading With Habits of Mind

438 Pages·2010·7.03 MB·English

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In Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind, noted educators Arthur L. Costa and
Bena Kallick present a comprehensive guide to shaping schools around Habits of Mind.
The habits are a repertoire of behaviors that help students and teachers successfully
navigate the various challenges and problems they encounter in the classroom and in
everyday life. The Habits of Mind include
! Persisting ! Thinking and communicating
! Managing impulsivity with clarity and precision
! Listening with understanding ! Gathering data through all senses
and empathy ! Creating, imagining, innovating
! Thinking flexibly ! Responding with wonderment
! Thinking about thinking and awe
(metacognition) ! Taking responsible risks
! Striving for accuracy ! Finding humor
! Questioning and posing problems ! Thinking interdependently
! Applying past knowledge ! Remaining open to continuous
to new situations learning
This volume brings together—in a revised and expanded format—concepts from the
four books in Costa and Kallick’s earlier work, Habits of Mind: A Developmental Series.
Along with other highly respected scholars and practitioners, the authors explain how
the 16 Habits of Mind dovetail with up-to-date concepts of what constitutes intelligence;
present instructional strategies for activating the habits and creating a “thought-full”
classroom environment; offer assessment and reporting strategies that incorporate the
habits; and provide real-life examples of how communities, school districts, building
administrators, and teachers can integrate the habits into their school culture. Drawing
upon their research and work over many years, in many countries, Costa and Kallick
present a compelling rationale for using the Habits of Mind as a foundation for leading,
teaching, learning, and living well in a complex world.
$30.95 U.S.
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development
Alexandria, Virginia USA
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Native peoples teach that the ultimate norm for
morality is the impact our choices have on persons
living seven generations from now. If the results
appear good for them, then our choices are moral
ones; if not, they are immoral.
We therefore dedicate Learning and Leading with
Habits of Mind to our children, our grandchildren,
and their children’s children.
Deep down you know you can be remarkable.You shouldn’t
settle for anything less than your best self,reaching ever closer
to your potential—whether as a leader or in any other part of
your life.
—Kevin Eikenberry,author
Learning and Leading with
Habits Mind
of
16 Essential Characteristics for Success
Foreword: Thinking on the Road of Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
David Perkins
Preface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvi
Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick
Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxv
Suggestions for Using This Book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxvi
Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick
PART I: DISCOVERING AND EXPLORING HABITS OF MIND
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick
1. Changing Perspectives About Intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick
2. Describing the Habits of Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Arthur L. Costa
3. Habits of Mind in the Curriculum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick
4. Habits of Mind: A Journey of Continuous Growth. . . . . . . . . . . . 59
James Anderson, Arthur L. Costa, and Bena Kallick
5. Is Your Instruction Habit Forming?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
James Anderson and Arthur L. Costa
viii
PART II: BUILDING A THOUGHT-FULL ENVIRONMENT
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick
6. Creating “Thought-Full” Environments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick
7. Toward a Mindful Language of Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick
8. Using Questions to Challenge Students’ Intellect. . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick
9. Thinking Maps: Visual Tools for Activating Habits of Mind . . . 149
David Hyerle
PART III: ASSESSING AND REPORTING ON HABITS OF MIND
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick
10. Defining Indicators of Achievement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick
11. Assessing Habits of Mind. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick
12. Learning Through Reflection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick
13. Wondering to Be Done . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Steve Seidel
14. Reporting Growth in Habits of Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick
PART IV: LEADING SCHOOLS WITH HABITS OF MIND
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick
15. Creating a Culture of Mindfulness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick
ix
16. Habits of Mind for the Systems-Savvy Leader. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
Jennifer Abrams
17. Leading Is a Habit of Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
William A. Sommers and Diane P. Zimmerman
PART V: LEARNING FROM MINDFUL SCHOOLS
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick
18. Habits of Mind in North Carolina:
Increasing Intellectual Capacity of Disadvantaged Students . . . 319
Mary P. Hargett and Margaret Evans Gayle
19. Bringing a Vision to Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Curtis Schnorr and Thommie DePinto Piercy
20. A “Throwaway” School No More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
Bertie Simmons
21. The Mindful Culture of Waikiki Elementary School. . . . . . . . . 348
Bonnie Tabor, Sandra Brace, Matt Lawrence, and Arnold Latti
22. Integrating the Habits of Mind: A District Perspective . . . . . . . . 362
Nancy Skerritt, Emilie Hard, and Kristin Edlund
APPENDIXES
A. Bringing Habits of Mind to Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
B. Leading Schools with Habits of Mind. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
C. When Have Habits of Mind Become Infused?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
D. Inventories and Checklists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
E. Resources Related to Habits of Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404
About the Editors and Other Contributors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
!
Foreword:
Thinking on the Road of Life
David Perkins
While driving into town a few years ago, I found myself behind a young
man in a red convertible. Like many people, I have certain expectations
about young men in red convertibles, but this young man surprised me.
When we reached a railroad crossing, he was painfully careful. He slowed
down as he approached the tracks. The closer he got to the tracks, the
more he slowed. As his car passed over the tracks, it hardly was moving at
all. At this point, with great care, the young man looked to the left, and
then he looked to the right. No train was coming. Satisfied with his safety,
he gunned the engine and sped off. The young man was careful—and
yet he wasn’t. Surely, the middle of the tracks isn’t the best position from
which to scan for oncoming trains!
This man’s behavior provides a kind of metaphor for the mission of
Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind.When on the road of life, we
ought to be thoughtful about what we are doing. For example, we ought
to manage impulsivity and strive for accuracy, two of the worthwhile
Habits of Mind this book describes. Yet if good thinking is to help us out
in life, it has to go on the road with us. The trouble is, good thinking often
gets left behind altogether, or it’s exercised in flawed ways and so doesn’t
do quite the right job, as this young man demonstrated.
How can we encourage ourselves and others—particularly students—
to take good thinking on the road? Learning and Leading with Habits of
xi
xii Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind
Mindexplores one answer to that challenge: the cultivation of habits of
mind, or habits of thought, as John Dewey (1933) called them. The idea
is that we should have habits of mind such as persistence and flexible
thinking, just as we have habits like brushing our teeth or putting the dog
out or being kind to people. Habits are not behaviors we pick up and lay
down whimsically or arbitrarily. They are behaviors we exhibit reliably
on appropriate occasions, and they are smoothly triggered without
painstaking attention.
The very notion of habits of mind, however, poses a conceptual puz-
zle. By definition, habits are routine, but good use of the mind is not. The
phrase “habits of mind” makes for a kind of oxymoron, like “loud silence”
or “safe risk.” Indeed, the story of the young man in the convertible illus-
trates what can go wrong with cultivating habits of mind. Here you have
a habit of mind (being careful) played out in a way that misses the point
(the man looks for the train from the middle of the tracks). The very auto-
maticity of a habit can undermine its function. Habits like that don’t serve
us well on a literal highway—or on the metaphorical road of life.
Can one have a habit of mind that truly does its work? The resolution
to this puzzle is not very difficult. There’s a difference between the think-
ing required to manage a mental process and the thinking done by the
process. A habitual mental process does not require a lot of management
to launch and sustain it, but that process itself may involve mindful think-
ing. It may involve careful examination of alternatives, assessment of risks
and consequences, alertness to error, and so on. For example, I have a
simple, well-entrenched habit for the road of life: looking carefully when
I depart a setting to be sure that I’m not leaving anything behind. This
habit triggers and runs off reliably, with very little need for mindful man-
agement. But the behaviors deployed by the habit are highly mindful:
scrutinizing the setting, glancing under chairs for concealed objects, and
peering into drawers and closets for overlooked items.
In all fairness, the man in the convertible displayed a habit with some-
thing of this quality, too. It was good that he looked both ways with care.
No doubt his scan of the tracks was precise and sensitive. He certainly
would have detected any oncoming train. The difficulty was that his habit
included a bug, rather like a bug in a computer program. Although his