Teaching habits of mind Fall 2016 / University of Connecticut First-Year Writing Program

It is essential to the development and design of any pedagogy to look beyond our own classrooms and our own discipline to consider transfer of knowledge and the kind of learning that will be of value to students in broader contexts and situations. Research related to critical thinking and the development of writing expertise suggests that intellectual and dispositional ‘habits of mind’ may be more valuable to students, especially in the long run, than knowledge about traditional subjects at the center of most writing instruction, including the thesis statement, MLA format, and even essays themselves. Sullivan, Patrick. A New Writing Classroom: Listening, Motivation, and Habits of Mind. Utah State UP, 2014, p. 149.

What’s at stake? As opposed to skills-based instruction, a pedagogy that emphasizes students’ growth. A disposition toward deliberate, critical, constructive thought. Transfer of learning: preparation for students’ work beyond FYW in and out of school. “Educational outcomes in traditional settings focus on how many answers a student knows. When we teach the Habits of Mind, we are interested also in how students behave when they don’t know an answer… We are interested in enhancing the ways students produce knowledge rather than how they merely reproduce it.” --Arthur Costa and Bena Kallick, qtd. in Sullivan, pp. 151–52.

What are the Habits of Mind? Curiosity – the desire to know more about the world. Openness – the willingness to consider new ways of being and thinking in the world. Engagement – a sense of investment and involvement in learning. Creativity – the ability to use novel approaches for generating, investigating, and representing ideas. Persistence – the ability to sustain interest in and attention to short- and long-term projects. Responsibility – the ability to take ownership of one’s actions and understand the consequences of those actions for oneself and others. Flexibility – the ability to adapt to situations, expectations, or demands. Metacognition – the ability to reflect on one’s own thinking as well as on the individual and cultural processes used to structure knowledge.

That list comes from the CWPA, NCTE, and NWP’s 2011 Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing. Costa and Kallick offer another (fairly similar) list— Persisting Managing Impulsivity Listening with Understanding and Empathy Thinking Flexibly Thinking about Thinking (Metacognition) Striving for Accuracy Questioning and Posing Problems Applying Past Knowledge to New Situations Thinking and Communicating with Clarity and Precision Gathering Data through All Senses Creating, Imagining, Innovating Responding with Wonderment and Awe Taking Responsible Risks Finding Humor Thinking Interdependently Remaining Open to Continuous Learning

How Can We Foster Habits of Mind In Our teaching? According to the Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing— Particular writing, reading, and critical analysis experiences contribute to the habits of mind. These experiences include the following: Developing rhetorical knowledge (the ability to analyze and act on understandings of audiences, purposes, and contexts in creating and comprehending texts); Developing critical thinking (through writing, reading, and research); Developing flexible writing processes (not linear); Developing knowledge of conventions (defined within specific contexts and genres); Composing in multiple environments (the ability to create writing using everything from traditional pen and paper to electronic technologies).

Discussion Questions If you were tasked with creating a list of habits of mind that instructors should try to develop in the teaching of writing, which would you include? Feel free to borrow from the Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing and/or Costa and Kallick’s habits of mind. Which habits of mind do you tend to value most highly as you assess student work? How does student writing evince these habits of mind? (For example, how would a student’s writing demonstrate “openness”?) Which habits of mind does your teaching foster among students? What steps can you take to develop habits of mind more effectively?