Habits of Mind Having a disposition toward behaving intelligently when confronted with problems, which can be any stimulus, question, task, phenomenon or discrepancy, when the answers are not immediately known. Art Costa and Bella Kallick

The S.U.C.C.E.S.S. of Habits of Mind

Persisting Stick to it! See a task through to completion, and remain focused. Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes but they never quit. Conrad Hilton

Managing impulsivity Take your time. Think before you act. Remain calm, thoughtful, and deliberate. Goal-directed, self-imposed delay of gratification id perhaps the essence of emotional self-regulation: the ability to deny impulse in the service of a goal, whether ot be building a business, solving an algebraic equation, or pursuing the Stanley Cup. Daniel Goleman

Listening with understanding and empathy Seek to understand others. Devote mental energy to another person’s thoughts and ideas. Hold your own thoughts in abeyance so you can better perceive another person’s point of view and emotions. Listening is the beginning of understanding… Wisdom is the reward for a lifetime of listening. Let the wise listen and add to their learning and let the discerning get guidance. Proverbs If you never change your mind, why have one? Edward deBono

Thinking flexibly Look at a situation another way. Find a way to change perspectives, generate alternatives, and consider options. Of all forms of mental activity, the most difficult to induce even in the minds of the young, who may be presumed not to have lost their flexibility, is the art of handling the same bundle of data as before, but placing them in a new system of relations with one another by giving them a different framework, all of which virtually means putting in a different kind of thinking-cap for the moment. It is easy to teach anybody a new fact…but it needs light from heaven above to enable a teacher to break the old framework in which the student is accustomed to seeing. Arthur Koestler

Thinking about thinking (metacognition) Know your knowing. Be aware of your own thoughts, strategies, feelings, and actions – and how they affect others. When the mind is thinking it is talking to itself. Plato

Striving for accuracy Check it again. Nurture a desire for exactness, fidelity, and craftsmanship. A man who has committed a mistake and doesn’t correct it is committing another mistake. Confucius

Questioning and posing problems How do you know? Develop a questioning attitude, consider what data are needed, and choose strategies to produce those data. Find problems to solve. The formulating of a problem is often more essential than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skill… To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, require creative imagination and marks real advances. Albert Einstein

Applying past knowledge to new situations Use what you learn. Access prior knowledge, transferring that knowledge beyond the situation in which it was learned. I’ve never made a mistake. I’ve only learned from experience. Thomas Edison

Thinking and communicating with clarity and precision Be clear. Strive for accurate communication in both written and oral form. Avoid overgeneralizations, distortions, and deletions. I do not so easily think in words…after being hard at work having arrived at results that are perfectly clear…I have to translate my thoughts in a language that does not run evenly with them. Francis Galton, Geneticist

Gathering data through all senses Gather data through all sensory paths: gustatory, olfactory, tactile, kinesthetic, auditory, and visual Observe perpetually. Henry James

Creating, imagining, innovating Try a different way. Generate novel ideas, and seek fluency and originality. The future is not some place we are going to but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made, and the activity of making them changes both the maker and the destination. John Schaar, Political Scientist

Responding with wonderment and awe Let yourself be intrigued by the world’s phenomena and beauty. Find what is awesome and mysterious in the world. The most beautiful experience in the world is the experience of the mysterious. Albert Einstein

Taking responsible risks Venture out. Live on the edge of your competence. There has been a calculated risk in every stage of American development - the pioneers who were not afraid of the wilderness, businessmen who were afraid of failure, dreamers who were not afraid of action. Brooks Atkinson

Finding humor Laugh a little. Look for the whimsical, incongruous, and unexpected in life. Laugh at yourself when you can. Where do bees wait? At a buzz stop! Andrew, Age 6

Thinking interdependently Work together. Truly work hard with and learn from others in reciprocal situations. Take care of each other. Share your energies with the group. No one must feel alone, cut off, for that is when you do not make it. Willie Unsoeld, Renowned Mountain Climber

Remaining open to continuous learning Learn from experiences. Be proud - and humble enough - to admit you don’t know. Resist complacency. Insanity is continuing to do the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Albert Einstein

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. Aristotle