Finally! We are talking about a how instead of just a why! This chapter offers another set of ideas and principles that I can't take time and space to itemize, but I'm going to list them for the sake of maintaining the complete list. Costa and Kallick, the authors of this chapter, discuss the need for students to practice the skills that will make them successful in life, rather than learn the information they may or may not need later- today's world is about critical thinking and problem solving, i.e. the processes. So this list of 16 Habits of Mind identify the necessary attitudes and dispositions that transcend the learning of children and adults in all aspects of life:
1. Persisting
2. Managing impulsivity
3. Listening with understanding and empathy
4. Thinking flexibly
5. Metacognition
6. Striving for accuracy and precision
7. Questioning and problem posing
8. Applying past knowledge to novel situations
9. Thinking and communicating with clarity and precision
10. Gathering data through all senses
11. Creating, imagining, and innovating
12. Responding with wonderment and awe
13. Taking responsible risks
14. Finding humor
15. Thinking interdependently
16. Remaining open to continuous learning
So...I can't argue with these, and I especially accept them with the staircase model of developing the Habits of Mind, also discussed in this chapter...I'm just not sure how else to respond. Bloom's taxonomy is only 6 levels, Costa's levels of questioning only distinguish 3- maybe I feel somewhat overwhelmed with 16, no matter how much I agree with each of them? Or maybe my unavoidable skepticism with all new "ground-breaking educational structures" won't allow me to buy in to it quite yet, especially knowing that I would probably be on my own with it for awhile (I've written before about the slow rate of progress in education). But, I suppose all of this is to be expected too, which is why the authors include the curriculum mind shifts at the end of the chapter. We probably just aren't ready yet for this new approach to learning because it doesn't jive with the system we have, and we would prefer not to disrupt what we know. But I love these closing lines of this chapter as well as the book (and my GEM responses to the book), "Growth and change are found in disequilibrium, not balance. It takes some getting used to."
Yes, 16 are quite a few to keep in mind at once. No doubt someone will build on this work with some sort of grouping. It does look like a good list for discussion, though.
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