Discovering And Exploring Habits Of Mind

Revised and expanded from the original 4-book Habits of Mind series, this compelling volume shows how developing strong habits of mind is an essential foundation for leading, teaching, learning, and living well in a complex world.

Describes the "habits of mind" that can aid both students and adults in school and in everyday life as they encounter problems, dilemmas, and enigmas, the resolutions of which are not immediately apparent.

A collection of stories by educators around the world who have implemented the Habits of Mind, behaviors that lead to school success, in their pay to day teaching across the curriculum in K-12 classrooms.

"If you haven't had the good fortune to be coached by a strong leader or product coach, this book can help fill that gap and set you on the path to success." - Marty Cagan How do you know that you are making a product or service that your customers want? How do you ensure that you are improving it over time? How do you guarantee that your team is creating value for your customers in a way that creates value for your business? In this book, you'll learn a structured and sustainable approach to continuous discovery that will help you answer each of these questions, giving you the confidence to act while also preparing you to be wrong. You'll learn to balance action with doubt so that you can get started without being blindsided by what you don't get right. If you want to discover products that customers love-that also deliver business results-this book is for you.

Distinguished educators Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick present this collection of stories by educators around the world who have successfully implemented the habits in their day-to-day teaching in K-12 classrooms. The collective wisdom and experience of these thoughtful practitioners provide readers with insight into the transdisciplinary nature of the 16 Habits of Mind—intelligent behaviors that lead to success in school and the larger world—as well as model lessons and suggestions for weaving the habits into daily instruction in language arts, music, physical education, social studies, math, foreign language, and other content areas. Readers will come to understand that, far from an "add-on" to the curriculum, the habits are an essential element for helping students at all grade levels successfully deal with the challenges they face in school and beyond. As in all their books on the Habits of Mind, Costa and Kallick have a broad and worthwhile goal in mind. As they say in the concluding chapter of this volume, "If we want a future that is much more thoughtful, vastly more cooperative, greatly more compassionate, and a whole lot more loving, then we have to invent it. That future is in our homes, schools, and classrooms today. The Habits of Mind are the tools we all can use to invent our desired vision of the future."

Educators’ most important work is to help students develop the intellectual and social strength of character necessary to live well in the world. The way to do this, argue authors Bena Kallick and Allison Zmuda, is to increase the say students have in their own learning and prepare them to navigate complexities they face both inside and beyond school. This means rethinking traditional teacher and student roles and re-examining goal setting, lesson planning, assessment, and feedback practices. It means establishing classrooms that prioritize ▪ Voice—Involving students in “the what” and “the how” of learning and equipping them to be stewards of their own education. ▪ Co-creation—Guiding students to identify the challenges and concepts they want to explore and outline the actions they will take. ▪ Social construction—Having students work with others to theorize, pursue common goals, build products, and generate performances. ▪ Self-discovery—Teaching students to reflect on their own developing skills and knowledge so that they will acquire new understandings of themselves and how they learn. Based on their exciting work in the field, Kallick and Zmuda map out a transformative model of personalization that puts students at the center and asks them to employ the set of dispositions for engagement and learning known as the Habits of Mind. They share the perspectives of educators engaged in this work; highlight the habits that empower students to pursue aspirations, investigate problems, design solutions, chase curiosities, and create performances; and provide tools and recommendations for adjusting classroom practices to facilitate learning that is self-directed, dynamic, sometimes messy, and always meaningful.