Habits of Mind: Why do we need them?

When confronted with problems whose solutions not immediately apparent, intelligent people usually employ skilful and mindful disposition. These are called Habits of Mind. These mental resources provide more robust and higher quality results. Author L. Costa and Bena Kallick, of the book “Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind.” Have broken it down into sixteen attributes. They believe that humans display these attributes when they conduct themselves intelligently. These methods help you cope with confusing dilemmas, complicated situations, and uncertainty. Habits of Mind allows you to hold on to something positive from the experiences, even while making mistakes or guesses. Understanding the Habits of Mind, we realise that when a mind is reaching for information and making critical connections to arrive at conclusions, it is genuinely learning. Employing Habits of Mind requires a composite of many skills, attitudes, cues, past experiences, and biases. It means that we value one pattern of thinking over another, and therefore it implies choice making about which habit should be employed at which time. It includes sensitivity to the contextual cues in a situation signalling that it is an appropriate time and circumstance to use this pattern. It leads individuals to reflect on, evaluate, modify, and carry forth their learnings to future applications. It implies goal setting for improved performance and committing continued self-modification.

The sixteen attributes of Habits of Mind are:

Persisting

Managing Impulsivity

Listening to Others with Understanding and Empathy

Thinking Flexibly

Thinking About Our Thinking (Metacognition)

Striving for Accuracy and Precision

Questioning and Posing Problems

Applying Past Knowledge to New Situations

Thinking and Communicating with Clarity and Precision

Gathering Data Through All Senses

Creating, Imagining and Innovating

Responding with Wonderment and Awe

Taking Responsible Risks

Finding Humor

Thinking Interdependently

Learning Continuously

We can take the example of students. If students employ the above intelligent behaviours, they can learn making productive actions, and make smart thinking a healthy life-long pattern. It’s not just acing your Spanish class or algebra, but rather learning how to learn. It promotes creativity, strategic thinking, insightfulness, perseverance, reasoning, and craftsmanship. A student who sharpens these tools will be well-equipped for successful adulthood. For children, the habits of mind can be Optimism, Flexibility, Resilience, Persistence and Empathy.

Shahjadi Jemim Rahman