Habits of Mind Questions for Students (plus UbD)

from Marshall Memo 828

Essential Questions for Habits of Mind

(Originally titled “Dispositions by Design”)

            In this article in Educational Leadership, Arthur Costa and Bena Kallick (Institute for Habits of Mind) and author/consultants Jay McTighe and Allison Zmuda suggest ways to apply the Wiggins/McTighe Understanding by Design framework to Costa and Kallick’s 16 Habits of Mind. Here is a selection of Essential Questions for each of the Habits of Mind (see the full article link below for the Understandings):

• Persisting

-    Why should I keep trying?

• Managing impulsivity

-    What do I do when I am driven by emotions?

• Listening with understanding and empathy

-    How might it feel to be…?

• Thinking flexibly

-    In what other ways might I think about this?

• Thinking about thinking (metacognition)

-    What kind of thinking is called for in this situation?

• Striving for accuracy

-    How can I continue to perfect my craft?

• Questioning and posing questions

-    What questions do we need to ask?

• Applying past knowledge to new situations

-    What do I already know, and how does it apply here?

• Thinking and communicating with clarity and precision

-    What are the consequences of imprecision?

• Gathering data through all senses

-    What sources of data should I consider?

• Creating, imagining, and innovating

-    What is another way of seeing or doing this?

• Responding with wonderment and awe

-    Why is this so amazing, interesting, or mysterious to me?

• Taking responsible risks

-    What might be the effects of taking this risk – or of not trying?

• Finding humor

-    Am I taking myself too seriously?

• Thinking interdependently

-    How can we work best together? How can we avoid “group think”?

• Remaining open to continuous learning

-    What do I still wonder about?

Costa, Kallick, McTighe, and Zmuda suggest several ways the questions might be used:

-    Posting some of them in classrooms or common areas;

-    Drawing attention to a relevant question during a class;

-    Looking for an opportunity to highlight a Habit being used by a student;

-    Teachers thinking aloud about how they are using a Habit;

-    Having a Habits of Mind “show and tell;”

-    Students writing journal entries about using the Habits;

-    Before embarking on a project, having students reflect on the Habits they might use.

“By visiting and revisiting the essential questions across the grades,” say the authors, “students will come to better understand and internalize these productive mental dispositions. Ultimately, we want students to be asking these questions of themselves, without prompting. The long-range goal is for students to develop an internal compass to help them recognize the need for, and appropriately invoke, the appropriate habit(s) when confronting new challenges and opportunities, within school and throughout their lives.”

“Dispositions by Design” by Arthur Costa, Bena Kallick, Jay McTighe, and Allison Zmuda in Educational Leadership, March 2020 (Vol. 77, #6, pp. 54-59), available to ASCD members and for purchase at https://bit.ly/2x0RmeO; the authors can be reached at artcosta@aol.com, kallick.bena@gmail.com, jay@mctighe-associates.com, and allison.g.zmuda@gmail.com.