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Learning about Habits of Mind

The Habits of Mind Teachers Network provides Online Courses to support teachers wishing to learn about and infuse the Habit of Mind into their classrooms. These modules have many features designed to make learning engaging, practical and effective for classroom teachers. Each course has a different focus as described below.

The Online Courses provide a comprehensive journey through the Habits of Mind. Beginning with understanding what the Habits of Mind are, the courses build through introducing them into your classroom and infusing them into the curriculum. The final course looks at how schools have infused the Habits of Mind into their school culture to form an over arching framework for a thinking curriculum.

Each course is supported by a wide range of resources and opportunities to collaborate and share through our Learning Community and Virtual Classrooms.

 

Course 1: Discovering Habits of Mind

This course is free to all registered users of the Habits of Mind Teachers Network. It introduces the Habits of Mind and key ideas associated with them. The lessons feature several interview with Art Costa who explains first hand about the Habits of Mind.

Topics covered include:

  • What are the Habits of Mind
  • Research Base for the Habits of Mind
  • Teaching Thinking
  • Developing Habits of Mind: What does it mean to get better at a Habit of Mind?
  • Habits of Mind in the Curriculum
  • Evidence
  • Key Resources and Paths for Future Learning

 

Course 2: Getting Started with Habits of Mind

The second course, available via subscription, focuses on beginning the classroom implementation of the Habits of Mind. It features a wide range of classroom examples and strategies, all developed by and for teachers. Each of the Habits of Mind is covered in detail. The lessons are designed to be engaging and practical for teachers.

Topics covered include:

  • Common Misconceptions about the Habits of Mind
  • Beginning with the End in Mind: Where to Next?
  • Places to Begin with Habits of Mind
  • Strategies for Introducing the Habits of Mind to your classroom
  • Classroom examples and activities for each of the Habits of Mind
  • Key Resources and Paths for Future Learning

 

Course 3: Curriculum Infusion: Outcomes

Curriculum Infusion is the "Next Step" discussed in course 2's second lesson. This course is available via subscription. To understand how to develop student's Habits of Mind we need a sound understanding of what this development looks like. Without this understanding, without the ability to define the Habits of Mind as learning outcomes, we struggle to design effective curriculum and adapt pedagogy to ensure that students develop, mature, grow, extend and otherwise improve their Habits of Mind. 

Topics Covered Include:

  • The Five Ages of Curriculum Infusion
  • Introducing the Backward Design Model
  • About Infusing the Habits of Mind into the Curriculum
  • Habits of Mind as Outcomes
    • Meaning
    • Capacity
    • Alertness
    • Value
    • Commitment
  • Examples from Teachers
  • Key Resources and Paths for Future Learning

 

Course 4: Curriculum Infusion: Backward Design 

With a sound understanding of what development looks like, and the ability to write learning outcomes related to the development of the Habits of Mind, Course 4 looks at how these outcomes are infused into the Backward Design process to create units of work that develop both content understanding and a students Habits of Mind.

Topics covered include:

  •  Understanding By Design & The Backward Design Process (Wiggins and McTighe)
    • About Design Templates
    • Traps of Curriculum Design
  • Stage 2: Determining Acceptable Evidence
    • Teaching to the Test
    • Thinking Like and Assessor
    • Types of Assessment
    • Qualities of Performance Tasks Focusing on Habits of Mind
    • If your outcome statement says ... then your assessment should look like...
    • Designing Performance Tasks for Habits of Mind
    • GRASPS
    • Self Test of Assessment Ideas for Habits of Mind
  • Stage 3: Designing the Learning Sequence
    • Your Outcomes and Assessment Demand It!
    • If they don't get you where you want to go...
    • Instructional Approaches
  • Units of Work - Examples using the Backward Design Process
  • Key Resources and Paths for Future Learning

 

Course 5: Becoming a Mindful School

This module focuses on the process for becoming a Mindful School as defined by the Institute for Habits of Mind. It is currently underdevelopment and will feature interviews with schools that are on this journey as well as insights and suggestions about some of the most productive ways forward. 

 

Other Courses for Development

The courses listed above are intended to be comprehensive, but are by no means "everything" there is to know about Habits of Mind. We will add new courses as opportunity and need arise. If you have ideas for future learning that we could add to this site, please make suggestions through "Suggest an Improvement" menu item in the "About our Network" menu above. If you are a curriculum developer and would like to write a course for inclusion on this site we will gladly publish your work on a royalty basis. Please contact us for more information.