To teach Habits of Mind requires teachers to consider what it means to teach "thinking".

As educators we have no difficulty discussing how we teach students and develop understandings in our content areas. If asked, maths teachers will describe how understandings are developed as students build on concepts of number and multiplication, to ideas of algebra and linear relationships to more advanced maths. Teachers of language are able to discuss how students acquire letter combinations to construct words, words into simple sentences, then to an understanding of different types of words (nouns, verbs, adjectives etc) as so on. Art teachers, Physical Education teachers and Science teachers are all able to discuss similar ways that ideas are developed and addressed.

What frameworks do you currently use to guide you teaching of thinking? Rather than considering the thinking tools and strategies you might teach, consider if you use a framework to guide your planning and what kind of guiding principles you base your planning on.

Most teachers have clear frameworks to guide their planning for the teaching of their content. The same can not be said for the teaching of thinking. The following pages address our changing understanding of the nature of intelligence, and provide a simple framework to help educators approach the teaching of thinking.

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