We believe that Art Costa's 16 Habits of Mind are dispositions that many people possess without explicitly realising it. For example, some people may naturally be persistent but struggle to manage impulsivity. This is where the Habits of Mind can be implemented successfully to create life long learners that demonstrate attributes that encourage them to behave intelligently.
Plus: The Habits of Mind links to the Curriculum, particularly the Key Competencies and Values. The Habits allow children to be more independent in their thinking and learning. "As students practice the Habits of Mind, they become more skillful and develop a large repertoire of strategies that they can call upon in problematic situations." (Anderson, J. N.d.). The Habits are not only for children in education, they can be used in real life situations at any age.
Minus:
We believe that the Habits of Mind provide complications compared to other thinking tools currently used within schools. We feel that the implementation of these tools can be quite complex, particularly in regards to younger children. Art Costa describes successful implementation of this as a school wide approach. "Students will only behave as well as the adult models that they are surrounded by." (Anderson, n.d.). To implement the Habits successfully they have to be a driving force behind your teaching and school wide practices. "The teachers need to find the appropriate places in the curriculum." (Anderson, n.d) to emphasize and reinforce the habits being developed. We believe that this could provide challenges through advocating for the implementation of this school wide. For beginner teachers such as ourselves this may pose immense challenges. Below is a video discussing the benefits of the school wide approach within education.
Interesting:
As a group we were all agreed that when using the habits of mind successfully as individuals, each Habit of Mind is not used in isolation, they are all intertwined. The Habits are learned, refined and ongoing, even though they may not be explicitly taught in the classroom. We are all in agreement that we can see the value of consciously targeting individual Habits of mind to enhance our own personal and professional development. Providing tools for intelligent reflection, problem solving and decision making.