The following definition of a Mindful School was constructed by a group of teachers that are seeking to infuse the Habits of Mind throughout their school. What they have come up with is a powerful picture of what a Mindful School might look like. We would value your feedback and comments.

Envisaging and Defining Mindful Schools
Developed by Teachers at Mindful by Design’s Developing Mindful Schools Workshop, August 2009.

MINDFUL ENVIRONMENT
The mindful environment often starts with visuals such as posters, but should extend to include the other senses.

When we consider the subjects we teach in schools, we can easily describe what improvement looks like. We generally have curriculum guides that we can consult which tell us what we expect students to be doing or understanding as they improve in these subject areas. However the same can not be said for the Habits of Mind.

For most of us, the only description we have of the Habits is one dimensional - it basically comes down to a definition. And we expect students to "do" it, rather than "get better" at it.

There is a diagram that I often use to help teachers understand where the Habits of Mind "fit" in relation to other parts of the curriculum. This diagram shows the relationship between the content we teach, the thinking skills students need to develop, the Habits of Mind and the values we try to impart to students.

Essentially the relationship is this.

Many of you might be interested in this pod cast recored for the recent ASCD conference with Art Costa.

http://ascd.typepad.com/blog/2009/01/costa-speaker-spotlight.html

If you know of other interesting blog entires, resources or other reference related to Habits of Mind, please let us know by leaving a comment to this entry.

The Habits of Mind are often defined as the dispositions we observe being employed by successful individuals when they are confronted with problems, the solutions to which are not immediately apparent. However, as our understanding of the Habits of Mind has grown over time, we've come to realize that this definition might not be entirely accurate, and in some respects might actually be misleading.

In my work with teachers they often point to this habit, as well as Finding Humor, as being somehow different. For a long time no one could quite put their finger on what it was, but there was a lurking sense that these two Habits were somehow different to the others.

Where are all the resources for to support professional learning for Habits of Mind?

The short answer is that the wealth of experience still resides in the heads of teachers. The Habits of Mind Resource Library on this site tries to capture and share this learning. In addition to this there are a number of books available.

Art Costa and Bena Kallicks books (published by ASCD and available through HawkerBrownlow in Australia) remain the most widely available and scholarly resource available to teachers. Updates to their 4 book series should be available late 2008 / early 2009.

Understanding that there are at least two phases to implementing the Habits of Mind has important consequences, especially for schools that plan to introduce the Habits in a staged way, one learning level at a time. (see last blog re these phases)

A common approach for schools (especially large or secondary schools) to take when implementing the Habits of Mind is to begin with the lower year levels and then plan for the Habits to flow up through the school. However there is a fundamental problem with this approach.

Basically we recognise two broad phases we can identify when schools take on the Habits of Mind. Initially they introduce the Habits of Mind to the students and staff, and then they become more sophisticated and begin to infuse the Habits into the culture and curriculum of the school.

If I had a dollar for every time someone has asked me how to implement the Habits of Mind at their school.....

I have worked with many many schools now - large and small; primary and secondary; state, catholic and independent; schools that are "dabbling" with the Habits and schools that are fully committed for the long term - and the one thing I can say about their "implementation" strategies is that they are all different! Sorry folks, but if you were looking for a 10 point plan you're not going to find it here.