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.

Without a clear understanding of what getting better at the Habits of Mind looks like teachers find it difficult to set clear learning goals in relation to the increased mastery of the Habits. We tend to set tasks that require the Habits of Mind, but don't necessarily develop them in our students.

For example. I recall my middle school English lessons. I was consistently asked to write creative stories. This task required me to think creatively, and generate new ideas. However, merely setting the task that requires this ability isn't enough. Because I was never taught how to think creatively, I never got much better at this task.

In the new book "Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind" Art Costa, Bena Kallick and I describe 5 Dimension through which we can develop our Habits of Mind.

Understanding these dimensions helps teachers decided what the best strategies might be to, mature, extend, grow or develop the Habits of Mind.

In brief, development of a Habit of Mind happens along one of 5 continums. These are:

• Meaning: People develop a deeper, more complex understanding of the meaning of the Habit of Mind
• Capacity: People become more skilled, have a greater range of strategies and become increasingly skillful at applying the Habit
• Alertness: People become increasingly able to identify cue in situations that signal that it is appropriate (or not) to use the Habits of Mind
• Commitment" People become increasingly able and inclined towards self assessing and self directing their improvement of the Habits
• Value: People come to value the Habit more highly by recognizing the beneficial effects they have and as a result choose to engage in the Habit over other less productive behaviors.

One common misconception about these dimensions is that they are in some way sequential. They aren't.

The best way to think of these dimensions is in the same way as you might think of the threads, or stands that run through you subject areas. For example, when we teach a language we often refer to the strands of Reading, Writing, Listen and Speaking.

The Dimensions of development for the Habits of Mind are analogous to the strands of Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking. There is no order to then, they are constantly revisited and developed, and they are never full mastered. Each can be worked on independently, but at the same time improvement in one lends to the development of the next.

More on these dimensions later.