The 16 Habits of Mind

Identified by Costa & Kallick: Persisting Thinking and communicating with clarity and precision Managing impulsivity Gathering data through all senses Listening with understanding and empathy Creating, imagining, innovating Thinking flexibly Responding with wonderment and awe Thinking about thinking (meta-cognition) Taking responsible risks Striving for accuracy Finding humor Questioning and posing problems Thinking interdependently Applying past knowledge to new situations Remaining open to continuous learning
The following article describes the 16 Habits of Mind more fully and is available for download as a PDF file: Describing 16 Habits of Mind at http://www.habits-of-mind.net Copyright 2000-2001 Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick. All rights reserved. Hetland, L., Veenema, S., Palmer, P., Sheridan, K., & Winner, E. (2005). Studio Thinking: How Visual Arts Teaching Can Promote Disciplined Habits of Mind. Unpublished book manuscript, submitted for publication. Hetland, L., K. Sheridan, E. Winner, K. Veenema, and P. Palmer. The Studio Thinking Framework: A Descriptive Model for Teaching and Learning in the Visual Arts. AERA Annual Meeting, Apr. 2005. Costa, Arthur L. and Bena Kallick, eds. Discovering and Exploring Habits of Mind. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2000.

Artist Habits of Mind

Develop Craft
Learning to use tools and materials. Learning the practices of an art form.

Engage & Persist

References and Bibliography Learning to take up subjects of personal interest and importance within the art world. Learning to develop focus and other ways of thinking helpful to working and persevering at art tasks.

Envision
Learning to picture mentally what cannot be directly observed, heard, or written and to imagine possible next steps in making a piece.

Express
Learning to create works that convey an idea, feeling or personal meaning.

Observe
Learning to attend to visual, audible and written contexts more closely than ordinary looking requires; learning to notice things that otherwise might not be noticed.

Reflect
Learning to think and talk with others about ones work and the process of making it. Learning to judge ones own and others work and processes in relation to the standards of the field.

Stretch & Explore

Learning to reach beyond ones supposed limitations, to explore playfully without a preconceived plan, and to embrace the opportunity to learn from mistakes and accidents.

Understand Art World

Learning about the history and practice of the art form. Interacting with other artists and the broader arts community.

Prompts for Student Reflection Using the Artists Habits of Mind

Students are often asked to reflect on the quality of their work in the arts when they have had little prior experience doing so. When this is the case, their comments usually refer more to personal tasteI like it because blue is my favorite colorand This is how I did it narratives. How can we support them to make more thoughtful reflections, ones that consider the standards or qualities in their work? How can we get them to examine the more thoughtful dimensions of their working process? One way to scaffold students attempts at meaningful self-evaluation and reflection is to teach the Artists Habits of Mind. These habits make the ways that an artist thinks and works more apparent. They can be used to nudge students toward applying them as criteria in their reflections. The Habits of Mind are explained below. Each is followed by a set of reflection starters in the form of sentence stems. The teacher, the teaching artist or the students themselves should decide which habits of mind are most evidenced in a piece of work, e.g. craftsmanship, or keen observation. During the critiquing process, then, students select a stem to begin their written or oral reflection. Lois Hetland, one of the principal researchers behind Harvard Project Zeros Studio Thinking Framework from which the Artists Habits of Mind are derived, writes that the Habits can help visual art teachers focus, teach and assess learning that matters in the visual arts. She adds that teachers of other subjects can also use the Habits of Mind to model expert practice in their discipline.

Develop Craft
When artists focus on craft, they get better at using tools (e.g., viewfinders, brushes) and materials (e.g., charcoal, paint). They also practice to improve the conventions of the art form (e.g., perspective, color mixing). Some phrases to help you reflect on craft or technical accomplishment in your work: 1. I improved my technique of 2. My work shows my skill at using the ____________ tool; what I learned about using this tool was. 3. In using these material(s) I showed skill because 4. I spent a lot of time on this work because 5. I showed great care when I 6. My work looks polished and well crafted because

Engage & Persist

When artists engage and persist, they get better at choosing what matters to them in art making. They develop focus, personal interests and the ability to work through difficult tasks. Some phrases to help you reflect on your ability to engage and persist: 1. What interests me about this work is 2. I really focused on 3. I felt frustrated when 4. The hardest part for me was 5. I stayed with this project even when 6. When I ran into difficulty, the way I solved the problem was

Envision
Artists learn to picture mentally what cannot be seen. They imagine possible next steps in making a piece. Some phrases to help you reflect on your ability to picture things in your mind and imagine next steps: 1. I imagined that if I 2. First, I pictured 3. My project grew out of my original thinking in this way: 4. An invention of mine in this work is 5. My plan for the project unfolded like this:

Express
Artists learn to create work that communicates an idea, a feeling or a personal meaning. Some phrases to help you reflect on your ability to express ideas, feelings and meaning: 1. One thing that is unique in my work is 2. My purpose in doing this work was 3. I intended to say 4. The feelings behind this piece are conveyed in the way that I 5. The choices I made during the process of making this work relate to my meaning in the following ways:

Observe
Artists learn to pay close attention; they see things that otherwise might not be seen. Some phrases to help you reflect on your ability to observe: 1. One source for this work is an observation I made of 2. I used my senses to capture the information by 3. The detail that captured my imagination was 4. I had never noticed before that 5. I practiced my ability to observe closely by

Reflect
Artists question and explain their work; they learn to think and talk with others about their work and/or working process. They also evaluate their own and others work in relation to the standards of the field. Some phrases to help you reflect on your ability to reflect: 1. This is the process I used to make my work: 2. I looked at the scoring guide to see what quality work looks like and then I 3. What I think makes this a strong piece is 4. What I would do differently next time is 5. In my next piece I will use what I learned this time to 6. I was pleased that 7. Im very proud that 8. Im disappointed that

Stretch and Explore

Artists learn to push themselves. They are willing to try new ways of working or thinking. They are able to explore playfully and learn from mistakes and accidents. Some phrases to help you reflect on your ability to stretch and explore: 1. My project shows my new way of thinking because 2. The unexpected thing that happened in this work was 3. An invention of mine in this work is 4. I tried something I had never done before when I 5. I messed around for a while to get to this idea; to do that I 6. I made a mistake when I 7. My mistake(s) helped me to

Understand the Art World

Artists learn about art history. They also learn about what living artists do by getting involved as an artist with others (e.g. in classrooms, in local arts organizations and in their community). Some phrases to think about your understanding of the art world: 1. I was influenced by studying the work of 2. My research affected my work in these ways: 3. I collaborated effectively with others when I 4. My colleagues on this project helped me realize that 5. My most important contribution to the group was 6. This work responds to the work of 7. A living artist who affected or influenced my work is