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Description
JAA: What are, in your mind, the characteristics of thinking and why do you believe that thinking is incredibly important?
Costa: There are several levels of thinking; one is being skillful in doing thinking. When confronted with a problem or a decision to make, people need to know how to address the situation skillfully, with care, concern, and persistence. For example, when students are confronted with a problem, they need to know the questions to ask and the procedure to go through. In practice, we might ask students to compare two items. If they respond that one is black and one is blue, that is not enough information. They should be able to compare in depth and explain why the difference is significant in terms of color. They need to be able to determine other attributes that might be significant, as well as what generalizations and products and applications might be made. It is not only knowing some basic skills like analyzing, comparing, and evaluating, but also knowing how to apply them with great skill and persistence.
Another type of thinking that is important is developing the Habits of Mind. They are doing more than following the steps to problem solving; they have developed the habit of being a very skillful and persistent problem solver. We have identified numerous habits that people have, and these are the habits that cause them to be successful in life in careers, in marriage and family, as well as in academic pursuits such as college. These habits include persisting, managing impulsivity, thinking about their own thinking, being conscious of their actions, understanding the implications of behaviors and their effects on others, and using clear and concise language to adequately communicate. This means knowing how to ask questions, surface the problems, be creative, and be innovative.
Another aspect of intelligent thinking is being able to draw on past knowledge rather than seeing each situation as if it had never been approached before. Effective, intelligent people recognize if they have been in a similar situation before; they take what they learned from the previous situation to help them navigate the new situation.
Therefore, there are several attributes of good thinkers. They are not only skillful in their thinking procedures; they also know how to solve problems. They also get into the habit of persisting in thinking with clarity and precision, finding the world awesome, and knowing how to ask questions. That is what we call habits in thinking.
JAA: How did you and Bena Kallick identify the 16 thinking habits that you refer to as Habits of Mind?
Costa: The list of Habits of Mind has grown over the years. It started off with about 7 habits, then it grew to 10 then to 12 and now there are 16. There might be more--the list is not finite. We began developing the habits when I was editing chapters for a book, Developing Minds, in 1984. I began to see patterns and repetitions in the articles that described the characteristics of successful people who are intelligent, creative thinkers. We drew from the work of Robert Sternberg, David Perkins, Reuven Feuerstein, Alan Glatthorn, Jonathan Baron, and others. The Habits of Mind resulted from a study of the attributes of intelligent, successful problem solvers in many walks of life. The current 16 Habits of Mind are:
1. persisting;
2. thinking and communicating with clarity and precision;
3. managing impulsivity;
4. gathering data through all senses;
5. listening with understanding and empathy;
6. creating, imagining, and innovating;
7. thinking flexibly;
8. responding with wonderment and awe;
9. thinking about thinking (metacognition);
10. taking responsible risks;
11. striving for accuracy;
12. finding humor;
13. questioning and posing problems;
14. thinking interdependently;
15. applying past knowledge to new situations; and
16. remaining open to continuous learning.
JAA: Developing Minds is in its third edition, but with each edition there were many significant revisions. What accounted for the changes from edition to edition?
Costa: Each of the additions [to the book] reflects differences in the time and era of its publishing. The advent of technology and the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB; 2001) heavily influenced the third edition (2001). NCLB led to a heavy focus on reading and math. While I did not disagree with these influences, I thought that many teachers may be forgoing a well-balanced, thoughtful curriculum in order to raise test scores. This edition asked readers to examine our standards and the role of testing to ensure that we are... |
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