What Habits of Mind Do Students Need to Be Successful?

(Originally titled “Habits of Success”)

From the Marshall Memo #433

In this Educational Leadership article, Jenny Edwards (Fielding Graduate University) and Arthur Costa (California State University/Sacramento) present 16 “habits of mind” that they believe are as important to students’ future success as academic learning:

• Persistence
• Managing impulsivity
• Listening with understanding and empathy
• Thinking flexibly
• Controlling and executing metacognitive processes
• Striving for accuracy and precision
• Asking questions and posing problems
• Applying knowledge to new situations
• Thinking and communicating with clarity and precision
• Gathering data through all their senses
• Creating, imagining, and innovating
• Responding with wonderment and awe
• Taking responsible risks
• Finding humor in the world around them
• Thinking independently
• Remaining open to continual learning

One study found a significant positive correlation between these habits and college grade-point averages – especially these three: managing impulsivity, persistence, and metacognition. 

How can schools inculcate the habits of mind? Edwards and Costa say that successful schools:

• Share a common vision – All staff should present, discuss, reinforce, and revisit the 16 habits of mind.
• Map the curriculum using the habits of mind – They should be named as goals and outcomes, built into instructional strategies, and regularly assessed.
• Apply the habits to adults as well.
• Model the habits and infuse the vocabulary in classrooms and around the school.
• Monitor students’ growth – How are students becoming more skillful and strategic in the way they use the habits?
• Provide leadership – An administrator, department chair, mentor teacher, or other staff member needs to be the cheerleader for the habits.

“Habits of Success” by Jenny Edwards and Arthur Costa in Educational Leadership, April 2012 (Vol. 69, #7, online only), http://www.ascd.org; the authors can be reached at jedwards@fielding.edu and Artcosta@aol.com.