Co-published with and Students need more than just academic skills for success in college and career, and the lack of an explicit instructional focus on the “soft skills” critical to postsecondary success poses a challenge for many students who enter college, especially the underprepared. Based upon a multi-campus, cross-disciplinary collaboration, this book presents the resulting set of habits-of-mind-based strategies that demonstrably help not only low-income, ESL, and first-generation college students overcome obstacles on the path to degree completion; these strategies equally benefit all students. They promote life-long, integrative learning and foster intellectual qualities such as curiosity, openness, flexibility, engagement, and persistence that are the key to developing internalized and transferrable competencies that are seldom given direct attention in college classrooms. This contributed volume, written with full-time and adjunct faculty in mind, provides the rationale for this pedagogical approach and presents the sequential instructional cycle that begins by identifying students’ assets and progressively focusing on specific habits to develop their capacity to transfer their learning to new tasks and situations.Faculty from both two-year and four-year colleges provide examples of how they implement these practices in English, math, and General Education courses, and demonstrate the applicability of these practices across course types and disciplines.Chapters address key factors of college success, including:* The link between habits of mind and student retention and achievement* Using an assets-based approach to teaching and learning* Supporting and engaging students* Creating inclusive learning communities* Building confidence and self-efficacy* Promoting transfer of learning* Teacher networks and cross-disciplinary collaborationBy foregrounding habits of mind as an instructional lens, this book makes a unique contribution to teaching in developmental and general education settings.

Habits of Mind maintains that the fact that almost everyone now goes to college need not be seen as an obstacle to excellence in education. Some critics have insisted that college is not for everyone, but William B. Allen and Carol Allen assert that the college diploma has rightly become as much the norm in this century as the high school diploma was during the twentieth century. Accordingly, it is essential that higher education remains true to its deepest purpose: the cultivation of proficient humanity. The authors see the key to this goal as the development of judgment, or "habits of mind." Habits of mind are far and away the most influential determinants of human conduct, and nowhere are they more profoundly shaped than in institutions of higher education. Furthermore, liberal education has proven most effective in this undertaking.The authors elaborate on the purpose of higher education and identify the chief obstacles to achieving its aim. They demonstrate the critical role of academic leaders in achieving the aim of higher education and posit that excellence in judgment is the primary characteristic of the academic leaders who fulfill this role. They examine three aspects of access to higher education: academic readiness, the cost and funding of higher education, and the capacity of the physical plant. Finally, they use policies developed in Virginia to demonstrate realistic approaches to achieving the aims of access and quality discussed throughout the book.The authors draw on their years of experience as practitioners in both private and public institutions, liberal arts colleges, and research universities to develop their material. This volume will be of interest to faculty and students in higher education programs, nation and state public policymakers, legislative and academic leaders, and a general public concerned about the cost and value of a college education.

Creativity and critical thinking are key skills for complex, globalised and increasingly digitalised economies and societies. While teachers and education policy makers consider creativity and critical thinking as important learning goals, it is still unclear to many what it means to develop these skills in a school setting. To make it more visible and tangible to practitioners, the OECD worked with networks of schools and teachers in 11 countries to develop and trial a set of pedagogical resources that exemplify what it means to teach, learn and make progress in creativity and critical thinking in primary and secondary education.

Take educational outcomes way beyond facts and information with these tools for teaching students how to think and behave intelligently when they encounter problems and challenges. Karen Boyes, New Zealand author.

The demand for higher education worldwide is booming. Governments want well-educated citizens and knowledge workers but are scrambling for funds. The capacity of the public sector to provide increased and equitable access to higher education is seriously challenged.

Distinguished educators Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick present this collection of stories by educators around the world who have successfully implemented the habits in their day-to-day teaching in K-12 classrooms. The collective wisdom and experience of these thoughtful practitioners provide readers with insight into the transdisciplinary nature of the 16 Habits of Mind—intelligent behaviors that lead to success in school and the larger world—as well as model lessons and suggestions for weaving the habits into daily instruction in language arts, music, physical education, social studies, math, foreign language, and other content areas. Readers will come to understand that, far from an "add-on" to the curriculum, the habits are an essential element for helping students at all grade levels successfully deal with the challenges they face in school and beyond. As in all their books on the Habits of Mind, Costa and Kallick have a broad and worthwhile goal in mind. As they say in the concluding chapter of this volume, "If we want a future that is much more thoughtful, vastly more cooperative, greatly more compassionate, and a whole lot more loving, then we have to invent it. That future is in our homes, schools, and classrooms today. The Habits of Mind are the tools we all can use to invent our desired vision of the future."

Publisher Description

Educators’ most important work is to help students develop the intellectual and social strength of character necessary to live well in the world. The way to do this, argue authors Bena Kallick and Allison Zmuda, is to increase the say students have in their own learning and prepare them to navigate complexities they face both inside and beyond school. This means rethinking traditional teacher and student roles and re-examining goal setting, lesson planning, assessment, and feedback practices. It means establishing classrooms that prioritize ▪ Voice—Involving students in “the what” and “the how” of learning and equipping them to be stewards of their own education. ▪ Co-creation—Guiding students to identify the challenges and concepts they want to explore and outline the actions they will take. ▪ Social construction—Having students work with others to theorize, pursue common goals, build products, and generate performances. ▪ Self-discovery—Teaching students to reflect on their own developing skills and knowledge so that they will acquire new understandings of themselves and how they learn. Based on their exciting work in the field, Kallick and Zmuda map out a transformative model of personalization that puts students at the center and asks them to employ the set of dispositions for engagement and learning known as the Habits of Mind. They share the perspectives of educators engaged in this work; highlight the habits that empower students to pursue aspirations, investigate problems, design solutions, chase curiosities, and create performances; and provide tools and recommendations for adjusting classroom practices to facilitate learning that is self-directed, dynamic, sometimes messy, and always meaningful.

In the first years of life, as children observe, imitate, and interact with people and their environment, the brain is structuring a foundation for vocabulary, values, cognitive processes, and social skills. Educators, you can help influence that development by teaching the skills and dispositions of intelligent, creative, effective decision makers and problem solvers. Within these pages, Arthur L. Costa and Bena Kallick share the authentic stories and experiences of teachers who have taught these Habits of Mind (HOM) to young children: - Persisting - Managing impulsivity - Listening with understanding and empathy - Thinking flexibly - Thinking about thinking - Striving for accuracy - Questioning and posing problems - Applying past knowledge to new situations - Thinking and communicating with clarity and precision - Gathering data through all senses - Creating, imagining, and innovating - Responding with wonderment and awe - Taking responsible risks - Finding humor - Thinking interdependently - Remaining open to continuous learning The practical examples in this book show how anybody who works with young children can introduce the Habits of Mind in entertaining and concrete ways that are developmentally appropriate. By designing learning experiences that reflect the situations and challenges children face in their lives, educators can help our youngest citizens begin to develop the habits of mind that feed a lifetime of learning.