Habits of Mind
Teaching students to create and use feedback
Over the past few weeks, we have been exploring the Five Elements of Effort. We began by noting that although we are interested in student “effort”, we often lack a coherent definition of what we mean by “effort”. “Effort” is often associated simply with the amount of time and energy a student expends on a […]
Why students need to get better at making mistakes
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve written about how real growth only happens when we stretch ourselves beyond our current best. We grow when we seek to raise the bar by working in our Learning Zone. This stretch requires us to develop our Habits of Mind to become better learners. The challenge with working […]
Learning to do better with Habits of Mind
Last week, I wrote about the two fundamental types of learning: learning to do more and learning to do better. Learning to do more involves “below-the-bar” thinking. It occurs in your Comfort Zone and simply entails applying your current learning behaviours to the task at hand. It’s doing something you can already do or doing […]
There are only two types of learning: More or Better
In my mind, there are only two types of learning: learning to do more or learning to do better. As educators, it is critical we recognise these two very different types of learning. Moreover, we must ensure our students understand the difference between the two and that we nurture their relationship with learning to do […]
The true value of a Picasso
There is a fable about Spanish artist Pablo Picasso that goes along these lines. Picasso was sitting on a park bench when a young woman came up to him and asked, “Could you draw me a picture, please?” Picasso got out his sketchpad and pencil and quickly sketched a portrait of the young woman. She […]
How to Get Out of the Learning Pit
The Learning Pit is a powerful analogy for learning that is used by schools around the world. In its simplest form, the Learning Pit represents a challenge. Taking on a challenge is like getting into a pit. We may feel uncertain and it takes effort to climb out. When we do climb out, it means […]
How to raise the bar on student performance
At one point or another, everyone experiences growth like this: We start learning something new. The early stages of learning are easy. We quickly master the basics and we experience relatively rapid growth and progress. But after a while, learning becomes difficult. Progress slows. Eventually, it stops and we reach our “limit”. This is what […]
Two Exciting New Learning Opportunities
“Believe and you can achieve.” Really? It’s true that many of our Growth Mindset interventions do change students’ Mindsets. However, recent challenges to Growth Mindset highlight the fact that these interventions aren’t always leading to the improvements in student learning outcomes we’re looking for. And that’s a big problem. What many people fail to recognise […]
Searching for wonderment and awe
I was talking to Luke McKenna from Unleashing Personal Potential last week about the things people find awe-inspiring. As part of his work with Positive Education, Luke pointed out the benefits that arise when we find something awe-inspiring. These benefits include feeling deeply connected with the world, being less self-centred and behaving more generously towards […]
Where do the Habits of Mind fit?
Last week, I discussed how staff at my school were able to “find” the Habits of Mind in the curriculum, as well as in their big-picture visions of student learning. By doing so, they realised that far from being something new or “extra”, the Habits of Mind simplified their view of teaching and learning. They […]
