Components of a Well Developed Thinking Skills Program

Components of a Well Developed Thinking Skills Program

by Arthur L. Costa, Ed. D.



Over the past fifteen years, there has been a strong emphasis on infusing thinking skills into curriculum and instruction.1 The results have generally proven positive.2 After experimenting with variety of approaches over the past ten years, we've learned that a well balanced thinking skills curriculum includes at least four components:

1). judiciously selected content

2). instruction in thinking skills

3). providing challenging tasks requiring the application of and reflection on skillful thinking, all of which leads to

4). habituating certain dispositions toward thinking or habits of mind.

The relationship of these four components might be illustrated as follows:





COMPONENTS OF A WELL DEVELOPED THINKING SKILLS PROGRAM

1). Judiciously Selected Content:
The center circle represents the content or subject within which the problem is being solved. The selection of relevant content is important; first because skillful thinking cannot be performed in a vacuum-- there must be something to think about; and secondly, the nature of the discipline imposes certain constraints on the procedures of problem solving. The content informs the selection and application of thinking skills just as their selection and application shape the insights and knowledge derived from the subject matter being investigated. Scientific problems, in which the control of experimental variables is paramount, differs from social and aesthetic problems in which ethics and artistic judgment play a significant role. Secondly student motivation to learn a new or complex cognitive skill is sharply enhanced when instruction in how to do it is provided at a point where students perceive a need to use the skill to understand the content. Learning how to employ the skill required to learn the subject matter thus takes on special significance.3

Content, therefore, should be selected judiciously for its generative contribution to employing and practicing the thinking skills and strategies. Content is not an end but rather a vehicle which activates and engages the inquiring mind.

2). Thinking Skills:
The next larger circle represents instruction in specific skills of thinking. Although thinking is a complex phenomenon, researchers and specialists agree that such skills are the basic tools of effective thinking. Being successful in school, at work and in life depends upon acquiring and performing certain basic, discrete cognitive functions such as recalling, comparing, classifying, inferring, generalizing, evaluating, experimenting and analyzing. While these capacities are innate, their refinement, procedures and applications may need to be brought to the conscious level through direct instruction. According to such theorists and researchers as Barry Beyer, 4 Edward de Bono 5 and Reuven Feuerstein,6 continuing systematic instruction in explicit skills using procedures over an extended period of time is especially effective in helping children of all abilities to develop increased proficiency in carrying out these skills. 7

3). Performance on Tasks Requiring Skillful Thinking:
Such cognitive skills, however, are seldom performed in isolation. Few people simply go out and observe, compare or synthesize. Thinking skills are employed within a larger context in response to some challenging condition: dichotomies, anomalies, dilemmas, ambiguities, paradoxes, conflicts, enigmas or obstacles, for which resolutions are not immediately apparent. To resolve such tasks, larger mental operations comprising clusters of numerous cognitive sub-skills are employed over time. The skills are combined and organized into strategies and sequences that we refer to as problem solving, decision-making, creating or generating knowledge. For example, decision making may require observing accurately, gathering data from diverse sources, inferring causality, comparing and contrasting alternative choices, and predicting consequences. 8 9 10

4). Habits of Mind (Dispositions):
Even though a person may possess these skills and operational capacities, they must also be alert to opportunities to apply them. They must have the inclination to employ those strategies when an appropriate situation arises, they must sustain their actions over time and they must reflect on and evaluate their effectiveness. Performing habits of mind, therefore, requires not only possessing these basic skills and capacities to carry out the strategy, but also the inclinations, proclivities and dispositions to do so in situations that demand their application. 11 12

A habit of mind includes:

Valuing: Choosing to employ a pattern of intellectual behaviors rather than other, less productive patterns.
Having the inclination: Feeling the tendency toward employing a pattern of intellectual behaviors.
Being alert: Perceiving opportunities for, and appropriateness of employing the pattern of behavior.
Being capable: Possessing the basic thinking skills and capacities to carry through with the behaviors.
Making a commitment: Reflecting on and constantly striving to improve performance of the pattern of intellectual behavior.
Getting into the Habit of Effective Thinking

Habit is a cable. We weave a thread of it each day, and at last we cannot break it." --Horace Mann

While intelligent human beings are capable of thinking skillfully, it is their habits of mind that provides the fuel to activate strategic thinking. In order to engage skillfully in problem solving, decision making, or knowledge generation, they must possess be disposed and inclined to manage their impulsivity, display empathy, be inquisitive and persistent. Habits of mind provide the dispositions necessary to do the skillful thinking required within and beyond the classroom walls. 13

Research in effective thinking and intelligent behavior by such authors as Feuerstein,14 Glatthorn and Baron,15 Sternberg,16 Ennis,17 Goleman,18 Perkins19 and Coles 20 indicates that there are identifiable characteristics of effective thinkers. These are not necessarily scientists, artists, mathematicians or the wealthy that demonstrate these behaviors. These characteristics have been identified in successful mechanics, teachers, entrepreneurs, salespeople, and parents-people in all walks of life.

Habits of mind transcend all subject matter commonly taught in school. They are developmental qualities that are never completely mastered 21 and therefore are applicable to adults as well as students. Thus they can become infused in the culture, values and norms of the entire school community. While there is not a finite number, the following list provides sixteen examples to illustrate what is meant by habits of mind.

1. Persisting when the Solution to a Problem Is Not Readily Apparent
Intelligent people stick to a task until it is completed. They don't give up easily. They are able to analyze a problem, to develop a system, structure, or strategy to attack a problem. They employ a range and have repertoire of alternative strategies for problem solving. They collect evidence to indicate their problem-solving strategy is working, and, if one strategy doesn't work, they know how to back up and try another. They have systematic methods of analyzing a problem: knowing how to begin, knowing what steps must be performed, and what data need to be generated or collected. Because they are able to sustain a problem solving process over time, they are comfortable with ambiguous situations.

Some students give up in despair when the answer to a problem is not immediately known. They may complain saying, "I can't do this," "It's too hard," or, they write down any answer to get the task over with as quickly as possible. Some have difficulty staying focused for any length of time, they are easily distracted, and may give up because they have a limited repertoire of problem solving strategies.

2. Managing Impulsivity
Effective problem solvers have a sense of deliberativeness: they think before they act. They intentionally form a vision of a product, plan of action, goal or a destination before they begin. They strive to clarify and understand directions, develop a strategy for approaching a problem and withhold immediate value judgments about an idea before fully understanding it. Reflective individuals consider alternatives and consequences of several possible directions prior to taking action. They decrease their need for trial and error by gathering information, taking time to reflect on an answer before giving it, making sure they understand directions, and listening to alternative points of view. 22

Often students blurt the first answer that comes to mind, start to work without fully understanding the directions, lack an organized plan or strategy for approaching a problem or make immediate value judgments about an idea-criticizing or praising it- before fully understanding it. They are gullible and may take the first suggestion given or operate on the first idea that comes to mind rather than considering alternatives and consequences of several possible directions.

3. Listening To Others with Understanding and Empathy
Highly effective people spend an inordinate amount of time and energy listening. 23 Some psychologists believe that the ability to listen to another person, to empathize with, and to understand their point of view is one of the highest forms of intelligent behavior. Being able to paraphrase another person's ideas, detecting indicators (cues) of their feelings or emotional states in their oral and body language accurately expressing another person's concepts, emotions and problems-all are indications of listening behavior (Piaget called it "overcoming egocentrism"). . Skillful listeners devote their mental energies to another person and invest themselves in their partner's ideas. They are able to see through the diverse perspectives of others. They gently attend to another person demonstrating their understanding of and empathy for an idea or feeling by paraphrasing it accurately, building upon it, clarifying it, or giving an example of it. This is a very complex intellectual behavior requiring the ability to monitor one's own thoughts while, at the same time, attending to their partner's words.

Senge and his colleagues 24 suggest that to listen fully means to pay close attention to what is being said beneath the words. You listen not only to the "music", but also to the essence of the person speaking. You listen not only for what someone knows, but also for what he or she is trying to represent. Ears operate at the speed of sound, which is far slower than the speed of light the eyes take in. Generative listening is the art of developing deeper silences in ourselves, so we can slow our mind's hearing to our ears' natural speed, and hear beneath the words to their meaning.

We spend 55 percent of our lives listening yet it is one of the least taught skills in school. We often say we are listening but in actuality, we are rehearsing in our head what we are going to say next when our partner is finished. Some students ridicule, laugh at, or put down others' ideas. They interrupt, are unable to build upon, consider the merits of, or operate on another person's ideas. Good listeners try to understand what the other person is saying. In the end they may disagree sharply, but because they disagree, they want to know exactly what it is they are disagreeing with.

4. Thinking Flexibly
An amazing discovery about the human brain is its plasticity-- its ability to "rewire", change and even repair itself to become smarter. Flexible people have the capacity to change their mind as they receive additional data. They engage in multiple and simultaneous outcomes and activities, draw upon a repertoire of problem solving strategies and practice style flexibility, knowing when it is appropriate to be broad and global in their thinking and when a situation requires detailed precision. They envision a range of consequences, create and seek novel approaches, and have a well-developed sense of humor.

Flexible people can approach a problem from a new angle using a novel approach (de Bono refers to this as lateral thinking. 25) They consider alternative points of view or deal with several sources of information simultaneously. Their minds are open to change based on additional information, opinions, data or reasoning, which may contradict their beliefs. They have and can develop options and alternatives to consider.

Flexible thinkers are able to shift, at will, through multiple perceptual positions: egocentrism-- perceiving from our own point of view; or, by contrast, allocentrism-- perceiving through another persons' orientation. We operate from this second position when we empathize with other's feelings, predict how others are thinking, and anticipate potential misunderstandings.

Flexible thinkers display confidence in their intuition. They tolerate confusion and ambiguity up to a point, and are willing to let go of a problem trusting their subconscious to continue creative and productive work on it. Flexibility is the cradle of humor, creativity and repertoire.

Some students have difficulty in considering alternative points of view or dealing with more than one classification system simultaneously. Their way to solve a problem seems to be the only way. They perceive situations from a very ego-centered point of view: "My way or the highway!" Their mind is made up; "Don't confuse me with facts; that's it."

5. Thinking about Our Own Thinking: Metacognition
Occurring in the neocortex, metacognition is our ability to know what we know and what we don't know. It is our ability to develop a plan of action, maintain that plan in mind over a period of time, then reflect back on and evaluate the plan upon its completion. Planning a strategy before embarking on a course of action assists us in keeping track of the steps in the sequence of planned behaviors at the conscious awareness level for the duration of the activity. It facilitates making temporal and comparative judgments, assessing the readiness for more or different activities, and monitoring our interpretations, perceptions, decisions and behaviors.

Metacognition means becoming increasingly aware of our actions and the effect of those actions on others and on the environment; forming internal questions, developing mental maps or plans of action, mentally rehearsing prior to performance, monitoring those plans as they are employed-- being conscious of the need for midcourse corrections if the plan is not meeting expectations, reflecting on the plan upon completion of the implementation for the purpose of self-evaluation, and editing mental pictures for improved performance.

Interestingly, not all adults metacogitate. Csikszentmihalyi states, "Although every human brain is able to generate self-reflective consciousness, not everyone seems to use it equally." 26

Students often do not take the time to wonder why we are doing what we are doing. They seldom question themselves about their own learning strategies or evaluate the efficiency of their own performance. Some students virtually have no idea of what they should do when they confront a problem and are often unable to explain their strategies of decision making.27 When teachers inquire, "Tell us what went on in your head to come up with that conclusion," students often respond by saying, "I don't know, I just did it."

6. Striving For Accuracy and Precision
Embodied in the stamina, grace and elegance of an accomplished ballerina, a surgeon or a shoemaker, is the desire for craftsmanship, mastery, flawlessness and the economy of energy to produce exceptional results. People who value accuracy, precision and craftsmanship take time to check over their products. They review the criteria of excellence they are to employ and confirm that their finished product matches the criteria exactly. To be craftsmanlike means knowing that one can continually perfect one's craft by working to attain the highest possible standards, and pursue ongoing learning in order to bring a laser-like focus of energies to task accomplishment. They take pride in their work and have a desire for accuracy, fidelity and elegance as they value and invest time to refine their products.

Some students may turn in sloppy, incomplete or uncorrected work. They are more anxious to get rid of the assignment than to check it over for accuracy and precision. They are willing to suffice with minimum effort rather than investing their maximum. They may be more interested in expedience rather than excellence.

7. Asking Questioning and Posing Problems
One of the distinguishing characteristics between humans and other forms of life is our inclination, and ability to find problems to solve. Effective problem solvers know how to ask questions to fill in the gaps between what they know and what they don't know. Effective questioners are inclined to ask a range of questions. For example: requests for data to support others' conclusions and assumptions-such questions as,

"What evidence do you have.....?"
"How do you know that's true?"
"How reliable is this data source?"
They pose questions about alternative points of view:

"From whose viewpoint are we seeing, reading of hearing?"
"From what angle, what perspective are we viewing this situation?"
Students pose questions, which make causal connections and relationships:

"How are these people (events) (situations) related to each other?"
"What produced this connection?"
They pose hypothetical problems characterized by "iffy"-type questions:

"What do you think would happen IF.....?"
"IF that is true, then what might happen if....?"
Inquirers recognize discrepancies and phenomena in their environment and probe into their causes:

"Why do cats purr?"
"How high can birds fly?"
"Why does the hair on my head grow so fast, while the hair on my arms and legs grows so slowly?"
"What are some alternative solutions to international conflicts other than wars?"
Some students may be unaware of the functions, classes, syntax or intentions in productive questions. They may not realize that questions vary in complexity, structure and purpose. They may pose simple questions intending to derive maximal results. When confronted with a discrepancy, they may lack an overall questioning strategy of search and solution finding.

8. Applying Past Knowledge to New Situations
Intelligent human beings learn from experience. When confronted with a new and perplexing problem they will often draw forth experiences from their past. They can often ask themselves, "What does this remind me of?" or "When have I been in a situation like this before? What worked for me then?" They call upon their store of knowledge and experience as sources of data to support theories to explain, or processes to solve each new challenge. Furthermore, they are able to abstract meaning from one experience, carry it forth, and apply it in a new and novel situation.

Too often students begin each new task as if it were being approached for the very first time. Teachers are often dismayed when they invite students to recall how they solved a similar problem previously and students don't remember. It's as if they never heard of it before, even though they had the same type of problem just recently. It is as if each experience is encapsulated and has no relationship to what has come before or what comes afterward. Their thinking is what psychologists refer to as an "episodic grasp of reality." 28 That is, each event in life is a separate and discrete with no connections to what may have come before or with no relation to what follows.

9. Thinking and Communicating with Clarity and Precision
Language and thinking are closely entwined. Like either side of a coin, they are inseparable. When we hear fuzzy language, it is a reflection of fuzzy thinking. Intelligent people strive to communicate accurately in both written and oral form taking care to use precise language, define terms, use correct names and universal labels and make analogies. They strive to avoid over generalizations, deletions and distortions. Instead they support their statements with explanations, comparisons, quantification, and evidence.

We sometimes hear students and other adults using vague and imprecise language. They describe objects or events with words like "weird", "nice", or "OK." They call specific objects using such non-descriptive words as "stuff"," junk" and "things". They punctuate sentences with meaningless interjections such as "ya know", "er" and "uh". They use vague or general nouns and pronouns: "They told me to do it". " Everybody has one." "Teachers don't understand me." They use nonspecific verbs: "Let's do it" and unqualified comparatives: "This soda is better; I like it more".

10. Gathering Data through all Senses
The brain reduces the world to its elementary parts: photons of light, molecules of smell, sound waves, vibrations of touch--which send electrochemical signals to individual brain cells that store information about lines, movements, colors, smells and other sensory inputs. Intelligent people know that all this information gets into the brain through the sensory pathways: gustatory, olfactory, tactile, kinesthetic, auditory, visual. Most linguistic, cultural, and physical learning is derived from the environment by observing or taking in through the senses. To know a wine it must be drunk; to know a role it must be acted; to know a game it must be played; to know a dance it must be moved; to know a goal it must be envisioned. Those whose sensory pathways are open, alert, and acute absorb more information from the environment than those whose pathways are withered, immune, and oblivious to sensory stimuli.

Furthermore, we are learning more about the impact of arts on improved mental functioning.29 Forming mental images is important in mathematics and engineering; listening to classical music seems to improve spatial reasoning. Social scientists solve problems through scenarios and role-playing; scientists build models; engineers use cad-cam; mechanics learn through hands-on experimentation; artists experiment with colors and textures. Musicians experiment by producing combinations of instrumental and vocal music.

Some students, however, go through school and life oblivious to the textures, rhythms, patterns sounds and colors around them. Sometimes children are afraid to touch, get their hands "dirty" or feel some object might be "slimy" or "icky". They operate within a narrow range of sensory problem solving strategies wanting only to "describe it but not illustrate or act it", or "listen but not participate".

11. Creating, Imagining, Innovating
Human beings have the capacity to generate novel, original, clever or ingenious products, solutions, and techniques-if that capacity is developed. Creative human beings try to conceive problem solutions differently, examining alternative possibilities from many angles. They tend to project themselves into different roles using analogies and metaphorical thinking, starting with a vision and working backward, imagining they are the objects being considered. Creative people take risks and frequently push the boundaries of their perceived limits. 30 31 They are intrinsically rather than extrinsically motivated, working on the task because of the aesthetic challenge rather than the material rewards. Creative people are open to criticism. They hold up their products for others to judge and seek feedback in an ever-increasing effort to refine their technique. They are uneasy with the status quo. They constantly strive for greater fluency, elaboration, novelty, parsimony, simplicity, beauty, harmony, and balance.

Students, however, are often heard saying, "I can't draw," "I was never very good at art," "I can't sing a note," "I'm not creative". Some people believe creative humans are just born that way; its in their genes and chromosomes.

12. Responding with Wonderment and Awe
Describing the 200 best and brightest of the All USA College Academic Team identified by USA Today, Tracey Wong Briggs 32 states, "They are creative thinkers who have a passion for what they do." Efficacious people have not only an "I can" attitude, but also an "I enjoy" feeling. They seek problems to solve for themselves and to submit to others. They enjoy figuring things out, they delight in making up problems to solve on their own and request enigmas from others.

Some children and adults avoid problems and are "turned off" to learning. They make such comments as, "I was never good at these brain teasers," or "Go ask your father; he's the brain in this family. "Its boring." "When am I ever going to use this stuff?" "Who cares?" "Lighten up, teacher, thinking is hard work," or "I don't do thinking!" Many students never enrolled in another math class or other "hard" academic subjects after they didn't have to in high school or college, they perceive thinking as hard work and therefore recoil from situations, which demand "too much" of it.

Wondrous humans are curious. They commune with the world around them; they reflect on the changing formations of a cloud; feel charmed by the opening of a bud; sense the logical simplicity of mathematical order. Students can find beauty in a sunset, intrigue in the geometric of a spider web, and exhilaration at the iridescence of a hummingbird's wings. They see the congruity and intricacies in the derivation of a mathematical formula, recognize the orderliness and adroitness of a chemical change, and commune with the serenity of a distant constellation. Intelligent people feel enthusiastic, passionate, even euphoric about learning, inquiring and mastering.

13. Taking Responsible Risks
Intelligent people seem to have an almost uncontrollable urge to go beyond established limits. They are uneasy about comfort; they "live on the edge of their competence". They seem compelled to place themselves in situations where they do not know what the outcome will be. They accept confusion, uncertainty, and the higher risks of failure as part of the normal process and they learn to view setbacks as interesting, challenging and growth producing. They are spontaneous, being willing to take a chance in the moment. However, they are not behaving impulsively. Their risks are educated. They draw on past knowledge, are thoughtful about consequences and have a well-trained sense of what is appropriate. They know that all risks are not worth taking. It is only through repeated experiences that risk taking becomes educated. It often is a cross between intuition, drawing on past knowledge and a sense of meeting new challenges.

Some students seem reluctant to take risks. They hold back in games, new learnings, and new friendships because their fear of failure is far greater than their sense of adventure. They are reinforced by that inner voice that says, " if you don't try it, you won't be wrong" or "if you try it and you are wrong, you will look stupid". The other voice that says, "if you don't try it, you will never know" is trapped in fear and mistrust. They are more interested in knowing whether their answer is correct or not, rather than being challenged by the process of finding the answer. Because they are unable to sustain a process of problem solving over time, they avoid ambiguous situations. They have a need for certainty rather than an inclination for doubt.

14. Finding Humor
Another unique attribute of being human is our sense of humor. The positive effects of laughter on psychological functions include a drop in the pulse rate, the secretion of endorphins, and increased oxygen in the blood. It has been found to liberate creativity and provoke such higher level thinking skills as anticipation, finding novel relationships, visual imagery, and making analogies. People who engage in the mystery of humor have the ability to perceive situations from an original and often interesting vantage point. They tend to initiate humor more often, to place greater value on having a sense of humor, to appreciate and understand others' humor and to be verbally playful when interacting with others. Having a whimsical frame of mind, they thrive on finding incongruity and perceiving absurdities, ironies and satire; finding discontinuities and being able to laugh at both situations and themselves. 33

Some students find humor in all the "wrong places"--human differences, ineptitude, injurious behavior, vulgarity, violence and profanity. They laugh at others yet are unable to laugh at themselves.

15. Thinking Interdependently
Human beings are social beings. We congregate in groups, find it therapeutic to be listened to, draw energy from one another, and seek reciprocity. In groups we contribute our time and energy to tasks for which we would quickly tire if we worked alone. In fact, one of the cruelest forms of punishment that can be inflicted is solitary confinement.

Cooperative humans realize that all of us together are more powerful-- intellectually and/or physically--than any one individual. Probably the foremost disposition in our post industrial society is the heightened ability to think in concert with others; to find ourselves increasingly more interdependent and sensitive to the needs of others. Problem solving has become so complex that no one person can go it alone. No one has access to all the data needed to make critical decisions; no one person can consider as many alternatives as several people can.

Working in groups requires the ability to justify ideas and to test the feasibility of solution strategies on others. It also requires the development of a willingness and openness to accept the feedback from a critical friend. Through this interaction the group and the individual continue to grow. Listening, consensus seeking, giving up an idea to work with someone else's, empathy, compassion, group leadership, knowing how to support group efforts, altruism--all are skills indicative of collaborative human beings.

Some students may not have learned to work in groups; they have underdeveloped social skills. They feel isolated; they prefer their solitude. "Leave me alone--I'll do it by my self." " They just don't like me." Some students seem unable to contribute to group work either by being a "job hog" or conversely, letting others do all the work.

16. Remaining Open to Continuous Learning
Intelligent people are in a continuous learning mode. Their confidence, in combination with their inquisitiveness, allows them to constantly search for new and better ways. People with this habit of mind continually strive for improvement, always growing, always learning, always modifying and improving themselves. They seize problems, situations, tensions, conflicts and circumstances as valuable opportunities to learn.

Some students confront learning opportunities with fear rather than mystery and wonder. They feel better when we know rather than when they learn. They defend their biases, beliefs, and storehouses of knowledge rather than inviting the unknown, the creative and the inspirational. Being certain and closed yields comfort while being doubtful and open produces fear.

From an early age, employing a curriculum of fragmentation, competition and reactiveness, students are trained to believe that deep learning means figuring out the truth rather than developing capabilities for effective and thoughtful action. They have been taught to value certainty rather than doubt, to give answers rather than to inquire, to know which choice is correct rather than to explore alternatives.

Towards A New Vision: Learning to Behave Intelligently
These habits of mind may serve as mental disciplines. When confronted with problematic situations, intelligent people habitually employ one or more of these habits of mind by asking themselves, "What is the most intelligent thing I can do right now?"

"How can I learn from this, what are my resources, how can I draw on my past successes with problems like this, what do I already know about the problem, what resources do I have available or need to generate?"


"How can I approach this problem flexibly? How might I look at the situation in another way, how can I draw upon my repertoire of problem solving strategies; how can I look at this problem from a fresh perspective?"


"How can I illuminate this problem to make it clearer and more precise? Do I need to check out my data sources? How might I break this problem down into its component parts and develop a strategy for understanding and accomplishing each step?"


"What do I know or not know; what questions do I need to ask, what strategies are in my mind now, what am I aware of in terms of my own beliefs, values and goals with this problem? What feelings or emotions am I aware of which might be blocking or enhancing my progress?"


"How does this problem affect others? Who else might I turn to for assistance? How can we solve it together and what can I learn from others that would help me become a better problem solver?"
SUMMARY
The archaic concept of intelligence connotes a state of being. Either you have "it" or you don't. It assumes that if you don't have "it", no amount of effort will ever help you acquire "it". This article suggests that instead we examine those learnable, teachable patterns of behaviors that describe intelligent action which, when practiced over time, can become habituated.

Children develop cognitive strategies and effort-based beliefs about their intelligence when they are continually pressed to raise questions and to accept challenges, to find solutions that are not immediately apparent, to explain concepts, justify their reasoning, and seek information. The goal of education, therefore, should be to liberate and develop more fully these habits of mind and the skills associated with them. When we hold children accountable for this kind of intelligent behavior, they take it as a signal that we think they are smart, and they come to accept this judgment. The paradox is that children become smart by being treated as if they already are intelligent. 34

Drawn from research on human effectiveness, descriptions of remarkable performers, and analyses of the characteristics of efficacious people, twelve examples habits of mind were elaborated. They are characteristic of peak performers whether they be in homes, schools, athletic fields, the military, governments, churches or corporations. They are what make marriages successful, learning continual, workplaces productive and democracies enduring.