Learning & Leading With Habits of Mind

but powerful cues emanate from the school environment. Teachers will
more likely teach for thinking, creativity, and interdependence if they are
in an intellectually stimulating, creative, and cooperative environment
themselves. (See the Waikiki story in Chapter 21.)

Shared Vision and Common Purposes

Te a m w o r k i s t h e a b i l i t y t o w o r k t o g e t h e r t o w a r d a c o m m o n v i s i o n.

The ability to direct individual accomplishment toward organiza-

tional objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to

accomplish uncommon results.

—Andrew Carnegie

Schools that have implemented the Habits of Mind have found that
one of the most powerful benefits has been the transformation of staff by
uniting around a shared vision and common purposes. The Habits of
Mind provide such unity in at least four ways. First, they provide an
agreed-upon set of attributes and characteristics of the graduates of the
school—the “end products” of years of instruction. Second, they apply to
all disciplines and are basic to all content areas. It takes persistence, for
example, to become a skilled athlete, musician, artist, craftsman, mathe-
matician, or scientist. Therefore, members of diverse and sometimes dis-
parate departments in a secondary school can come together to explore
ways that each, in its own way, can contribute to and enhance the learn-
ing of the Habits of Mind. In an elementary school, grade-level groups
can identify which Habits of Mind might be emphasized at developmen-
tal levels and gather evidence of student progress. Third, the Habits of
Mind provide a common terminology. Administrators, teachers, students,
support staff, and parents share meaning, find examples, and recognize
the use of (and sometimes the lack of) the Habits of Mind in students and
in themselves. Fourth, staff members use the Habits of Mind to converse
about or diagnose individual students’ needs and make individual learn-
ing plans accordingly.
Furthermore, the Habits of Mind are as beneficial to the adults in
the school as they are to students. No one ever “achieves” the Habits of
Mind. They are developmental tasks in which individuals continue to
grow and learn throughout their lives.

Creating a Culture of Mindfulness 273