Learning & Leading With Habits of Mind

who the data sources are, and over what period of time the information
should be collected (Edwards, 2007).
School leaders encourage and manage the collection of artifacts indi-
cating growth in the Habits of Mind, including such items as exemplary
student work, model lesson plans, newsletters, and videotaped lessons and
interviews. This collection is often organized into a school portfolio the
public can view.

In Summary

The development of the Habits of Mind as goals of education is not just
kid stuff. Education will achieve an intellectual focus when the school
becomes an intellectually stimulating environment—a home for the mind
for all who dwell there; when all the schools’ inhabitants realize that free-
ing human intellectual potential is the goal of education; when staff mem-
bers strive to get better at it themselves; and when they use their energies
to enhance the intellectual skills and Habits of Mind of others. Educa-
tional leaders constantly monitor the “intellectual ecology” of the school.
Their chief purpose is to ensure that thinking, creativity, and interdepen-
dence will become neither endangered nor (worse) extinct.

If your vision statement sounds like motherhood and apple pie

and is somewhat embarrassing, you’re on the right track. You bet

the farm.

—Peter Block

References
Bello, N. (2004). Reflective analysis of student work: Improving teaching through
collaboration. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Block, P. (1987). The empowered manager.San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Costa, A. (2007). The school as a home for the mind. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Costa, A., & Garmston, R. (2002). Cognitive coaching: A foundation for the renais-
sance school. Norwood, MA: Christopher Gordon.
Costa, A., & Kallick, B. (1995). Assessment in the learning organization.Alexandria,
VA: ASCD.
Edwards, J. (2007). Designing an action research agenda. Denver, CO: Center for
Cognitive Coaching.

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