Having offered information, the teacher does not interpret but rather
asks the students to construct meaning:
•“Of the six students in your group, Natasha spoke four times,
Tyrone spoke two times, Nuyen spoke once, and the remaining three not
at all. What do you make of that?”
The Importance of Modeling
Imitation and emulation are the most basic forms of learning. Teachers,
parents, and administrators must realize the importance of their own display
of desirable Habits of Mind in the presence of learners. In day-to-day events
and when problems arise in schools, classrooms, and homes, children must
see adults using the Habits of Mind. Without this consistency, a credibil-
ity gap is likely to develop. As Ralph Waldo Emerson is often quoted as say-
ing, “What you do speaks so loudly, they can’t hear what you say.”
In Summary
A “thought-full” environment is a confluence of certain conditions and
behaviors. It is more likely that students will better understand, develop
the capacities for, and learn to value and to apply the Habits of Mind if
they are in a trustful, risk-taking, creative classroom environment. Teach-
ers and administrators are encourged to monitor the climate of their
school and classrooms to ensure these conditions are sustained.
References
Amabile, T. (1979). Effects of external evaluation on artistic creativity. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 37 (2), 221–233.
Bandura, A. (1997). Cognitive functioning in self-efficacy: The exercise of control.
New York: Freeman.
Bloom, B. (Ed.). (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: Classification of edu-
cational goals. New York: Longman, Green.
Bronson, P. (2007, February 12). How not to talk to your kids: The inverse power of
praise. New York Magazine.
Brophy, J. E. (1981, October). Teacher praise: A functional analysis[Occasional
Paper No. 28]. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Institute for
Research on Teaching.
Burgoon, J., Buller, D., & Woodall, W. (1996). Nonverbal communication: The
unspoken dialogue(2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Caine, G., & Caine, R. (2001). The brain, education and the competitive edge.
Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Education.
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