Learning & Leading With Habits of Mind

When we no longer know what to do we have come to our real

work, and when we no longer know which way to go we have

begun our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not

employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings.

—Wendell Berry

This chapter contains descriptions for 16 of the attributes that human
beings display when they behave intelligently. In this book, we refer to
them as Habits of Mind. They are the characteristics of what intelligent
people do when they are confronted with problems, the resolutions to
which are not immediately apparent.
These Habits of Mind seldom are performed in isolation; rather,
clusters of behaviors are drawn forth and used in various situations. For
example, when listening intently, we use the habits of thinking flexibly,
thinking about our thinking (metacognition), thinking and communicat-
ing with clarity and precision, and perhaps even questioning and posing
problems.
Do not conclude, based on this list, that humans display intelligent
behavior in only 16 ways. The list of the Habits of Mind is not complete.
We w a n t t h i s l i s t t o i ni t i a t e a c o l l e c t i o n o f a d di t i o n a l a t t r i b u t e s. I n f a c t , 1 2
attributes of “Intelligent Behavior” were first described in 1991 (Costa,

15

Describing the Habits of Mind

Arthur L. Costa

2