Creating your school as a 'Home For the Mind'
by teaching thinking
In earlier decades students were believed to learn skills as a bi-product of 'doing' an activity - 'learning by doing'. For many learners research has shown this to be a false belief.
Much of this research is based on the writing of Art Costa. It is highly recommended that teachers who are interested in the teaching of Intelligent Behaviours acquire a copy of his small book of articles: 'The School A Home For The Mind' by Art Costa. Hawker Brownlow Education
Introducing Costa's 'Intelligent Behaviours' into a school would be an exciting challenge for any school staff. To be successful it may be necessary to change the way many teachers relate to their students as teaching thinking places greater emphasis on 'how we teach' and 'how we learn' rather than 'what we teach'.
If thinking were to be the prime goal of the school then this would require the 'infusion' of thoughtful teacher behaviours across the school. Costa believes the best metaphor for a teacher is that of a 'cognitive coach'. To begin the teacher would need to introduce to their students to the ' language of thinking'- the 'intelligent behaviours', and then to encourage their use as a natural part of their student's learning. Successful implementation would, by necessity, have to be school wide commitment. All the staff would have to be aligned behind, and be prepared to be held accountable, to such a vision.
Intelligent Behaviour is essentially about students knowing 'what to do when they don't know what to do!' It is the hallmark of creative people in any field of learning; people who enjoy living on the edge of their competence! The 'intelligent behaviours are the 'default' means of learning for all young learners! It is to be seen as both an 'I can do' and equally as important, an 'I enjoy learning' attitudes.
If thinking were to be a 'core value' of a school then students would be seen to: persevere, set plans, establish goals, set priorities, strive for accuracy, co-operate with each other, consider another's point of view, plan ahead, express empathy, generate questions, explore alternatives, understand the consequences of their actions and self assess their own growth. They would have to become aware of their own thinking - to become self motivated learners. For Costa the thinking process ( the intelligent behaviours) are important dispositions to assess and it would be a challenge for a school to develop such assessment programmes to replace current programmes many of which focus on achieving content objectives
The Vision
To create a school or a classroom as 'Home For The Mind', where students are able to solve problems, set their own goals, establish plans, work together, able to generate, hold and apply criteria for assessing the growth of their own intelligent behaviours, is the vision and the challenge if schools are to equip students with the dispositions to thrive in the future.
Creating a school as 'home for the mind', by teaching 'intelligent behaviours should be part of every modern school's teaching beliefs.
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