Documenting Learning With Habits of Mind
Documenting Learning with Habits of Mind is a formative assessment tool to support asset-based, playful inquiry preschool programs. Building on the capabilities of young children, Documenting Learning encourages teachers to carefully observe and listen to children as they express Habits of Mind, a collection of foundational skills for life.
The research base confirms that in high-quality inclusive environments with responsive adult facilitators and caregivers, children across multiple domains and social identities will grow and develop. All children, when encountering rich opportunities for exploration and discovery connected to their lives, interests, and motivations, will demonstrate Habits of Mind. Documenting Learning invites teachers and caregivers to notice and capture the emergence and expansion of the Habits and associated traits in early learning spaces.
Asset-Based Foundation
With its asset-based foundation, Documenting Learning with Habits of Mind strongly and positively influences formative assessment interpretations, classroom planning, and child individualization.
Rather than allowing assessment data to drive curriculum and planning, teachers in programs based in playful inquiry approaches pay attention to and document the habits/traits that children are acquiring over time, rather than what the child cannot yet do or has not yet expressed during a particular period.
Inquiry approaches as assessed through Habits of Mind takes a strengths first approach, maintaining that as children express and practice their capabilities in a relaxed alert state, those capabilities will grow in strength and will gradually appear in other contexts and with other peers over time.
Context And Opportunities
In planning for individuals, small groups, and the entire classroom community, teachers use their understanding of children’s Habits of Mind expression to provide engaging contexts and opportunities for discovery that will continue to nurture exploration and development.
Rather than seeking to isolate and “work on” a particular Habit or Trait, intentional teachers look for and plan for opportunities to increase the depth and complexity of the contexts in which children might encounter problems that engage their curiosity and optimally challenge their thinking about the world.
"Habits of Mind are what successful people do when they are confronted with problems, the resolutions of which are not immediately apparent."
— Costa & Kallick
What are Habits of Mind and the Associated Traits?
Habits of Mind are evident when children are offered open-ended questions, proposals and challenges that hold multiple possibilities with no single, obvious solution. Each Habit is revealed through traits, the habits' visible actions, behaviors, and attitudes.
- Focus
- Focuses attention to pursue an interest, gratify curiosity, respond to a challenge, or try out an idea.
- Communication
- Communicates ideas and emotions clearly and appropriate to the setting.
- Making Connections
- Makes connections, notes relationships, and organizes items based on observed details.
- Collaboration
- Collaborates with others to accomplish a shared goal.
- Strategic Thinking
- Thinks strategically, creatively, reflectively to follow an interest or tackle a challenge.
Get Started with Us
Documenting Learning with Habits of Mind is a tool for programs and teachers to rate collected information on children’s expression and development of the Habits of Mind and to enter those ratings into an online system. The online system compiles and analyzes Habit and Trait ratings, allowing programs to report with confidence the growth and development of children in the program.
The system also produces individual compilations that can be shared with families to support conferences or home visits. Class or program summaries can be generated for funding agencies as documentation of program effectiveness. Documenting Learning with Habits of Mind has been aligned with Oregon’s Early Learning and Kindergarten Guidelines.
For more information contact us at connect@teachingpreschoolpartners.org