Developing Students' “Habits of Mind” in a Mathematics Program

Effects of a GIS Course on Self-Assessment of Spatial Habits of Mind (SHOM)

“…Few studies, if any, have explored SHOM and even fewer have based their findings on empirical evidence. Researchers from diverse areas, such as mathematics (Cuoco, Goldenberg, and Mark 1996;Goldenberg 1996;Charbonneau et al 2009), science (Steinkuehler and Duncan 2008;Saleh and Khine 2009), history (Lillich 1999), and arts (Winner et al 2006), have tried to investigate habits of mind from the perspective of their disciplines. These studies have sought to identify subdimensions of habits of mind.…”

“…Researchers have defined habits of mind broadly, ranging from a wide variety of composite skills (Costa 2008;Charbonneau et al 2009;Saleh and Khine 2009) to particular processes of thinking (Cuoco, Goldenberg, and Mark 1996;Harel 2007), to habituated, automatic inclination (Goldenberg 1996;Leikin 2007). Scholars who adopt the first perspective argue that habits of mind encompass wide ranging components associated with learning.…”

“…Few studies that explicitly explore SHOM in geography exist, even though habits of mind are seen as significant learning goals (Cuoco, Goldenberg, and Mark 1996;Lillich 1999;Winner et al 2006;Charbonneau et al 2009;Saleh and Khine 2009). Little discussion about what constitutes SHOM has occurred (Kim 2011).…”

Promoting Active Studying: The Study Challenge

“…Charbonneau et al, in their article titled "Developing Habits of Mind' in a Mathematics Program" [4], define the inherent habits of the human mind to be: creativity, work ethic, thinking interdependently, critical thinking, lifelong learning, and curiosity. Instructors must encourage effective study techniques that build off of these inborn traits.…”