Reward creativity and ambiguity

Simply telling kids they will be rewarded for creativity and ambiguity produces more creative and complex work.

--Robert Sternberg
http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/21276?in=36:25&out=41:11

Ted Sizer's Habits of Mind

from: http://www.essentialschools.org/pub/ces_docs/about/phil/habits.html

A wise school's goal is to get its students into good intellectual habits.(1) Just which habits can be grist for properly endless debate, but the extent of agreement among Americans on these is very high. For example:

The habit of perspective: Organizing an argument, read or heard or seen, into its various parts, and sorting out the major from the minor matter within it. Separating opinion from fact and appreciating the value of each.

The habit of analysis: Pondering each of these arguments in a reflective way, using such logical, mathematical, and artistic tools as may be required to render evidence. Knowing the limits as well as the importance of such analysis.

The habit of imagination: Being disposed to evolve one's own view of a matter, searching for both new and old patterns that serve well one's own and other's current and future purposes.

The habit of empathy: Sensing other reasonable views of a common predicament, respecting all, and honoring the most persuasive among them.

The habit of communication: Accepting the duty to explain the necessary in ways that are clear and respectful both to those hearing or seeing and to the ideas being communicated. Being a good listener.

The habit of commitment: Recognizing the need to act when action is called for; stepping forward in response. Persisting, patiently, as the situation may require.

The habit of humility: Knowing one's right, ones debts, and one's limitations, and those of others. Knowing what one knows and what one does not know. Being disposed and able to gain the needed knowledge, and having the confidence to do so.

The habit of joy: Sensing the wonder and proportion in worthy things and responding to these delights.

5 Habits of Mind -- from Deborah Meier

-The question of evidence, or "How do we know what we know?"

-The question of viewpoint in all its multiplicity, or "Who's speaking?"

-The search for connection and patterns, or "What causes what?"

-Supposition, or "How might things have been different?"

-Why any of it matters, or "Who cares?"

from http://www.essentialschools.org/pub/ces_docs/about/phil/habits.html

From Ken Jones

They used to say kids had a lot of experience, but little information, so school supplied them with information. Now kids have lots of information and very little experience. Now schools need to supply kids with experience.

It's like the guy who is looking for his keys under the streetlamp. Someone comes along and asks him where he lost his keys. "Over there," he says, gesturing into the darkness. "Then why are you looking here?" asks the other. "Because this is where the light is."

Perception of Your Role

"The fastest way to change someone's behavior is to chance their perception of their role."

Ralph Ennis, via Gerald Parker.