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girls are being exposed to Habits of Mind in such a way (a) sense of shared leadership allows
that they have to transcend learning areas; staff reinforce
habits in multiple contexts; they revisit ideas in a variety staff to challenge beliefs, reflect on
of contexts; and most importantly the girls’ ability to research and examine practices
transfer HOM into other areas is enhanced.
Another strategy we use is Habits of Mind heroes. while acknowledging there will be
The girls develop and characterise the personality of a moments of clarity and moments of
character they create. Through prompts from current
events, quotes, literature and cartoons, the girls must, confusion.
through journal writing prompts, describe the way their
character relates to a challenge. Girls develop two development goes across learning areas and levels
outcomes, so decision making and success criteria are within the school. In 2007 one of our two main strategic
built into the activity. goals is around differentiation. Using Habits of Mind
comes into a sub-goal.
We also include written language goals to focus the
learning within a meaningful context. It is also an From here department goals are formed. “Through
opportunity to build on word splash activities as students focussing on the reflection stage of inquiry, enable
use the vocabulary associated with each Habit of Mind. students to transfer Habits of Mind to more diverse
situations” is an example of one of the Year 7/8
How are we able to infuse habits of department goals. Individual staff goals are then set with
an expectation they align with department goals, e.g.
mind into our school culture? to be explicit in feedforward and feedback to students
when using Habits of Mind.
Layers of professional development
Just like the layers of teaching approaches in the Intervention logic / data
classroom, we have learnt how important it is to layer As a department leader an intervention logic is
professional development opportunities within the developed to monitor the process of implementing these
school. Our research work on professional development goals. (An example will be given as a handout.) The
has also shown us how important it is to include a dual intervention is an example of targeted backward planning
focus on theory and practice to make effective change. design, as the key objective and ultimate outcome are
Professional development occurs in multiple layers developed before intermediate outcomes are added in.
from department meetings, staff meetings, head of The intervention logic is designed to be fluid in that as a
department meetings, new staff and professional department we will move between outcomes.
learning groups. It is these layers combined with the Sitting underneath the intervention logic is the concept of
alignment to the strategic planning that allows change to inquiry whereby as staff we use data sources to identify
occur. the initial problem of practice to focus the change on. It
Our professional learning groups are based around a is the use of data that assists staff commitment as the
collaborative philosophy where staff, through a shared data is relevant to their class.
interest, learn together to enhance all pupils’ learning.
This sense of shared leadership allows staff to challenge Student voice
beliefs, reflect on research and examine practices while Student voice is a valuable data source we use to
acknowledging there will be moments of clarity and inquire into our curriculum design and to monitor
moments of confusion. student understanding of how they learn. The meanings
our girls attach to experiences in our school are not
Through reading, thinking, conversation, questioning and necessarily the meanings we as teachers would define.
reflection we may begin to: Student focus groups also allow us to get more in-depth
■ Understand our own practice; information; as students talk in a collaborative group
they reflect on and bounce off ideas shared by others.
■ Learn from each other; Currently we are using student voice to help inform us to
■ Link our practice to theory; develop a scope and sequence chart for implementing
Habits of Mind in the context of our school.
■ Develop a collaborative and shared vision for our
school. Lifelong learning
We are looking for further developments in our school
Alignment where Habits of Mind can inform student learning
Overall we value Habits of Mind as a way to shift from pathways, key competency reporting and link to our
knowledge acquisition to a process of thinking whereby pastoral development in Restorative Practice. The
girls are learning to learn, producing knowledge and Habits of Mind are playing a key part in the way we are
transferring knowledge. all able to learn, behave and reflect.
Professional development is linked to our school As Headley Beare tells us about his construction of
strategic goal, department goals and personal schooling for our children:
appraisal goals. The impact of this is that staff have
become committed and the context of the professional “I’m Angelica,” she said matter-of-factly, as though I
should have recognized her. “Problems aren’t usually
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