Nadia Williams

ITEC 7500: Capstone & Portfolio

Fall 2015
Standard 2.4
Standard 2.4: Higher-Order Thinking Skills
Candidates model and facilitate the effective use of digital tools and resources to
support and enhance higher order thinking skills (e.g., analyze, evaluate, and create);
processes (e.g., problem-solving, decision-making); and mental habits of mind (e.g.,
critical thinking, creative thinking, metacognition, self-regulation, and reflection). (PSC
2.4/ISTE 2d)
Reflection Questions:
As an illustration of my mastery of Standard 2.4: Higher-Order Thinking Skills, I
created a Prezi as my 5MMP or Five Minute Media Presentation in the Summer
2014 Semester. This Prezi, focusing on the Habits of Mind and how they apply to
an educators work as researcher, facilitator, and instructional designer, started with
video and written background on the topic. As the sole author and creator of this
artifact, I can attest to the fact that this product was created with the intended
audience being other educators who were unfamiliar with the work of Art Costa and
Bena Kallick in the development of the sixteen habits of mind. Thus, this artifact
serves to model and facilitate a work session in which other educators would
learn how to use of the Habits of Mind within their instruction. In being shown
through the digital tool of Prezi, this artifact also serves as an exemplar modeling
alternative presentation formats beyond PowerPoint.
As stated by Art Costa, the Habits of Mind are essentially a set of dispositions that
people hold that guide them in their day-to-day decision-making, problem-solving,
conflict resolution, etc. This is mainly representative of the ways in which people,
and students in this case, respond to situations with an unknown or unspecified
answer or resolution.
This artifact serves to illustrate my personal ability to apply higher-order thinking
skills in finding a delivery method for sharing information on the Habits of Mind for
my colleagues. As the Habits of Mind can be applied to students as well as adults,
the Prezi was formatted in a manner that was not limited to discussing students
alone. Not only do the sixteen Habits of Mind address the habits students could
exhibit and employ as they work through the acquisition of and mastery of course
content, they also provide educators with guidelines to understand they ways in
which students can develop and maintain a meaningful and transformative
experience with their work in school, but it also employs them as well in supporting
the intended audience of fellow educators in understanding how these habits work.
The sixteen Habits of Mind are:

 Persisting;
Managing Impulsivity;
Listening to Others with Understanding and Empathy (research on students who
read literary fiction from Gallagher);
Thinking Flexibly;
Thinking about Thinking (metacognition);
Striving for Accuracy and Precision;
Questioning and Posing Problems (Jennie Margeiras mention of 101qs);
Applying Past Knowledge to New Situations;
Thinking and Communicating with Clarity and Precision;
Gathering Data Through all the Senses (deductive reasoning, i.e. Sherlock);
Creating, Imagining, and Innovating;
Responding with Wonderment and Awe;
Taking Responsible Risks;
Finding Humor;
Thinking Interdependently; and
Remaining Open to Continuous Learning.
The presentation and discussion of these habits through the use of Prezi present a
platform in which the audience would be asked to be self-reflective both in their
professional practice and in their support of students.
First and foremost, I learned about the Habits of Mind and how they impact
students connection with content in a classroom and the world around them. As
one who currently facilitates professional learning for adults, I found that the Habits
of Mind could also be seen with adult learners as mentioned in brief above. If I
were to go back and re-do or improve upon this artifact, I would certainly opt to
use a different delivery tool. While Prezi offers the ability to present information as
one continuous web of interconnected information through which I, the
presentation designer, determine what aspects of the web the viewer sees and
when, it does offer many drawbacks. Some of these shortcomings include that the
movement around the page in Prezi can induce motion sickness in some. I have
also observed that people, especially educators, that identify themselves as being
less technologically savvy, will find that the presentation medium itself can distract
them from absorbing the content. To quote the Communications theorist Marshall
McLuhan, the medium is the message. To that effect, what message would I be
sending in using Prezi if it appears over-complicated?
Over the course of this school year, I have come to know two digital products that
would be more effective for the delivery of information regarding the Habits of Mind
than Prezi. These tools are Microsoft Sway and Microsoft Office Mix. Sway is an
interesting and hard-to-describe amalgamation of features that are similar in some
ways to PowerPoint and Prezi, yet these features ultimately come together to

provide a more robust presentation than what can typically be found in Prezi. In
Sway, I could embed videos, documents, a PowerPoint, and links. Should I opt to
move this presentation into Sway, I would do so with the intention of providing a
digital landing page of sorts to send to others so that they can get a brief overview
of the Habits of Mind or they could opt to delve deeper into any or all of the
identified habits.
I could have also used Office Mix as mentioned above. Microsoft Office Mix is an
extension to PowerPoint 2013 that allows the presentation designer to embed a
multitude of features such as web cam footage, white board markings, and
interactive questions. Thus, if I were to replicate this presentation in Microsoft
Office Mix, I would present much the same information as was presented in the
Prezi, however I would be sure to include a follow up slide showing how each habit
might manifest itself in the classroom. I would also be sure to include interactive
features such as embedded questions as a check for understanding. In this format,
I could also export the Mix, as these presentations are called, in a SCORMcompliant format so that it could become part of an online course platform. As a
result, this could become the basis for a more in-depth exploration of and
instruction in the Habits of Mind as well as student motivation and engagement.
In working to create this artifact, I found that it had an impact on my school
through professional development. Most importantly, I saw that through the
instruction of my colleagues in the Habits of Mind, many of them would be more
inclined to reflect upon their lesson designing to provide space for all sixteen habits
to exist and transition into one another. This impact was assessed by session
feedback surveys submitted after my presentation. Ultimately, I see how my
colleagues would grow to understand the importance of creating a safe environment
in which students are free to safely explore educational risks, reflect upon the
process, and feel encouraged to continue learning for the sake of learning. In my
professional practice, I found that my students were oftentimes more engaged in
the lessons when provided with the opportunity to create ownership through
reflection, metacognition, and especially when they were provided with the
opportunity to learn and reflect without it feeling prescriptive.