Mill Valley Middle School

Developed by Project Zero at Harvard University’s School of Education, Studio Habits of Mind are a set of eight dispositions that an artist uses and traits we strive to instill in our students.  The habits offer a language for critical thinking, empower students to articulate their understanding, and provide an entry point for learning based on individual choice and need.  The 8 Studio Habits of Mind are listed below.

Develop Craft - Learning to use tools, materials, artistic conventions; and learning to care for tools, materials, and space

Engage & Persist - Learning to embrace problems of relevance within the art world and/or of personal importance, to develop focus conducive to working and persevering at tasks

Envision - Learning to picture mentally what cannot be directly observed, and imagine possible next steps in making a piece

Express - Learning to create works that convey an idea, a feeling, or a personal meaning

Observe - Learning to attend to visual contexts more closely than ordinary “looking” requires, and thereby to see things that otherwise might not be seen

Reflect - Learning to think and talk with others about an aspect of one’s work or working process, and learning to judge one’s own work and working process and the work of others

Stretch & Explore - Learning to reach beyond one’s capacities, to explore playfully without a preconceived plan, and to embrace the opportunity to learn from mistakes

Understand (Arts) Community - Learning to interact as an artist with other artists (i.e. in classrooms, in local arts organizations, and across the art field) and within the broader society