What are they?
How can the visual arts promote disciplined habits of mind?
“In the current climate of educational accountability, arts educators must answer two fundamental questions so that the arts will retain a place within public education: (1) What kinds of thinking skills do arts teachers strive to instill? (2) How can students learn these skills? It is not enough to say that the arts teach “how to paint or draw” or that the arts teach creative expression. We need to go beneath the surface, and discover what underlying cognitive and social skills are imparted to students when the arts are taught well.”
~ Ellen Winner
The 8 habits of mind are illustrated visually below. They are skills that can be cultivated in the art studio & transferred to all areas of a person’s life.
The images have been taken from Bay drawing classes.
1. Develop Craft
2. Engage and Persist
3. Envision
4. Express
5. Observe
6. Reflect
7. Stretch and Explore
8. Understand the Art World
A link to the history of Project Zero
http://pzweb.harvard.edu/History/History.htm
An article from 2007 written by Ellen Winner and Lois Hetland (researchers at Project Zero at Harvard’s graduate school of education) http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2007/09/02/art_for_our_sake/?page=full
Go hear Lois Hetland talk at SFMoMA: February 2nd!
http://www.sfmoma.org/exhib_events/events/2026
#SchoolStories 
As always, impressive work that the Bay students are creating in art class ~