This topic was a great read, as I only had a brief introduction to the Studio Habits of Mind during my secondary student teaching placement, and it intrigued me. However, I never really had the time to investigate it, and it fell by the wayside in my practice. Digging deeper into habits and dispositions was interesting, as it is something that really resonates with what I think is important in the classroom. As stated in Gates (2019), it is part of the hidden curriculum and remains something many educators want to have at the forefront of their student’s learning, but is often overlooked in our curriculum and assessment.
This topic definitely helped me feel more comfortable with the idea of assessing habits. I’ve always had trouble articulating to my students my true goals of helping them become artists, and these resources really lay out that it is possible to articulate and assess these artistic behaviors and habits without limiting students. I’ve been reserved because I never want to inhibit my student’s creativity, in a system that is somewhat set up to do that, and so I have yet to implement any sort of habits into my assessment, beyond “craftsmanship,” which I have barely defined so my students definitely don’t understand it. I found the information and examples of student growth within the studio habits that was linked to be a helpful anecdote that utilized the artwork and quotes of students to show how they grew as artists.
“Instead of being external and critical, without sufficient feedback for change, assessments should be descriptive, should provide a good road map for the further development of skillful thinking, and should encourage the student to take responsibility for following that roadmap. The power of the assessment-learning spiral can be dramatically enhanced by including opportunities for students to self-assess, with teacher guidance, during the course of regular instruction. Infusing the Habits of Mind into instruction dramatically enhances both content learning and the development of skillful thinking abilities (Starts, Costa, Beyer, Kallick, & Reagan, 2007). But the habits can also help students develop skill at assessing their own abilities in ways that direct them to become continuous learners throughout their lifetime” (Costa & Kallick, 2008).
This quote encompasses the goal of this topic, in my opinion. As art teachers, we can improve our practice by teaching our students how to develop into artists. In so many ways, our assessments cover the art part, but not the actual practice of being an artist. Integration of the habits of mind can help students develop in more significant ways during their time with us. This connects strongly to my second quote, “If rubrics are sending the message that a formulaic response on an uninteresting task is what performance assessment is all about, then we are subverting our mission as teachers” (Wiggins, 2012). Reflecting on my practice, time management, and lessons, this is what my art class has become. I’m very interested in integrating new ideas such as the Studio Habits of Mind so my students will connect and express themselves, while engaging with content that is more aligned to my teaching goals.
One question I would like to pose to my peers is, “How can I incorporate these habits into my daily classroom activities, given I have 45 minutes with my students, who are often eager to push on to art-making instead of any reflective activity?” I already have some ideas, and I know it involves changing the culture of my classroom, placing an emphasis on the reflection and process. Just curious if anyone has any applied techniques they’d like to share!
Two resources I found that I think are valuable are listed below. They are two rubrics, one self-reflective and one is graded by a teacher. Both contain all the studio habits. I think they could be useful in conjunction with integrating the studio habits into the lesson, and inform the teacher on any rubrics that they develop specifically for their project. I think using the language as a jumping off point in the creation of their own rubric would be very helpful.
Assessment in Art Education 
Maria,
It’s clear you are learning a LOT and that you are making important connections to your classroom practice. The first quote you pulled out talked about the importance of descriptive assessment. This really is the hard thing, right? To provide descriptions that are helpful for improvement to so many students with so little time. That really helped me think about WHY this type of assessment in the elementary art room is so difficult.
Thanks for these example rubrics!
Leslie