Previously, we explored why developing the Habits of Mind as capabilities—not just content—is essential for preparing students for an uncertain future. Now we dive deeper: what does that development actually look like?
A few weeks into term, and Tom Bradley was ready to give up on persistence.
Not his own—his students’.
He’d been watching Maya, one of his most motivated Year 8s, abandon her science project the moment it got difficult. Again. Just like she had with the essay last week. And the maths investigation before that.
“But I used persistence!” she’d protested when he asked about it. “I used my keep-going superpower! I tried for like ten minutes!”
That’s when it hit him.
Maya thought persistence was binary—something you either did or didn’t do. Like flipping a switch. She had no idea that her problem-solving superpower itself could get stronger.
Neither did he, really. Not until that moment. Maya saw persistence as a fixed ability, not a superpower that could level up.
The Habit We Think We Know
We’ve all been there. A student claims they “used flexible thinking” because they tried two different methods. Another says they “demonstrated persistence” because they didn’t immediately quit. Technically, they’re not wrong.
But here’s what keeps me up at night:
What if our students are running on the same level of persistence they had in Year 3?
What if their flexible thinking hasn’t actually grown since they first learned the term? What if we’ve just been labelling what they can already do, and not helping them be better?
It’s like teaching someone to lift weights, then celebrating every time they pick up the same 2kg dumbbell. Yes, they’re lifting. But they’re not getting stronger.
The psychologist Anders Ericsson spent decades studying expertise, and he discovered something that should fundamentally change how we think about the Habits of Mind:
The difference between beginners and experts isn’t just time spent practising. It’s the deliberate improvement of specific dimensions of performance.
A novice chess player sees pieces. A grandmaster sees patterns, possibilities, and probabilities—all at once. They’re not just using chess knowledge. They’ve developed deeper, richer, more sophisticated ways of thinking about the game.
The same is true for the Habits of Mind.
The Five Dimensions of Habit Development
What Tom discovered with Maya—what most of us discover too late—is that every Habit of Mind develops across five dimensions. Miss any of them, and growth stalls.
But here’s the crucial part: Just naming these dimensions doesn’t grow them. That takes something more: real challenge. Growth in the Habits of Mind only happens in the Learning Zone—that sweet spot between comfort and overwhelm, where students are stretched but not strained beyond what they can currently do. It’s when students confront problems that exceed their current skill set that these dimensions are activated, stretched, and refined.
Here’s how Maya’s persistence developed across these five dimensions:
What: Meaning
What the Habit actually involves
This grows when students expand their understanding of what the Habit actually involves.
At first, Maya defined persistence as “not giving up.” Simple. Binary. But watch what happened when Tom pushed deeper:
“Maya, what does a scientist do when an experiment fails?” “Try again?” “What else?” “Um… try differently?” “Keep going…” “They… figure out why it failed?”
Suddenly, persistence wasn’t just repetition. It included analysis, adaptation, strategic thinking. Her understanding had deepened.
How: Capacity
The repertoire of strategies and tools
This grows when students add new strategies and tools to their repertoire.
Tom realised Maya only had one persistence strategy: “keep trying.” So he began building her toolkit:
“When you’re stuck, what options do you have?”
Together, they developed a repertoire:
- Break the problem into smaller parts
- Try a completely different approach
- Look for patterns from similar problems
- Take a strategic break and return fresh
Seek specific feedback on what’s not working - Document what you’ve tried to avoid repetition
By term’s end, Maya wasn’t just persisting—she was persisting strategically. She’d built what researchers call a “repertoire of practice.” Each challenge in the Learning Zone had demanded new approaches, and her toolkit had expanded to meet them.
When: Alertness
Recognising when the Habit is needed
This grows when students begin recognising for themselves when a Habit is needed.
Early on, Tom had to prompt: “This might be a good time to persist, Maya.” But gradually, through repeated Learning Zone challenges, she began recognising the moments herself—that feeling when confusion hit, when the easy path beckoned, when her brain whispered “just quit.”
She developed what researchers call “metacognitive awareness”—the ability to notice her own thinking and choose her response.
Why: Value
Why this Habit matters personally
This grows when students connect the Habit to their own goals and life beyond school. Students recognise the positive benefits that arise from engaging in the Habit of Mind, rather than other behaviours. This “Why” leads them to choose to engage.
The shift came during a coding project. Maya hit bug after bug, but instead of quitting, she muttered, “This is exactly like when I learned guitar. It sucked until it didn’t.”
She’d connected persistence to her own goals, her own life. It wasn’t Tom’s expectation anymore. It was her tool. The challenges had shown her why persistence mattered—not just for marks, but for becoming who she wanted to be.
How Well: Commitment
Ownership of getting better
This grows when students take ownership of improving the Habit itself.
By term’s end, Maya was doing something remarkable. She’d started evaluating her own persistence strategies: “Breaking it down worked better than taking a break this time. I’ll try that first next time.”
She wasn’t just using persistence. She was studying it, refining it, owning its development. Each Learning Zone challenge had become an opportunity not just to persist, but to get better at persisting.
These five elements—what I call the Five Dimensions of Habit Development—represent the complete picture of how a Habit transforms from something students use to something they own. These dimensions are all continually developed. A teacher might read these and think they are one step, tick off and done. But they’re not—they spiral and deepen through ongoing challenge and reflection.
The Story Behind the Growth
But here’s what the five dimensions don’t capture on their own—the backstory that makes growth possible.
Every student who develops strong Habits of Mind has moments of revelation. Moments when they surprise themselves. When they push past what they thought was possible and discover there’s more on the other side.
Maya’s came during a particularly brutal coding challenge. She’d tried three approaches from her new toolkit—breaking it down, seeking feedback, trying a different angle. Nothing worked. Then she combined strategies: broke the problem down AND approached each piece differently.
The code worked. The robot moved.
“I did that,” she whispered. “I actually did that.”
That’s the moment persistence stopped being a school skill and became part of her identity. She’d closed what we call the “Greatness Gap”—that perceived gap between your abilities and someone else’s. The often hidden backstory of slow development that can lead some to believe in fixed abilities. Closing the Greatness Gap is a Growth Mindset strategy.
This idea of development of the Habits of Mind, the building of superpowers, is very aligned to Dweck’s work. The Habits were at one point called intelligent behaviours. In that context, as we develop our Habits of Mind, we are learning to become more intelligent.
From One-Trick to Strategic
The beauty of understanding capacity as repertoire is that it changes how we teach every Habit of Mind.
Take flexible thinking. A beginner might have two moves: “try harder” or “ask for help.” But a student with developed capacity might:
- Reverse their assumptions
- Look for analogies in other subjects
- Break and recombine elements
- Shift perspective (What would X think?)
- Question the question itself
- Use systematic idea generation techniques
Or managing impulsivity. Early capacity might just be “count to ten.” Developed capacity includes:
- Recognition strategies (noticing triggers)
- Interruption techniques (physical cues)
- Redirection methods (channel the energy)
- Environmental design (removing temptations)
- Reflection protocols (learning from impulses)
Each Habit becomes not just something students do, but something they do skilfully, with increasing sophistication.
Teachers can teach the rich definitions, show students how to employ new strategies, teach them to recognise cues, help them understand the benefits that arise, and show them how to better self assess and self manage. This is not “give them challenges and they grow.” It’s “growth happens through challenge, but teachers can scaffold and facilitate that growth.”
What This Means for Monday
So how do we help students develop along these dimensions? How do we create Maya’s breakthrough in our own classrooms?
First, shift your focus from observing to designing. The five dimensions don’t grow from recognition—they grow from challenge. Your role isn’t to rate students on how well they’re using a Habit. It’s to create Learning Zone moments that:
- Deepen meaning (through complexity that reveals new aspects)
- Build capacity (through problems that demand new strategies)
- Develop alertness (through varied contexts that require recognition)
- Increase value (through connections to what students care about)
- Strengthen commitment (through reflection that drives improvement)
Second, look for patterns over time, not single moments.
Growth doesn’t happen within a task—it happens across tasks.
When a student says “I persisted,” ask: “Which strategy did you use? What new approach did you try? How was this different from last time?”
Finally, remember: these dimensions are interdependent, not linear. Sometimes a new strategy (capacity) reveals deeper meaning. Sometimes recognising when to persist (alertness) increases its value. They spiral together, each feeding the others—but only when we create the conditions for growth.
Understanding the Five Dimensions of Habit Development changes everything about how we approach the Habits of Mind. It’s not enough to use them—we must cultivate them across all dimensions.
Because here’s the truth:
Students don’t need us to teach them what persistence means. They need us to create challenges that demand persistence—and then help them notice how they’re getting better at it.
That’s the difference between using a Habit and improving it. Between having persistence and building it. Between students who can name the Habits of Mind and students who are actually developing them.
And once they see their own growth across these dimensions? Once they experience what it feels like to get better at a Habit, not just use it?
That’s when the real learning begins.
Coming Next: Why challenge—not curriculum—builds capability. And why the Learning Zone changes everything about how we design for growth.
