Habits of Mind Case Study: Me!

After reading Costa’s descriptions on our habits of mind and how it relates to our intelligence I decided to evaluate my habits of mind when I was problem solving then executing a certain task.

Recently I moved and put together a bed in a new house. When putting the bed together again at the new house I realised four bolts where missing that were integral in putting together the frame. I searched vigorously for them but could not find them. These bolts were fairly unique and I felt the next step was to go down to the hardware store and see if they had replacement bolts or bolts that were fairly similar. The Hardware store did not have the bolts I was looking for however they had a similar one that was 5mm longer than the screws that went missing. Thinking this was my only option I bought the screws and took them home.

From here I decided to file down the bolts to the desired length. I considered cutting them down however I realised I did not have the right tools to do this. It took a total of two hours to file down the four bols to the desired length and to my relief they worked and I was able to put together the bed. Two hours later I found the missing bolts in the bedside draw!

I used a number of different intelligences or habits of mind in problem solving for the whole bed situation. The first habit of mind that I believed that I used was my impulsivity, at the time I believed that I had looked everywhere for the bolts and that they were lost for good. I didn’t manage my impulsivity well and went straight to the next step to solve the problem of finding alternative bolts. After conceding that I would not find the bolts I used creativity and innovation by going to the hardware store and finding a bolt that was similar to the ones that were lost. I used creativity and innovation again in finding away to alter the longer bolts. I looked at the tools at my disposal and came up with a plan to file down the bolts to the correct size. When coming up with the idea I used my past knowledge and skills as a labourer to implement the changes needed to reduce the bolts size.

The process of filing down the bolts was tedious however I was persistent and continued with the job until it was done two hours later. After finding the initial bolts that were lost I did not see the humorous side however I did evaluate my actions and the way I went about problem solving, I believe this is a form of metacognition, I was thinking about my thinking. I thought about what I could have done better, like managing my impulsivity to get the job done as well what I did well such as applying previous knowledge.

I hope you found the case study of myself interesting and a little bit amusing. One thing I can take out of the whole experience is think before you act!!