Help your students kick academic goals by using sporting mindfulness.

As a teenage rugby league player in the mid ‘80s, my pre-game ritual included ensuring all the tags were tightly screwed in to the bottom of my boots. Whilst I can safely say I was not a supreme athlete, I could certainly tell if one of the tags had fallen out during the game. My balance was slightly off, and I didn’t have the same confidence in my boots. I doubted my footing and didn’t trust myself to make sudden direction changes, aspects imperative to that game. In short, my performance was affected.

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I now work at a private boys’ school where Habits of Mind are part of the teaching and learning framework. Last year, I began to explore the potential of the Habits of Mind in sporting contexts. I remembered my own efforts to give myself the best chance of football success, and this got me thinking. In a physical sense you need all tags to be present, but what are the mental requirements to be successful at sport?

Back in the day we listened to ‘”Eye of the Tiger” and Duran Duran’s “Wild Boys” for motivation, but that couldn’t sustain us throughout each match. We needed to have some mental stamina, too. We didn’t know about Habits of Mind back then but we did know about persisting, trying another way and reflecting on the game afterwards. The question now was whether I could attribute Habits of Mind to the tags to represent the “essential” mental dispositions required to be a successful footballer. The accompanying poster is the result of this thinking, and whilst it illustrates Habits of Mind that are needed to be successful in football, the analogy can be used in any athletic endeavour.

Metaphorically speaking

What boots do you wear is not merely a question but a metaphor. Habits of Mind are the key to improved performances. Successful athletes are persistent; they ask questions, and they listen to coaches and teammates; they reflect on their performances; and they are willing to take responsible risks. They are flexible thinkers and continuous learners. From a successful student-athlete perspective then, does success in the sporting arena automatically mean success in the classroom? Using knowledge and skills acquired in an earlier context in a new context is known as transfer of learning. Can student athletes transfer their knowledge to the classroom?

A sample of 1,277 students from four schools, (private single-gender schools and co- educational state schools from years eight to 12) was surveyed over an eight-month period. Participants completed an anonymous online survey, with questions designed to reveal students’ attitudes toward their sporting involvement. Further, they were asked if using sporting analogies improved their understanding of academic tasks. The most pivotal question was whether the strategies they used in their favourite sport could also be used in the classroom to overcome difficulties and find success. These questions overtly described the Habits of Mind, although did not utilise explicit terminology.

I analysed the data and found two things:

Firstly it highlighted patterns within and between schools regarding students’ ability to be reflective and to recognise opportunities for transfer. It also provided a baseline of information which was communicated back to the participating schools. Privacy and anonymity was maintained throughout the research process. As a brief and broad summary, the results showed that boys generally were more reflective than girls; however, girls showed a greater capacity for recognising the opportunity to transfer successful sporting strategies into the classroom. Of particular note was that overall, students in years 8-, 9- and 10-age range proved to be the most “open” to adaptive thinking and transfer opportunities.

So how does this data inform practice? In early August I discussed the project with Habits of Mind creator Art Costa, and two questions emerged. One was the degree to which Habits of Mind are explicitly taught in individual schools and classes. Without appropriate knowledge of, or adequate exposure to the Habits of Mind, students are unable to develop a frame of reference with which to analyse situations that might require the application of particular Habits of Mind. Therefore their ability to accurately respond to survey questions is reduced. Importantly, this opens the door for future focus on the Habits of Mind within the classroom environments. Where are the gaps? Whilst no individual responses can be identified, teachers and curriculum coordinators can identify general “themes” of responses across the entire survey that might guide the direction of Habits integration into the schools.

The second question is the extent to which teachers of different subject areas actually invite transfer. Are teachers modelling transfer and providing opportunities for students to develop their ability to transfer learning from one context to another? Do the physical education teachers ask students where else they would be able to apply the thinking processes used in their class? Do academic staff who coach sporting teams retain their ‘coach’ hat when they return to the classroom after the weekend’s match, or is that left on the sideline? If so, why? Does there need to be a difference between PE and classroom subjects? In some schools the pervading thought is that classroom teachers pause their work, send students off to PE to “run around,” and then “resume learning” when they return, therefore diminishing the value of the theories and skills developed in PE. What boots do you wear perfectly illustrates this point. The laces are the most vital part of the boot, as without laces the boot falls off, obviously affecting performance. The laces are labelled “thinking interdependently” because without teamwork a group of people can fail, even if they are on the “same team” and have the same purpose. Isn’t the purpose of education to develop the skills and knowledge in students that will allow them to become independent and lifelong learners? All staff should be cohesive in their purpose to improve academic outcomes, and there is an opportunity for teachers to proactively help students learn the skills of transfer.

Transfer planning could be mistaScreen Shot 2014-06-27 at 11.47.32 amken for daydreaming
Students who sit at the back of the classroom and stare out the window might not actually be wasting their time. Granted, many of them are dreaming of being out on the court, field or track rather than listening to the teacher explain the latest assessment task. However, some of them might be reflecting on those sporting experiences and searching for a strategy that they could apply to the current, pressing concern in the classroom. Some of them might in fact be independently transferring their learning from one context to another, and how empowering would that be.

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Matt Atkinson


Matt Atkinson is investigating whether students can achieve greater academic success by adapting Habits of Mind that they have used successfully in sporting contexts. He believes that transferring prior experience into the classroom provides a positive, personal frame of reference for student application of the Habits of Mind. Schools interested in participating in this project can contact Matt at matkinson@bbc.qld.edu.au