(This is the first post in a two-part series on 鈥渉abits.鈥� Part Two will be published on Wednesday)
A lot has been published lately on 鈥渉abits鈥� -- how to create good ones and how to break bad ones.
So, last week I :
How can we help students develop good habits?
Today, I鈥檓 lucky enough to have Charles Duhigg, author of the new best-selling book, , sharing his responses to my questions on how to apply his research to our work in schools.
I鈥檓 impressed by his book, and about its implications for education.
Tomorrow, I鈥檒l be posting Part Two in this series. It will include responses from other guests, as well as suggestions from readers.
Response From Charles Duhigg
is an investigative reporter for The New York Times. He is a winner of the National Academies of Sciences, National Journalism, and George Polk awards, and was part of a team of finalists for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize. He is a frequent contributor to This American Life, NPR, PBS鈥檚 NewsHour, and Frontline. Duhigg has spoken to audiences as varied as MIT (where he keynoted the 2010 engineering conference), the SC Johnson Company, and the Pasadena Art and Science Festival. A graduate of Harvard Business School and Yale College, Duhigg lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two children:
1) In the excerpt from your book that appeared in The New York Times, I was struck by several ways what you wrote could be connected to education. One is the process you outlined about habit formation -- identification of a 鈥渉abit loop鈥� of cues and rewards. Can you first provide a simple outline of this habit formation process?
At the core of every habit is a neurological loop with three parts: A cue, which is like a trigger for an automatic behavior; a routine, which is the behavior itself; and a reward, which is how our brain 鈥榣earns鈥� to remember a pattern for future use.
When most people think about habits, they tend to focus on the routine - the behavior - rather than the cue and reward. But research tells us that creating new habits inside classrooms and peoples鈥� lives requires focusing on cues and rewards.
Take, for example, exercise habits. In 2002 researchers at New Mexico State University studied almost 300 people who had developed exercise habits, such as working out three times a week. What they found was that many of them had started running or lifting weights almost on a whim, or because they suddenly had free time or wanted to deal with unexpected stresses in their lives.
However, the reason they continued exercising -- why it became a habit -- was because of a specific cue and a specific reward. The researchers found those people had created running habits by choosing a simple cue (like always lacing up their sneakers before breakfast or always going for a run at the same time of day) and a clear reward (such as a sense of accomplishment from recording their miles, or the endorphin rush they got from a jog).
2) Keeping mind the priority teachers have in helping students develop intrinsic motivation, what would your thoughts be about how educators could apply this concept in the classroom in helping our students develop positive habits?
Creating intrinsic motivation is among the hardest - and most important - aspects of designing habits.
Let鈥檚 return to the example of exercise habits. Countless studies have shown that when people first start exercising, the rewards intrinsic to physical activity aren鈥檛 enough. Put another way, the first time someone goes for a run, even if they record their miles, it won鈥檛 feel particularly rewarding. The 鈥榬unner鈥檚 high鈥� caused by an endorphin rush often doesn鈥檛 occur the first time someone jogs.
So, to teach our brains to associate exercise with a reward, we need to use a trick. We need to give ourself something we really enjoy - such as a small piece of chocolate - after our workout. This is counterintuitive, because most people start exercising to loose weight. But the goal is to train your brain to associate a certain cue (鈥淚t鈥檚 5:00.鈥�) with a routine (鈥淭hree miles down!鈥�) and a reward (鈥淐hocolate!鈥�)
Eventually, when your brain will start expecting the reward inherent in exercise (鈥淚t鈥檚 5:00. Three miles down! Endorphin rush!鈥�) and you won鈥檛 need the chocolate anymore. In fact, according to studies, after about a month, you won鈥檛 even want the chocolate. But until your neurology learns to enjoy those endorphins and the other rewards inherent in exercise, you need to jump-start the process. And then, over time, it will become automatic to lace up your jogging shoes each morning.
The same is true inside classrooms: according to studies, the rewards inherent in learning - the joy of knowledge and discovery, the bliss of discovering something new - are hard to appreciate at first. Students who haven鈥檛 developed learning habits don鈥檛 know how to appreciate the reward. So they need extrinsic rewards, such as praise, or treats, or something else that is easy for them to appreciate. But over time, according to those studies, the intrinsic rewards will crowd out the external satisfactions, and the behavior will become automatic.
(Editor鈥檚 Note: For other perspectives on intrinsic and extrinsic rewards, see and .
3) Your discussion of , while certainly disturbing, at the same time demonstrates the importance of inductive learning. It also seemed to use the concepts of chunking and automaticity. All three of these ideas can be important in the classroom. In your research, are there instances where you have seen these concepts used effectively for social good, and not just for selling more diapers?
Absolutely. One of the chapters in The Power of Habit is about how Starbucks teaches employees willpower habits. Dozens of studies show that willpower is among the single most important habits for individual success. And the way that Starbucks (as well as numerous schools) turn willpower into a habit is by relying upon the habit loop described above. Teachers can help students identify cues where their willpower is likely to fail (such as when temptations arise, or when heated emotions suddenly erupt) and then choose routines ahead of time. And by helping students recognize the rewards that come from self-discipline (such as making the link between getting your homework done, and the fulfilling sense of mastery when you understand what is going on inside a classroom), those tendencies become habits.
Some of these techniques are fairly sophisticated - the chapter describing how schools, companies and coaches have created willpower habits, for instance, spans almost 30 pages - but study after study shows how powerfully they can impact lives.
4) Are there other examples and concepts that you discovered in your research that would be applicable in the classroom?
One of my favorite lessons from the book regards a concept called 鈥榢eystone habits.鈥� Some habits, say researchers, are more important than others because they have the power to start a chain reaction, shifting other patterns as they move through our lives. Keystone habits influence how we work, eat, play, live, spend, and communicate. Getting keystone habits right can transform a classroom.
A great example of keystone habits lies in Michael Phelps, the Olympic champion. Phelps started swimming when he was seven years old. His coach, Bob Bowman, knew Phelps could be great, but to become a champion, he needed habits that would make him the strongest mental swimmer in the pool. So Bowman focused on giving the swimmer keystone habits that drew on what鈥檚 known as 鈥渢he science of small wins.鈥�
Small wins are exactly what they sound like. A huge body of research has shown that small wins have enormous power, an influence disproportionate to the accomplishments of the victories themselves. 鈥淪mall wins are a steady application of a small advantage,鈥� one Cornell professor wrote in 1984. 鈥淥nce a small win has been accomplished, forces are set in motion that favor another small win.鈥� Small wins fuel transformative changes by leveraging tiny advantages into patterns that convince people that bigger achievements are within reach.
Every day, before a race, Phelps went through the exact same routine. He woke up at 6:00, pulled on a pair of sweatpants and walked to breakfast. Two hours before the starting gun fired, he began his usual stretching regime, starting with his arms, then his back, then working down to his ankles, which were so flexible they could extend more than ninety degrees, farther than a ballerina鈥檚 en pointe. At eight-thirty, he slipped into the pool and began his first warm-up lap. The workout took precisely forty-five minutes. At nine-fifteen, he exited the pool and started squeezing into his LZR Racer, a bodysuit so tight it required twenty minutes of tugging to put it on. Then he clamped headphones over his ears, cranked up the hip-hop mix he played before every race, and waited.
Which is exactly why Phelps鈥檚 daily stretching routine and eating routine - and every other routine - served as a keystone habit: they created a mounting sense of victory. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a series of things we do before every race that are designed to give Michael a sense of building victory,鈥� his coach, Bob Bowman, told me. 鈥淚f you were to ask Michael what鈥檚 going on in his head before competition, he would say he鈥檚 not really thinking about anything. He鈥檚 just following the program. But that鈥檚 not right. It鈥檚 more like his habits have taken over. When the race arrives, he鈥檚 more than halfway through his plan and he鈥檚 been victorious at every step. All the stretches went like he planned. The warm-up laps were just like he visualized. His headphones are playing exactly what he expected. The actual race is just another step in a pattern that started earlier that day and has been nothing but victories. Winning is a natural extension.鈥�
Keystone habits create small wins. So to identify the keystone habits in your life, look for those patterns that give you numerous, small senses of victory; places where momentum can start to build.
Thanks to Charles for sharing his response!
Please feel free to leave a comment sharing your reactions to this question and the ideas shared here. I鈥檒l be including comments from readers in Part Two of this series tomorrow.
Consider contributing a question to be answered in a future post. You can send one to me at lferlazzo@epe.org.When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it鈥檚 selected or if you鈥檇 prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind. I鈥檓 way behind in acknowledging questions that have been sent in, but I promise to get caught up in the summer!
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I鈥檒l be posting Part Two in this series on habits tomorrow, and the next 鈥渜uestion of the week鈥� on Friday.