Habits of Mind--The Key to Success

1. Curiosity – the desire to know more about the world

Please read number two before this one! Kilbourne thought the advertisements were turning women into subjects, which was a reflection of gender inequality. Before watching her presentation, I thought showing female bodies was a recognition of beauty. Outside of class, I posted Kilbourne’s standpoint under a discussion about a perfume advertisement produced by Tom Ford. I got both likes and opposing views on my comment, which sparked my curiosity in other women's perspectives on ads like that.

2. Openness – the willingness to consider new ways of being and thinking in the world

Before I watched Killing Us Softly, I thought showing sexy women's bodies in the advertisements was a compliment to females. But Kilbourne brought a new perspective to me, she convinced me and I was open-minded to her statements. I feel like she is at the point, but I will keep my original thoughts.

3. Engagement – a sense of investment and involvement in learning

The topic of Disney and Gender Roles is interesting. I am engaged in learning and exploring the messages that Disney conveyed to us. Although I JUST watched Beaty and the Beast last weekend, I had to rewatch it (watched it twice in four days) to do my exploratory writing. However, I did enjoy watching it again, not only because it was my favorite Disney movie, but I also found new perspectives and hidden details within the script. (In it, Chip asked: “Is she (Belle) pretty? Is she nice?” But it was not in the film).

4. Creativity – the ability to use novel approaches for generating, investigating, and representing ideas

In the exploratory writing this week, I dug deep into the movie and interpreted MANY different quotes. I might be overthinking some of them, but sometimes I get too creative in making connections. Anyway, I am looking forward to reading all your comments under my post!

5. Persistence – the ability to sustain interest in and attention to short- and long-term projects

To be honest, I am quite surprised I can keep writing and doing practices all day long. Sometimes a bit of workload can push me to stay focus and be productive.

6. Flexibility – the ability to adapt to situations, expectations, or demands

I am not sure if I am developing the habit of flexibility, but I am adapting to the situations and expectations fairly well in this class. To follow the expectations, I copy-pasted every instruction of the assignments to my google doc. As I went through them, I edited the instruction and kept the key points. So that I can refer to it as I do my assignment.

7. Responsibility – the ability to take ownership of one’s actions and understand the consequences of those actions for oneself and others

This course has multiple assignments to do every week, and sometimes the deadlines can be messy. I have developed a good habit to stay on top of the dues. I always have my Canvas calendar open in a tab so that I can go back to check all the due days frequently. And I would list the assignment on my to-do list, make sure that I cross out (means finished) the work before the due day.

8. Metacognition (reflection) – the ability to reflect on one’s thinking as well as on the individual and cultural processes used to structure knowledge

I think I am working on this, but I will be focusing on reflecting better in the future. I am confused by the meaning of “processes used to structure knowledge”, but I am good at reflecting on what I have learned and what I can do better.