In their Human Technologies lessons, year 9s have been busy building on their emergent understandings of the Foundations Course by exploring more about the complexities of what it means to be human and, more importantly, how we can "human" better by forming better and more sustainable habits.

The unit, "How to Make or Break a Habit" is inspired by James Clears' 'Atomic Habits' which gives a practical guide on how to change your habits and get 1% better every day. Using a framework called the Four Laws of Behavior Change, Atomic Habits teaches readers a simple set of rules for creating good habits and breaking bad ones. 

The second source of inspiration is from an episode featured on the podcast series, Diary of a CEO, Steven Bartlett:  EP208: 5 Scientific Rules for Making and Breaking Bad Habits. Similar to Clear, Bartlett also breaks down the science of how we form habits; however, he focuses more on how to break bad habits rather than how to make new ones.

Throughout their inquiry of the core question "How to make or break a habit?" students are invited to consider questions such as "Why is it so hard to stick to good habits?" and "How can we break bad ones?" They also learn some of the common mistakes and pitfalls when we attempt to establish new habits and are continually invited to draw on what they have encountered in their previous HT lessons to help them consider the complexities at play in relation to our habits. This has included briefly revisiting their earlier explorations of System 1 & 2 Thinking; Neuroplasticity; RIGs, our early experiences and their ability to impress upon some of our early adoption of technologies, as well as those we continue to regularly draw on. 

The most basic definition of a habit is a repetitive behaviour or routine that becomes automatic through repetition. From a HT perspective, our habits are a culmination of the technologies we've learned throughout our lives and are typically built up over long periods of time. And, precisely for this reason, we are not always aware or conscious of them; this is the case for both good and bad habits. Many of these technologies have a large part to play in forming how we think about ourselves and respond to the world. Our lives are, quite simply, a manifestation of our habits and the things we repeatedly do. Ultimately, this shapes our identity - our Self 1. 

Using the HT lens, we can see these habits as technologies, or aspects that we can technologise and gain some control over. We can question our current habits and choose better ones. The real question is, which habits do we want to choose? How and in what way do we aspire to establish better or more sustainable ones?

To help students determine which habit they wished to develop, they applied the HT lotus model to audit and reflect on the daily routines and habits that shape their current Self 1 identity. This included both positive habits that they considered fairly pivotal in shaping who they are, as well as a select few of the negative habits that they would like to change. In both cases, they were encouraged to consider all categories of the lotus model, knowing that some may straddle more than one area.

Below, you'll find just a small selection of students' work which demonstrates not only how the HT lotus model has been used as a cognitive technology to help students categorise, reflect, and evaluate their own habits in each domain, but the amount of effort and pride that students have taken in their work.

Once the audit was complete, students used the “Scale of relative harm or benefit” as a tool to evaluate and discuss the impact of a particular habit in their life in greater depth.

For example, indulging in junk food, like chocolate, might serve as a fleeting spiritual technology when it momentarily uplifts our mood due to the pleasure it brings. If consumed moderately, this indulgence can indeed be enjoyable. However, overindulgence or frequent consumption could lead to health repercussions. Excessive sugar intake could hamper concentration, disrupt sleep, and potentially lead to weight gain. Using the relative scale of harm or benefit can be used as a tool to assess the balance between the positives and negatives, and gauge the habit's sustainability in the long run and whether it aligns with the type of person we want to be.