Responsibility Theory centres on cultivating an internal locus of control, encouraging students to recognize themselves as being causal agents whose choices shape their learning, relationships, and consequences. When students successfully internalize this stance, their behavior shifts from reactive to reflective and from compliance‑driven to self‑directed, self-regulated, and self-managed actions (Bandura, 1986; Woolfolk, 1998; Purje, 2014).

This Responsibility Theory-based intrinsic intellectual shift (in terms of changes in presenting behaviors) informs that Responsibility Theory appears to act as a self-developmental catalyst (involving personal ownership of thoughts, behaviors, and actions), which finds the students presenting their enabled and self-directed learning behaviors similar to those described in the book *Habits of Mind *by Costa and Kallick (2000).

Empirical classroom evidence has consistently shown that when Responsibility Theory is introduced, positive, constructive, and supportive individual and collective behaviors begin to emerge. Without any words or directives from the teachers, the students are now personally exhibiting constructive behaviors that empirically indicate they want to learn.

As such, the* Responsibility Theory principles, practices, and self-directed language develop into the natural form of classroom conversations and overall communication presentations. As a result of this cultural classroom change (what then emerges in their daily learning and classroom behaviors), the students begin to display the following evidence-based 16 habits of mind. *In terms of definition, Costa and Kallick (2000) define habits of mind as “dispositions that are skillfully and mindfully employed when confronted with problems.”

The 16 Habits of Mind

1. Being persistent
2. Managing feelings of impulsivity
3. Demonstrating the capacity to actively listen with understanding and empathy
4. Demonstrating and engaging in greater flexibility in thinking
5. Having the capacity to engage in reflective thinking
6. Striving for precision and focusing on accuracy
7. Being willing to question and respectfully pose analytical and thoughtful problems and concerns
8. Demonstrating the capacity to use prior learning and past knowledge to deal with new situations
9. Having the willingness to present verbal and written communication skills for the purpose of seeking and applying greater clarity in one’s thinking, and avoiding generalisations
10. Focusing on using the five senses to gather information
11. Focusing on being innovative, creative, and using imagination to seek out solutions to issues, concerns, and problems
12. Being open and willing to respond in what may be thought of as admiration and positive regard to what is taking place
13. Having the willingness to try something new and, at the same time, ensuring that social and personal safety considerations are in place
14. Having a good sense of humour and being willing to laugh at oneself and to never take oneself too seriously
15. Being an interdependent thinker who is willing and able to engage with and to work with others positively, and to always consider and value the opinions of others
16. Being open to continuous and ongoing learning and, at the same time, knowing and accepting that learning never stops

Habits of Mind Enable Students to Search for and Construct Knowledge

From their particular theoretical point of view, Costa and Kallick (2000) argue that these 16 habits of mind enable students to “search for and construct knowledge, think critically and creatively, solve problems, create solutions, make informed decisions and reflect on thinking and learning.”

Costa and Kallick further note that these habits empower students to act “reasonably and intelligently when confronted with problems or dilemmas whose answers are not immediately apparent.” As such, in terms of presenting classroom behaviors and from the Responsibility Theory pedagogical and empirical evidence-based cultural classroom, this is what is now consistently taking place by the students in their classroom.

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As such, the ongoing empirical classroom evidence indicates that the introduction and application of Responsibility Theory does develop, create, and advance the intellectual and social conditions for these positive individual and collective classroom behaviors to emerge and develop into a self‑empowering, self-directed, constructive ongoing learning environment.

Repetition Is One of the Keys to Knowledge

By repeatedly guiding students to recognise the power of their agency (to stop, pause, think, and evaluate their choices, and take ownership of their actions), the behavioral evidence (as presented by the students) indicates that they have now successfully internalized the power of their thoughts and actions and the associated value of Responsibility Theory.

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With this now being the case, the students’ cognitive and behavioral changes progress to the point that they consistently (and quite naturally) incorporate elements of these descriptive habits of mind behaviors into their ongoing self-directed learning and along with their associated constructive, positive social behaviors.

From an evidence-based, empirical point of view, Responsibility Theory can therefore be understood as a successful pedagogical method by which the individual student (and associated classroom) not only learns to take personal control of their thoughts, behaviors, and choices. This is what actually takes place. These now self-directed learning behaviors then lead to and result in the students (individually and collectively) constructively and positively engaging in learning behaviors that also resemble habits of mind principles and practices. As such, when all of these constrictive learning and social behaviors are taking place, the students are also demonstrating to themselves and "to the world," that *they want to learn *and advance their potential.

Self‑Empowered, Responsible Thinking, Self-Belief, and Achievements in Action

This ongoing Responsibility Theory empirical evidence indicates that this cognitive and social developmental shift begins when the students are introduced to Responsibility Theory, which begins with this self-focused question: “What am I responsible for, and what power do I have?”

This self-focused question is then immediately answered by the students themselves as follows: “I am responsible for, and I’ve got the power over what I think, do, say, choose, and learn.”* *Thereafter, whenever the teacher asks the question: “Who’s got the power?” the students inevitably know, and importantly, they explicitly know, and understand, what this means (both individually and collectively), which leads the students to enthusiastically respond with the words: “I’ve got the power!”

References

Bandura, A. (1986). Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory. Prentice Hall.

Costa, A. L., & Kallick, B. (2000). Habits of Mind: A Developmental Series. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Purje, R. (2014). *Responsibility Theory® (Who’s got the power?)® *Amazon/Kindle.

Woolfolk, A. E. (1998). *Educational Psychology *(7th ed.). Allyn & Bacon.