1 DEVELOPING STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION AND FLOW WHEN STUDYING THROUGH THE HABITS OF MIND 1 Sharifah Muzlia Syed Mustafa 1 Habibah Elias 2 Sidek Mohd Noah 3 Samsilah Roslan 4 1 Faculty of Education, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia 234 Faculty of Educational Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia ABSTRACT This paper proposes that the habits of mind for students must include learning how to think about studying well and achieve better academically. This is concurrent with the cognitive perspective that views thoughts as guiding students’ motivation and behavior. A study was conducted to examine the experience of motivation and flow when students studied for their examination. A sample of 365 daily secondary school students aged 16- year old responded to a questionnaire measuring their level of engagement and motivation when studying for year-end final examination. Descriptive statistics showed that these students experienced low level of flow and motivation when studying for their examination. Structural equation modeling analysis found that flow significantly mediated between motivation and academic achievement. Five of the mind habits are definitely characters that must be cultivated in our students since the results of this study support the idea that these habits can contribute significantly to higher levels of motivation and flow. The five habits are persistence, managing impulsivity, striving for accuracy and precision, imagining, and responding with wonderment and awe. The paper ends with some recommendations of ways to improve students’ habits of mind whereby parents and teachers train students how to develop motivated thoughts and achieving flow when studying. Keywords: motivation, flow, academic achievement, school students, habits of mind. 1 This paper was presented at the International Conference on the Habits of Mind, 7-9 November 2013, Marriott Hotel Putrajaya, Putrajaya, Malaysia.