We have argued previously for seven “tools for thinking” that underlie
trans-disciplinary thinking and creativity (Mishra, Koehler & Henriksen, 2011).
Inspired in part by the Root-Bernstein’s (1999) work in this area, we argue that
these skills encapsulate the ways in which creative people think. These seven skills
are: Perceiving, Patterning, Abstracting, Embodied Thinking, Modeling, Play,
and Synthesizing. Our last article (Henriksen et al, in press) was on the skill of
Perceiving, while this one focuses on Patterning. We argue that patterning as a
trans-disciplinary skill goes beyond our senses – it is a habit of mind, a reflexive
way of thinking that seeks to uncover relations and connections that may not be
immediately apparent, as well as to create new ones.