De Bono's "hats"

The six thinking hats (after Edward de Bono)

Laura Gourley, Halesworth Middle (Professional Study)

Over a year ago I planned this assignment in conjunction with my Headteacher, taking into account my professional strengths and personal preferences. After one year on exchange my personal preferences have altered and my professional strengths are more diverse, hence this essay is on a totally different theme to what was discussed fifteen months ago.

As teachers we are continually asking 'How do children learn?' and it is a question that has many answers. During my time in Australia I was exposed to a whole culture of people asking 'How do children think?' and was introduced to Thinking Skills. In this essay I intend to discuss the following:

*    How I was introduced to thinking skills.
*    What are 'The Six Thinking Hats'?
*    How I will use them here in the UK.


What was your favourite subject at school? Were you fascinated by historical stories told by a teacher who captured your imagination and could transport you from the Battle of Hastings through the Golden Age of Farming to the horrors of world war? Or perhaps you were inspired by videos of thunderstorms and Amazonian villages as your Geography teacher opened windows to the world. Or perhaps you only relaxed and truly absorbed knowledge when you were physically active, painting the next Sunflowers or building a bridge from straws that could support the weight of a bag of flour. All teachers are aware that children learn in different ways but how often do we only cater for the 'the whole child'?

Bloom's Taxonomy and the Multiple Intelligences are not the focus of my essay but they are tools that should be used to enhance the planning of all subjects and all topics. I saw topic planning grids that listed each of the seven intelligences across the top and underneath the teacher had designed a range of tasks within the scheme to ensure that every child was catered for and all strengths were played to. At a time when we are all being encouraged 'back to the chalk face', it is worth considering that not every child will achieve his/her potential this way.


How was I introduced to 'Thinking Skills'?

Word of mouth. Good teaching in action. A sharing of knowledge and skills. The classrooms at Amiens State School all had six brightly coloured top hats on the wall, each hat having a type of thinking listed underneath. These thinking hats had aroused my curiosity but it wasn't until I saw them in action that I was inspired to learn more.

One day the Principal was discussing the unacceptable level of noise under the school building at Morning Tea, with her Year 6/7 class. She explained her dissatisfaction and asked the class to resolve it by saying it was their school and they were the leaders. She asked the class to ' put on their white hats' and they listed all the facts of the issue e.g. the children had to shout to make themselves heard, that area of the school did echo, it also provided much need shade etc. They then had 2 minutes to put on their black hats and list all the negatives of this time of the day, which was followed by yellow hat thinking to ascertain the positives. The children then had just 30 seconds of red hat thinking to state their emotions, was the accusation of noise unfair or perhaps the younger children were to blame? They had this time to explain how they felt about the situation. With emotions dealt with and opinions expressed, the class were asked to put on their green hats, to think creatively and move towards resolving the problem of excess noise. The best ideas were discussed using yellow and black hats and the session was concluded with 2 mins of blue hat thinking to summarise what had been achieved and decide how to move forward from this point.

The identification, clarification, discussion and resolution of this issue were handed to the children without accusation. They used the hats to guide their thinking and come up with solutions to a real problem that was impacting on their lives at school. The process actually asked them to consider how they interact with others and assess the quality of life at school for everyone who worked there. The children's solutions were adopted for an agreed trial period and improvements were noted but most importantly, the individual behaviour of many of those Year 6 and Year 7 children changed for the better.

With this real life example added to my experience, I decided it was time to find out more.

What are 'The Six Thinking Hats'?

I am not a certified 'Six Thinking Hats Instructor' but I have completed a 'Six Thinking Hats for Teachers' course at which I received 'Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats For Education' handbook. The following explanation is taken directly from that book.

"There are six imaginary thinking hats, each having a different colour. Each of the six hats represents a different type of thinking. When you "put on" one of the hats, you exclusively operate in that mode of thinking. When you change from one hat to another, you change from the thinking mode indicated by the first hat to the thinking mode indicated by the second hat."

I would first teach a class how to use the hats through a fun, abstract topic, before asking them to apply it to anything else. For the purpose of this essay I am going to select a geographical theme to illustrate both the purpose of each hat and how the process could be used in the classroom.

THE WHITE HAT.

The white hat is concerned with facts and information. White hat questions include:
What information is available? What would we like to know?
I would use the white hat to open discussion on a topic. For example, What do you know about the effect of the timber industry on the Amazon Rainforest? Students would then have 2 minutes to write down all they know and all they would like to know about the subject. 

THE YELLOW HAT.

Yellow hat is concerned with the positive aspects of thinking. It is associated with sunshine and optimism and looks for benefits and value.
Deforestation is an emotive issue so I would use yellow hat to ask the students to consider who benefits from this trade, after all it does provide employment for a number of people and the yellow hat focuses our attention on this overlooked area of the debate.

THE BLACK HAT.

Think of a judge's robes. Black hat is powerful and its' role is to point out negatives. Black hat highlights points of caution and concern.
What are the problems of logging? What are the risks? Why does the process concern us?

THE RED HAT.

The red hat is concerned with feelings, emotions and intuition. Too often we let our emotions make our decisions. Red hat gives us a separate context to state our true feelings and then explore their implications.
What are my feelings now? What does my intuition tell me?
The profits from logging companies are not shared equally nor are they reinvested into the areas that have been stripped which is why I feel so angry towards these multinational companies. The ecological impact is on a global scale -I am amazed more people are not worried or concerned.

THE GREEN HAT.

Think of vegetation and growth, think of natural energy. The green hat is the 'creativity' hat.
Are there other ways we could do this? What else could we do? What will overcome our difficulties?
I would use these green hat questions to get the class to begin thinking of creative solutions to the problems they have identified.

THE BLUE HAT.

Think of blue as the blue sky or overview. The blue hat is like a chairperson, managing the whole thinking process. Use blue hat to stand back and look at your thinking to see where you are at and where you need to go next.
I would use blue hat to conclude a session and ask students where they want to go next. Do they need more info on logging companies? Should they look at the Friends of the Earth website to collect specific data on environmental concerns?

There is no set order in which the hats are to be used. Some can be left out or used more than once in the process. The key to their success is down to the fact that they focus your thinking and provide clarity within often complex issues. Your thinking is being managed and channeled to achieve your maximum potential. 


How will I use the Six Thinking Hats in my teaching here in England?

I am about to teach the 'Hats' to my Year 6 Geography classes. Having spent one lesson teaching them the purpose of each hat I am then going to use the process to introduce a mini topic on microclimates. The challenge will be to identify where around the school the caretaker should spread grit on icy mornings. Students will need to identify where the coldest areas of the school site are and consider the limited supply of grit before they can make their recommendations. Hopefully this will lead to them recording aspects of the weather at various sites, learning what creates a microclimate and considering who uses these particular regions of the school.

Later this term I hope to offer an INSET on the Thinking Hats. I intended to target Geography teachers but other colleagues have expressed interest, so I will probably open the session to all. Leading an INSET will be a relatively new experience to me but a useful part of my professional development.

Finally, I will be able to use thinking hats on a day to day basis with my classes. Several times this term I have found myself wanting to say to a class, "Put on your white hats and think about this issue". In Australia we used thinking hats as a class to help groups resolve friendship problems as arguments in the playground tended to be dealt with emotively. In a removed, calm environment you could ask children to use their white hats and state purely the facts of an argument, then the red hat could examine emotions before the green hat came up with solutions. 

Laura Gourley.
February 2001.

Bibliography.
Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats For Education.