Avonbourne School

 

During the course of this term our students have been introduced to ‘The 6 Hats’, a thinking tool created by Edward de Bono.  The 6 Hats were created to get people to think and to work on problems from a different point of view thus widening their own perspectives and broadening concepts of independent thinking.  So popular is this method, of late such companies as Liverpool Victoria has been introducing it to their staff to improve the quality of their meetings.

 

The 6 hats are –

 

The Yellow Hat (The Optimist) – If you are asked to wear this hat then you have to look for all the positive aspects of an item, problem, thing or issue, depending on what you are looking at.  Even if you hate it you must always look for the positives!

 

The White Hat (Data and Information Gatherer) – If you wear this hat you are asked to gather facts, not assumptions. You need to assess what information you have and what further information you may need and then how you are going to get it

 

The Red Hat (The Emotional One) – If you put on the Red Hat you are asked to examine emotions; how would a character feel in a certain situation, etc.  It is useful with this one to gauge how someone feels at the start of a topic compared to how they many feel at the end

 

The Green Hat (Creative Alternatives) – The great thing about wearing a Green Hat is that the only limit here is the limits of your imagination.  You can take your thinking here to its absolute extreme!  This as a good one to wear when starting or generating an idea

 

The Black Hat (The Critic) – Black Hat wearers deliberately look for problems.  They are asked to find all the negative aspects and to identify all the bad things attached to a topic.  They check for evidence, logic, impact, fit and weaknesses.

 

The Blue Hat (The Controlling and Calming Influence) – Wearers of the Blue Hat are the ones who will take control in group task situations.  They will ‘boss’ the other hats to bring the thinking back into line.  They will make sure that all ideas are captured and controls the meeting of these different points of view

 

At the moment we are embedding de Bono into our working practices and allowing our pupils to experiment with these ideas and concepts across the curriculum, something which they are enjoying doing.  In September we will be launching Thinking Maps across the school, followed by ‘Habits of Mind’, 16 identified mental states needed for successful learning to take place, devised by Professor Art Costa

Click here for more information and to see an example of their use.