Blog #7: Should six thinking hats be applied in teaching and learning as an innovation approach?

Six thinking hats were introduced by De Bono (2017). They are considered as effective directions that help individuals and groups to solve problems by using critical and creative thinking. Six thinking hats include white, black, red, yellow, green, and blue hats with different conceptual meanings.

When people wear the white hat, it means that they should focus on collecting data that can support the problem-solving process. They should ask questions to find evidence and consider all informational aspects of the problem. With this hat, they do not judge. Instead, they just try to gather facts as inputs for further analysis and judgement when wearing other hats (De Bono, 2017).

With the black hat, people will consider the negative side of problems or critically think about them cautiously. They will raise questions, check the available data to evaluate weaknesses or bad points and figure out alternative solutions (De Bono, 2017).

The yellow hat, differently, enables people to think positively about problems and attempt to address those by the optimistic approach. This yellow hat also focuses on examining strengths of solutions (De Bono, 2017).

For the red hat, people will not use logical judgement. Instead, they will focus on their emotion and approach problems intuitively. This hat allows them to express their feelings, which may be different from logical judgement in terms of solutions (De Bono, 2017).

When wearing the green hat, people will think creatively about solutions. They will be free to present new ideas and come up with such ideas in order to figure out the best alternative solutions (De Bono, 2017).

Finally, the blue hat directs people to focus on organizational critical thinking or managerial aspects. It deals with the examination of past performance, the overall contextual situations and broader issues. It coordinates all previous hats to figure out the best solutions (De Bono, 2017).

Therefore, obviously, six thinking hats guide people to think comprehensively about problems based on both logical judgement and intuitive evaluation; both positive and negative considerations; both creative and critical thinking, and both managerial and individual judgement levels (Geissler, et al., 2012).

In schools, students are expected to be able to think creatively and critically. Thus, the most effective way to develop students’ critical and creative thinking skills is to provide students the models/tools that help them how to think creatively and critically (Kivunja, 2015). Teachers, thus, should teach them about six thinking hats and create the learning environment with problematic situations for students to apply such hats. When teachers do that, students will quickly develop their critical and creative thinking skills.

It is noted that teachers should adjust their syllabus in teaching six thinking hats according to the appropriateness of their students. For example, if students are in primary schools, teachers can make six colourful hats and organize students to play games with those hats in order to guide them how to use them. Differently, for students studying at higher grades, teachers may assign them into groups with problematic situations provided, in order to guide them how to apply these thinking hats to address problems. The way to teach the six thinking hats applied for different students will present the creativity and innovation of teachers in teaching and learning.

References

De Bono, E. (2017). Six Thinking Hats. s.l.:Penguin UK.

Geissler, G., Edison, S. & Wayland, J. (2012). Improving Students' Critical Thinking, Creativity, and Communication Skills. Journal of Instructional Pedagogies.

Kivunja, C. (2015). Using DeBono’s Six Thinking Hats Model to Teach Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving Skills Essential for Success in the 21st Century Economy. Creative Education, 6(3), p. 380.