SIX Thinking Hats: Parent Information
Early in the 1980s Dr. Edward de Bono invented the Six Thinking Hats method. The method is a framework for thinking. It requires students (and teachers), to extend their way of thinking about a topic by wearing a range of different ’thinking‘ hats
Organizations such as Prudential Insurance, IBM, Federal Express, British Airways, Polaroid, Pepsico, DuPont, and Nippon Telephone and Telegraph, possibly the world's largest company, use Six Thinking Hats.
The six hats represent six modes of thinking and are directions to think rather than labels for thinking. That is, the hats are used proactively rather than reactively.
Your students will use the Six Thinking Hats to:
- Discuss topics
- Solve problems
- Explore alternatives
- Reach decisions
- Research, organise and write reports
- Brainstorming
The Six Thinking Hats at a glance:
· White hat thinking identifies the facts and details of a topic
· Black hat thinking examines the problems associated with a topic
· Yellow hat thinking focuses on the positive aspects of a topic
· Red hat thinking looks at a topic from the point of view of emotions and feelings
· Green hat thinking requires creativeness, imagination and lateral thinking about a topic
- Blue hat thinking focuses on reflection, metacognition (thinking about the thinking that is required), and the need to understand the big picture
What is its purpose?
Students learn to reflect on their thinking and to recognise that different thinking is
required in different learning situations.