Six Thinking Hats

Six Thinking Hats is a technique that helps you look at important decisions or concepts from different perspectives. It helps you understand the full complexity of the topic or decision. The six thinking hats technique is taken from a book by Edward de Bono. This technique is most often used with businesses through Mind Tools consulting, but it has been adapted for students as well.

Refer to you Mind Tools/Six Thinking Hats sheet. Notice there is an accompanying sheet with larger font and more explanation. You can choose the sheet that seems more appropriate for use with your students.

On your table, you have an example of each type of thinking hat. It’s important to use visuals and kinesthetic to differentiate when you are teaching this concept to students.

White Hat:

Available data, past trends, gaps in the data, facts or missing facts

Red Hat

Intuition, gut reaction, emotion, how you feel about it, opinion

Yellow Hat

Benefits, optimistic viewpoint, pros, strengths, what you like about it

Black or Gray Hat

Judgments, problems, cons, potential problems, mistakes you can find, dangers, what is bad about it

Green Hat

Creativity, other ways of doing things, what if this or that happened, modifications, combinations, was to improve it

Blue Hat

Summary, organization, process control, most valuable information, focus, how to apply

Here’s an example of how the different kinds of thinking can be used:

EX. The directors of the property company are looking at whether they should construct a new office building. The economy is doing well, and the amount of vacant office space is reducing sharply. As part of their decision, they decide to use the six thinking hats in their meeting.

White Hat

They analyze the data they have. They examine the trend in vacant office space, which shows a sharp reduction. They anticipate that by the time the office block would be completed, there will be a severe shortage of office space. Current government projections show steady economic growth for at least the construction period.

Red Hat

Some of the directors think the proposed building is ugly. It would be cost effective, but people might not like it.

Black Hat

Government projections might be wrong. The economy may be about to enter a cyclical downturn, in which case the office building might be empty for a long time. If the building isn’t attractive, companies might choose another available better-looking building at the same rent.

Yellow Hat

If the economy holds up and the projections are correct, the company stands to make a great deal of money. Maybe the building could be sold in the next downturn, or rent to tenants on long-term leases that would last through any recession.

Green Hat

The directors consider whether they should change the design to make the building more pleasant. Perhaps they could build prestige offices that people would want to rent in any economic downturn. Or maybe they should invest the money in the short term to buy up property at a low cost when a recession comes.

Blue Hat

Used by the committee’s chair to move between different thinking styles. He or she may have needed to keep other members of the team from switching styles, or from criticizing other people’s points.

If you want to encourage critical thinking in your classroom by using the six thinking hats as a visual and/or kinesthetic reference, you must first teach the six thinking hats. Because you want students to focus initially on the different thinking styles so that they may later apply them to more complex topics, you may wish to begin with a simple example.

Purpose of the Hats:

Signal a particular type of thinking

Focus the thinking more clearly

Lead to more creative thinking

Stimulate class discussion

Improve communication

Improve decision making

We’re going to do this activity with a lifesaver. On your table, you will find one or more packages of lifesavers. For this activity, you may use the lifesavers and the wrapper information. Begin by eating a lifesaver if you are able to do so (don’t tell Kathy Yost.)

Now we’re going to think about lifesavers using each hat. Record your thoughts on your lifesaver activity sheet. Your group will be using the lifesaver overhead to report out. You can discuss work on your ideas as a group with each style of thinking.

White Hat

1.  What are some facts about lifesavers?

(round, hole in the middle, hard, sticky, tastes like______, made at a company, nutritional facts, made with sugar, letters on them, etc.)

Red Hat

1.  How do you feel about eating this Lifesaver and why?

(excited, happy, curious, yucky, depressed, energized, surprised, etc.)

Yellow Hat

1.  What are the good points about eating this Lifesaver?

(taste, fun, positive emotion, company who makes it benefits financially, makes a person creative, opportunity to share, better breath, etc.)

Black Hat

1.  What are some possible problems about eating this Lifesaver?

(choking, tooth decay, don’t like flavor, litter, want more, gain weight, etc.)

Green Hat Thinking

1.  What if there was no hole in the middle of the Lifesaver?

(could choke more easily, could not be called a Lifesaver, would look like all other hard candy, could not put string through it to make a necklace, couldn’t go on the end of a pencil, would get more candy for the money, couldn’t try to put your tongue through it, etc.)

Blue Hat

1.  Create a summary statement about Lifesavers.

2.  What was the most interesting discovery about Lifesavers during the lesson?

3.  What did you learn about Lifesavers from today’s lesson?

Report Out

Choose two groups to report out. Have second person record anything to add from other groups.

Reflection:

On the back of your Lifesaver paper, list the four core content areas. List one or more ideas for topics with which you might use the Six Thinking Hats technique for each content area. Choose someone from your group to report out.