Using the Hats in primary schools.

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Permalink Reply by Phil Bachmann on June 19, 2009 at 12:30pm

Excellent question Jenny.

The trouble with most news stories is that they often contain multiple points of view, so students asked to "Yellow Hat" a news story will scratch their heads asking, "Which part of the news story should I be seeing the benefits in?"

It seems to me that there are two answers, one which you have already suggested: Focus on one single problem/issue highlighted by the story and apply the Six Hats to that.

Another approach is to focus not so much on what the story is about, but more the way it is written:

Yellow Hat: In what way is the story well written, well-researched, (seemingly) backed by evidence?
Black Hat: In what way is this story poorly written, misleading, difficult to understand, one-sided, unfocused?
Green Hat: What interesting issues does the story raise?
Blue Hat: How best to think about this story?
Red Hat: How did you feel when you read this this news story?
White Hat: What facts (as opposed to opinion) are presented in this news story? What relevant facts do you know independently of this story? Where is more information required?

I haven't tried this myself - so if it doesn't work for you let me know and I will take another look.

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Permalink Reply by jenny jones on June 19, 2009 at 4:30pm

Thank you, this makes things somewhat clearer. I was always under the impression that Thinking hats work best with group discussions where a specific problem needs ot be solved/discussed. I have to admit my knowledge is somewhat limited. Am I right in thinking this?


Phil Bachmann said:

Excellent question Jenny.

The trouble with most news stories is that they often contain multiple points of view, so students asked to "Yellow Hat" a news story will scratch their heads asking, "Which part of the news story should I be seeing the benefits in?"

It seems to me that there are two answers, one which you have already suggested: Focus on one single problem/issue highlighted by the story and apply the Six Hats to that.

Another approach is to focus not so much on what the story is about, but more the way it is written:

Yellow Hat: In what way is the story well written, well-researched, (seemingly) backed by evidence?
Black Hat: In what way is this story poorly written, misleading, difficult to understand, one-sided, unfocused?
Green Hat: What interesting issues does the story raise?
Blue Hat: How best to think about this story?
Red Hat: How did you feel when you read this this news story?
White Hat: What facts (as opposed to opinion) are presented in this news story? What relevant facts do you know independently of this story? Where is more information required?

I haven't tried this myself - so if it doesn't work for you let me know and I will take another look.

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Permalink Reply by Phil Bachmann on June 20, 2009 at 10:17am

Jenny,

Six Hats is good for group thinking because it gets people to think in parallel - instead of arguing everyone looks at one aspect at once (eg. Yellow Hat why is this a good idea?).

Six Hats is also good for individual thinking - as an attention directing tool. eg. If you need to write an essay on a news story, you might first apply the Six Hats. At the end of this exercise you have a list of interesting points that can form the skeleton of your essay.

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Permalink Reply by Andrew Warner on July 24, 2009 at 4:36am

Hi all,
I just went to a rather emotional farewell assembly for our much loved principal (my kids are at the school and I'm on the board). They use the hats at school in, I assume, the usual fashion but the principal used them to good effect in her farewell speech.

She went through the various emotions she experienced while she was thinking about leaving and explained to the assembly that she decided to think about what she was thinking and feeling. She went through the various hats (I have to confess a very thin understanding of them) and explained how she thought and felt from each perspective. Very poignant!

Cheers,
Andrew.

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