Dedworth Middle School’s use of Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats Tool
The 6 Thinking Hats approach is an important and powerful technique to aid and structure thinking. Each of the ‘hats’ represent a different type of thinking.
| Hat colour |
What is represents |
How to remember it |
| White |
Facts and figures |
White is the colour of paper where we write down the facts and figures |
| Red |
Feelings and emotions |
The colour of the heart which is symbolic of emotions |
| Black |
Negatives, Cons, reasons to be against an idea |
Black cloud |
| Yellow |
Positives, Pros, reasons to be for an idea |
Sunshine |
| Green |
New ideas, outside the box thinking |
Spring time, new things growing |
| Blue |
Next steps, how to plan to move forward, actions to be taken |
Blue sky thinking |
These thinking hats are used by everyone, without having to think about it, but thinking about how we think encourages the skills to:
- Be confident decision-makers,
- Reach conclusions more easily,
- Be quicker at weighing up the pros and cons of situations or ideas, to name a few.
More information can be found on the De Bono Group website.