Critical Thinking: de Bono’s 6-Hat strategy

“Those who know how to think need no

teachers.” —Mahatma Gandhi"If everyone is thinking the same way, nobody

is really thinking" —George Patton

“If you cannot write well, you cannot think

well; if you cannot think well, others will do

your thinking for you.”—George Orwell

“Many highly intelligent people are poor

thinkers. The power of the car is separate from

the way the car is driven.”—Edward De Bono

Specific Lesson: The 21st Century demands these sorts of critical thinking skills more than ever before

“The illiterate of the 21st Century will not be those who can't read or write, but those who can't learn, unlearn and relearn” John Toffler

Six-Hats Technique

• Many major international organisations use this technique for problem solving.

• Each ‘hat’ represents a completely different way of thinking

• In groups we will ask members to ‘put on’ different hats in a sequence to aid the problem solving process

• This can help overcome the problem of each group member adopting random positions at random times

• It also permits us to control people who insist of sticking to one perspective - we can ask them to assume a different hat

So how are we going to develop our critical thinking skills in this PSHCE unit?

Edward de Bono

Edward de Bono has written 56 books with translations in 34 languages. He was born in Malta, won a scholarship to Oxford University and has worked at the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, London and Harvard.

Dr de Bono is the originator of the term 'lateral thinking' which now has an official entry in the Oxford English Dictionary. He is regarded as the leading international authority in the direct teaching of thinking as a skill.

What is the background to this approach?

Six-Hats Technique