Showing posts with label The Six Thinking Hats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Six Thinking Hats. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Put your thinking hat on: How Edward de Bono's ideas are transforming schools
Teaching children how to think has brought academic success to schools in Manchester. But will techniques pioneered by the guru Edward de Bono catch on?
Rapt in thought, the four-year-old is taking part in a discussion about improving playtime. With a scowl of concentration, he clutches on to Patsy, the black-hatted teddy, and says: "A football hit me in the face once."
This is the reception class at Ditton Primary School, near Widnes, and the teacher, Jackie Timmis, has asked him about the negative aspects of football.
His classmates have already made it clear they recognise what facts are – it is what Fred, the white-hatted teddy, encourages. Red-capped Fifi puts them in touch with what they feel about an idea. Patsy is fixed on the negatives, yellow-clad Hal on the positives, while cuddly Ivor is as fertile with creative ideas as his green hat. Blue-hatted Bella is "the boss" organising their thinking.
They don't know it, but they are using Edward De Bono's structured thinking technique, the Six Thinking Hats, that colour codes different ways of tackling a question, to give them a framework for problem-solving and exploring ideas. The hats have been turned into teddies, given the pupils' age.
These are advanced concepts for such young children but Ditton Primary is an accredited Thinking School, committed according to the head teacher, Carol Lawrenson, to creating "little thinking creatures".
This scene at Ditton may be played out in classrooms across the UK in the next few years, if thinking guru Edward de Bono succeeds in introducing the key concepts of his thinking framework, the Six Thinking Hats and lateral thinking, into the national curriculum.
The Edward De Bono Foundation has just set up the world's first university-based Centre of Serious Creativity and Constructive Thinking at Manchester Metropolitan University's Crewe campus. And Ditton is an exemplar school. Manchester Met is the largest university for the teaching of education in Europe, so work has already begun to teach academics De Bono's concepts via four-day courses in order to disseminate this to teachers. Manchester's academies are already showing significant interest in taking on the concepts.
Chief executive of the De Bono Foundation UK, Bob Rawlinson, is passionate about the need for a change from what he considers an overly Socratic to a more creative approach to thinking and learning in schools. "All my life I've believed in the development of people to get the best out of them," he says. "I believe passionately that this should be done at the earliest possible age to inspire children to achieve."
Research evidence obtained by the De Bono Foundation suggests his tools can have a positive impact on academic achievement and behaviour. As part of the Government's New Deal job-finding programme, teaching youngsters the De Bono thinking systems for only six hours improved their employment rate by 500 per cent.
Ditton Primary has been using the De Bono methods for the past six years alongside several other thinking methods – Hyerle's Thinking Maps, Art Costa's Habits of Mind and Spencer Kagan's Co-operative Learning – powered by Carol Lawrenson's vision to turn out children equipped to think for the 21st century: "We want our children to be respectful, responsible, resourceful, good creators and successful in whatever intelligences they show," she says. "That is more important than success in Key Stage 3."
Her school in one of the most deprived boroughs in the country, is also always in the top 15 per cent of primaries in the country for academic results. Bullying is rare and there have been only 11 disciplinary incidents since February 2008. Before the introduction of the thinking tools that figure would have represented a half term.
Traditional subject areas have been thrown out. Thinking books replace exercise books. The curriculum is taught entirely in seven themes such as problem solving and reasoning, creative development or knowledge and understanding of the world. But all subjects are taught with creative thinking tools at the fore. Images of the coloured hats crop up all over the school and lessons are peppered with references like "let's apply some green hat (creative) thinking" or "White hats on – what are the facts?" At the end of 2008, Ditton and two other nearby nationally-accredited thinking schools formed a consultancy – Halton Thinking Schools (HATS) – to train other schools.
According to Professor Chris Husbands, of London's Institute of Education, research evidence confirms the importance of teaching thinking. Ten years ago, the national curriculum gave few opportunities to teach it, not so now. He cautions, however: "The most important thing in determining the quality of education is the quality of teaching."
Thinking tools may be a way to improve teaching, but they are very time-consuming in the classroom. Their use is easier in primary schools, but in high schools they only work when incorporated into subjects by committed teachers, says Husbands.
This is what has happened at St Ambrose Barlow Roman Catholic High School in Swinton, Salford, which achieved 88 per cent A*-C passes at GCSE despite having many pupils from deprived homes. It has been designated a National School of Creativity – only the second in the North West.
The head teacher, Marie Garside, has overseen the introduction of a number of thinking tools including De Bono's across all year groups, for several years. The Thinking Hats add power to thinking across the curriculum on issues such as the destruction of the rain forest but the school also used it to work with Salford Council on plans for the regeneration of the deprived area of Langworthy. Eighty six per cent of pupils go on to post-16 education.
"The impact on the school of using these tools is that we now have more confident learners," she says. "Children need a completely new set of skills to deal with data than they did when I started teaching 33 years ago. I want to produce thinkers, not exam fodder.
(By Rachel Pugh /The Independent)
Saturday, March 15, 2008
The mind reader: a profile of Edward de Bono
He's credited with being the father of lateral thinking and claims to have saved companies millions just by changing their mindset. So how is Edward de Bono unlocking this creativity? Louise Druce finds out.
Imagine your organisation could save millions of pounds just by thinking. It sounds a little far-fetched but Edward de Bono is living proof that anything is possible if you put your mind to it in the right way.
De Bono is credited with coining the phrase 'lateral thinking' 40 years ago and today is still regarded as a leader in creative thinking, innovation and the direct teaching of thinking as a skill, amongst companies and governments alike.
In fact, his teaching techniques have proved so popular, he now has his own army of trainers spreading the word. And, if their feedback is to be believed, the results are impressive. According to de Bono, a company in Arizona saved a whopping $84 million dollars by taking his methods onboard and adopting a different approach to a project; similarly, a Canadian company saved $20m in its first year, while in South Africa, a workshop using lateral thinking tools generated 21,000 new ideas in just one afternoon.
"In Norway, they had an oil problem they had been thinking about for weeks," de Bono continues. "One of my trainers introduced [creative thinking] techniques and within six minutes they had a solution that saved them $10m."
Brain-storming is not enough
Born in Malta, de Bono followed in the family footsteps and was awarded a medical degree at the country's Royal University before going on to gain a degree in psychology and physiology and a DPhil in medicine at Oxford in the UK. During this time he became fascinated by the way the brain functions and wrote The Mechanism of Mind, published in 1969, in which he demonstrated how the nerve networks in the brain formed asymmetric patterns as the basis of perception.
He has gone on to author over 70 books, which have been translated into numerous languages. The appeal of his work, according to his own website biography, is its 'simplicity and practicality' as his methods can be used by anyone from four-year-olds to Nobel laureates. The focus is on 'improving the elements that constitute a perception and the formal design and application of the frameworks required towards innovative and creative action'.
Not only can his methods be found on many a school curriculum across the globe (it's compulsory in Venezuela), they have been sought by the who's who of big business, including Boeing, Nokia, Rolex, Siemens, Nestle, Goldman Sachs and Ernst & Young, among others.
Surely the question is, then, if introducing creativity and innovation in the workplace is so simple and can guarantee successful results that could save big bucks, why is it still being stifled or non-existent in the British workplace? De Bono admits there are still a lot of people who aren't aware of his techniques or haven't had the right training so they are doomed to failure. "It's like mathematics or anything else," he explains. "You've got to learn the technique and then apply it."
But there are other forces at work, namely a stubborn and backwards-looking mindset. When speaking at a recent Leaders in London conference, de Bono pointed out many organisations work on the principle that if they collect enough data in their computers, this will set the strategy. "Unless you see the data in different ways, you will be stuck with the same old notions," he argues.
De Bono also accuses people of paying lip service to creativity and innovation. "They talk about it but they don't know a lot about it," he says. "There is the old-fashioned idea that brain-storming is enough or that creativity is just chance – some people are creative, some are not and one day you'll have an idea and there is nothing you can do about it. All this can be changed."
Wearing a different hat
The provocation technique is one of de Bono's favourites. This is where provocative statements are used to build new ideas by exploring the nature of perception and how it limits our creativity. However, the most popular of his methods by far is 'The Six Thinking Hats': an alternative to instigating raging arguments in the meeting room just to get your point across.
As the name implies, each team member separates their thinking into six 'hats' or categories, which are identified using a colour system. For example, the white hat signifies information known or needed, while the red hat signifies feelings, hunches and intuition, and the green hat focuses on the creative process. When each hat is introduced, the team switches to this mode of thinking to tap into collective knowledge, rather than being at odds.
"Each person is thinking in parallel, constructively, not all going against each other," de Bono explains. This eliminates egos and, according to some participants, can cut meetings to a quarter or even a tenth of the usual time. It can also be applied on a wider scale, as proved after the catastrophic tsunami in December 2004. "In Sri Lanka, the aid agencies were squabbling and didn't know what to do," says de Bono. "The government invited one of my trainers to teach the six hats and in one day they had a plan of action. Now the government insists all aid agencies have to learn the technique."
Although he has his own followers to teach his methods and despite now being in his 70s, de Bono is still in great demand as an author, speaker and advisor, and clearly still enjoys his work. "My approach to creative thinking has got stronger seeing people do all these things, that they can do these things and it produces results," he says. "I am even more sure [the techniques] work now because there is so much experience with them."
Even with the constant jet-setting, he still manages to find downtime to keep the creative juices flowing. "Obviously I can think while I'm travelling, not when I'm writing," de Bono adds. Although he says when he does switch to author mode, he likes to find somewhere with a view to sit down and write. In January alone, he wrote four books while in Malta. "It fits in," he adds. "Thinking isn't restricted."
(TrainingZone)
Imagine your organisation could save millions of pounds just by thinking. It sounds a little far-fetched but Edward de Bono is living proof that anything is possible if you put your mind to it in the right way.
De Bono is credited with coining the phrase 'lateral thinking' 40 years ago and today is still regarded as a leader in creative thinking, innovation and the direct teaching of thinking as a skill, amongst companies and governments alike.
In fact, his teaching techniques have proved so popular, he now has his own army of trainers spreading the word. And, if their feedback is to be believed, the results are impressive. According to de Bono, a company in Arizona saved a whopping $84 million dollars by taking his methods onboard and adopting a different approach to a project; similarly, a Canadian company saved $20m in its first year, while in South Africa, a workshop using lateral thinking tools generated 21,000 new ideas in just one afternoon.
"In Norway, they had an oil problem they had been thinking about for weeks," de Bono continues. "One of my trainers introduced [creative thinking] techniques and within six minutes they had a solution that saved them $10m."
Brain-storming is not enough
Born in Malta, de Bono followed in the family footsteps and was awarded a medical degree at the country's Royal University before going on to gain a degree in psychology and physiology and a DPhil in medicine at Oxford in the UK. During this time he became fascinated by the way the brain functions and wrote The Mechanism of Mind, published in 1969, in which he demonstrated how the nerve networks in the brain formed asymmetric patterns as the basis of perception.
He has gone on to author over 70 books, which have been translated into numerous languages. The appeal of his work, according to his own website biography, is its 'simplicity and practicality' as his methods can be used by anyone from four-year-olds to Nobel laureates. The focus is on 'improving the elements that constitute a perception and the formal design and application of the frameworks required towards innovative and creative action'.
Not only can his methods be found on many a school curriculum across the globe (it's compulsory in Venezuela), they have been sought by the who's who of big business, including Boeing, Nokia, Rolex, Siemens, Nestle, Goldman Sachs and Ernst & Young, among others.
Surely the question is, then, if introducing creativity and innovation in the workplace is so simple and can guarantee successful results that could save big bucks, why is it still being stifled or non-existent in the British workplace? De Bono admits there are still a lot of people who aren't aware of his techniques or haven't had the right training so they are doomed to failure. "It's like mathematics or anything else," he explains. "You've got to learn the technique and then apply it."
But there are other forces at work, namely a stubborn and backwards-looking mindset. When speaking at a recent Leaders in London conference, de Bono pointed out many organisations work on the principle that if they collect enough data in their computers, this will set the strategy. "Unless you see the data in different ways, you will be stuck with the same old notions," he argues.
De Bono also accuses people of paying lip service to creativity and innovation. "They talk about it but they don't know a lot about it," he says. "There is the old-fashioned idea that brain-storming is enough or that creativity is just chance – some people are creative, some are not and one day you'll have an idea and there is nothing you can do about it. All this can be changed."
Wearing a different hat
The provocation technique is one of de Bono's favourites. This is where provocative statements are used to build new ideas by exploring the nature of perception and how it limits our creativity. However, the most popular of his methods by far is 'The Six Thinking Hats': an alternative to instigating raging arguments in the meeting room just to get your point across.
As the name implies, each team member separates their thinking into six 'hats' or categories, which are identified using a colour system. For example, the white hat signifies information known or needed, while the red hat signifies feelings, hunches and intuition, and the green hat focuses on the creative process. When each hat is introduced, the team switches to this mode of thinking to tap into collective knowledge, rather than being at odds.
"Each person is thinking in parallel, constructively, not all going against each other," de Bono explains. This eliminates egos and, according to some participants, can cut meetings to a quarter or even a tenth of the usual time. It can also be applied on a wider scale, as proved after the catastrophic tsunami in December 2004. "In Sri Lanka, the aid agencies were squabbling and didn't know what to do," says de Bono. "The government invited one of my trainers to teach the six hats and in one day they had a plan of action. Now the government insists all aid agencies have to learn the technique."
Although he has his own followers to teach his methods and despite now being in his 70s, de Bono is still in great demand as an author, speaker and advisor, and clearly still enjoys his work. "My approach to creative thinking has got stronger seeing people do all these things, that they can do these things and it produces results," he says. "I am even more sure [the techniques] work now because there is so much experience with them."
Even with the constant jet-setting, he still manages to find downtime to keep the creative juices flowing. "Obviously I can think while I'm travelling, not when I'm writing," de Bono adds. Although he says when he does switch to author mode, he likes to find somewhere with a view to sit down and write. In January alone, he wrote four books while in Malta. "It fits in," he adds. "Thinking isn't restricted."
(TrainingZone)
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