Critical Thinking: de Bono

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Critical Thinking de Bonos 6-Hat strategy
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Specific Lesson The 21st Century demands these
sorts of critical thinking skills more than ever
before
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
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
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Six-Hats Technique
So how are we going to develop our critical
thinking skills in this PSHCE unit?

• 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

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Edward de Bono
What is the background to this approach?

• 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.

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Six-Hats Technique