Embedded Task One - Reflection On Activity: De Bono's Hats
De Bono's Hats; one of the most memorable and interesting primary school group tasks ever accomplished in the 00's. Familiar as I was with this type of activity, I was ready to jump right in. Metaphorically placing that first hat on my head felt like primary school all over again.That being said, De Bono's Hats is not limited to primary school. In fact, being as thought-directing as it is, De Bono's Hats can be used in any situation. For example, as an English teacher, I could utilise De Bono's Hats with my students to work out their argument in an essay or feature article piece. The possibilities, as they say, are endless.
De Bono's Hats, structured as it is, allows students to untangle their thoughts and look at one piece of the argument at a time. First off, the White hat asks them for the facts, and only the facts. No personal opinion here! The Yellow and Black hats ask for the positives and the negatives, respectively. Students, with these hats metaphorically on their heads, can focus individually on the benefits and the judgements that may arise about the issue.
The Red and Green hats turn the matter away from the facts and more toward the student's own personal opinion. The Red hat asks for the emotions and feeling about the topic, which allows the student to move from a logical and empirical outlook on the topic to a more emotion driven one. The Green hat then asks the student about possibilities and alternatives, challenging them to be creative about a solution.
All in all, a rather well thought out approach to a topic or issue. Its thought producing style encourages student's to slow down and consider each piece instead of looking too much at the picture as a whole. This keeps in mind Bloom's work and the idea about how student's must break down work to understand it.
Useful even in everyday life, this activity will remain happily amongst my pedagogy tools.
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