Six Thinking Hats Research in South Wales School
Two hundred and eighty three geography pupils at Key Stage 3 have been involved in an action research project on Six Thinking Hats. The research covered two thirds of the geography Key Stage 3 curriculum, and was conducted by a teacher at a large South Wales Valley school.
The teacher who undertook the research says, "The driving force for the research was a feeling of improvement I had when using the Six Thinking Hats - both in pupil participation and their development of complex ideas. I wanted to do a real investigation to get a clear understanding of what the effects were."
Five different methods for gathering data about the effects of using the hats were used:
- Pupil questionaires
- Pupil self-evaluation
- Lesson observation (conducted by the Head of Department looking at collaboration, engagement and idea development of the pupils);
- Structured and qualitative interviews with a sample of 44 pupils
- Assessment of pupil work before and after implementation of the strategy.
Dr. Adrian West, The Edward de Bono Foundation UK's Research Director commented "I'm greatly impressed by the sheer amount of work put in to this, and the thoroughness of the approach. Whilst teaching full time too - it's quite an achievement".
The conclusions of the research were that "Thinking is a learned activity and that the structured approach of Dr. de Bono has a positive impact on pupils higher order thinking skills". For one group project, year 9's who received some of their previous teaching using hats could be compared to those who had not. "It was evident from the quality of work and the number of those achieving level 6 and above (63% vs 87%) that the strategy does impact on pupil creativity and higher order thinking".
The research focused on cognitive ability, however it became evident that there was also a major positive impact upon behaviour in the classroom. The observer noted the reduction in teacher intervention towards inappropriate behaviour, such as disruption or lack of being on-task.
Thinking preferences
Because the hats give a familiar vocabulary for aspects of thinking, it became possible to look at pupils' preferences for particular hats. It is important not to over-interpret these expressions of preference by categorising pupils - and it is not part of the Six Thinking Hats process to suggest that. However, enquiring about preferences for different hats does lead to interesting discoveries: how they correlate to other factors; and how they change with development.
A preference for Red Hat for example tended to correlate 'gut' reaction responses, or decision making being more overtly influenced by feeling. "quite often these pupils will look at a task and respond 'I don't get it' before they even attempt the task". There are fascinating links between preference for positive and negative hats, and areas around self esteem and behaviour too.
Green hat preference correlated strongly to CAT predictions of high achievement, and raises the question:
"Are higher order thinkers created through using thinking strategies, or are they higher order thinkers due to their ability?".
Additional work looked at pupils preferring multiple hats, and how this varied between year groups.
The teacher conducting the research observed "De Bono's Thinking Hats cover most of the thinking skills in the ESIS 'Thinking Strategies Across The Curriculum Matrix', and when adapted for evaluative purposes it also enables pupils to take responsibility for their own learning. As a supporting programme to the teaching of thinking skills, this strategy is one of the most comprehensive in developing pupils thinking.
The aim of teaching thinking skills is to create a generation self-sufficient in problem solving and team-working skills, and if one strategy is to be adopted, this could be the way forward".
The researcher commented: "From these experiences I'd really like to do more research in working with thinking preferences. It may be possible to find effective learning strategies by accommodating different thinking styles."