"Six Thinking Hats" Worn by ESP Students Vesna Tasevska Macedonia

Thinking creatively Thinking creatively means conceiving and understanding things in new ways, developing new approaches, finding fresh perspectives or shifting them easily, being curious and being original.

Thinking creatively (count.) Creativity consists largely of rearranging what we know in order to find out what we do not know. Rearrangement usually offers countless alternatives for ideas, goods, and services

limes  if life gives you rearrange the letters of limes into Take ordinary words and rearrange the letters to create new words that will surprise and startle you if life gives you limes rearrange the letters of limes into 

Rearrange the letters to create new words ASTRONOMER DORMITORY THE EYES THE MORSE CODE ELEVEN PLUS TWO ELECTION RESULTS DESPERATION

The letters rearranged: STAR MOONER DIRTY ROOM THEY SEE HERE COME DOTS TWELVE PLUS ONE LIES – LET’S RECOUNT A ROPE ENDS IT

Creative thinking Psychology describes creative thinking as a complex personal trait and a cognitive process regarding problem solving. As a personal trait, it is debatable whether creative thinking can be learned or not. However, as a cognitive process, methods can be learned to change the thinking process.

Creative thinking (cont.) Thormann (2007) defines creative thinking as finding ideas, developing alternatives and making decisions by going beyond the routines and the usual. In her opinion, creative thinking can be learned by training creativity and learning about creative methods.

Creative thinking (cont.) Bonsch and Kaiser (2002) define three components of creative thinking: the intellectual aspect (ability to produce ideas), the motivational aspect (preparedness to think of something new and to articulate these thoughts) and the emotional aspect (courage to think out-of-the box, to resist pressure to conform, to take risks).

Creative thinking (cont.) For Edward de Bono creativity seems to cover everything from creating confusion to creating a symphony. Therefore, he invents the term lateral thinking in 1967 which has become officially part of the English language.

Lateral thinking “the term lateral thinking needed to be invented for two reasons. The first reason is the very broad and somewhat vague meaning of the word creative. The second reason is that lateral thinking is directly based on information behavior in active self-organizing information systems.”

Lateral thinking (count.) Lateral thinking is very precisely concerned with changing concepts and perceptions; these are historically determined organizations (patterns) of experience.

Lateral thinking puzzles A man lives in the penthouse of an apartment building. Every morning he takes the elevator down to the lobby and leaves the building. Upon his return, however, he can only travel halfway up in the lift and has to walk the rest of the way - unless it's raining. What is the explanation for this?

Lateral thinking puzzles (cont.) Solution: The man is a dwarf. He can't reach the upper elevator buttons, but he can ask people to push them for him. He can also push them with his umbrella.

Lateral thinking puzzles (cont.) There are six eggs in the basket. Six people each take one of the eggs. How can it be that one egg is left in the basket?

Lateral thinking puzzles (cont.) Solution: The last person took the basket with the last egg still inside.

Lateral thinking puzzles (cont.) You are driving down the road in your car on a wild, stormy night, when you pass by a bus stop and you see three people waiting for the bus: 1. An old lady who looks as if she is about to die. 2. An old friend who once saved your life. 3. The perfect partner you have been dreaming about. Knowing that there can only be one passenger in your car, whom would you choose?

Lateral thinking puzzles (cont.) Solution: The old lady of course! After helping the old lady into the car, you can give your keys to your friend, and wait with your perfect partner for the bus.

Parallel thinking Another term coined by Edward de Bono is parallel thinking. Parallel thinking means that at any moment everyone is looking in the same direction.

Parallel thinking In parallel thinking, both views, no matter how contradictory, are put down in parallel. If later on it is essential to choose between the different positions, then an attempt to choose is made. If a choice cannot be made, then the design has to cover both possibilities.

Six Thinking Hats It is a thinking tool which uses parallel thinking where groups go through a planning thinking processes in a detailed and cohesive way, improving the quality of decision-making processes and looking at the effects of a decision from a number of different points of view.

Six Thinking Hats (cont.) It is also an effective tool for individual thinking and using a 'six thinking hats' sequence ensures that all aspects of an issue are considered equally.

WHITE HAT - symbolizes neutrality and objectivity - concerned with facts and figures and focuses on information - used towards the beginning of the thinking sessions as a background for the thinking that is going to take place - lays out the means (surveys and questionnaires) for obtaining the information needed - provides a means to separate pure information from judgment.

RED HAT - gives the emotional view to the issue discussed - timing - only a short time is needed to get the red hat feeling - no explanations or qualifications - always done on an individual basis - used towards the beginning of the meeting depending on the issues discussed

BLACK HAT - black is somber and serious, cautious and careful. - most used and most important - black is somber and serious, cautious and careful. - points out the weaknesses in an idea - describes thinking that seems to be cautious and seems to point out possible difficulties - points out how something does not fit our resources, our policy, our strategy, our ethics, our values, and so forth

YELLOW HAT - look for values, benefits in a suggestion - optimistic, hopeful, positive and constructive - look for values, benefits in a suggestion - put the idea into practice - covers a positive spectrum ranging from the logical and practical at one end, to dreams, visions and hopes at the other end

GREEN HAT - creativity, new ideas, options and alternatives - a specific time is set out for everyone to make a creative effort - acknowledges that creativity is a key ingredient in thinking - green hat thinking is concerned with change

BLUE HAT - concerned with control, the organization of the thinking process and the use of the other hats - used both at the beginning and at the end of the session - at the beginning of a thinking session - defines the situation - may seek alternative definitions of a problem

- lays out what is to be achieved BLUE HAT - lays out what is to be achieved - determines the agenda or sequence of use of the other hats - sets the thinking ‘strategy’ - keeps the discipline and ensures that people keep to the relevant hat

BLUE HAT - at end of a session - asks for the outcome - summary, conclusion, decision, solution - action steps, or further thinking on some points - the chairperson has an automatic blue hat function - keeps order and makes sure that the agenda is observed

Six Thinking Hats (cont.) Two basic ways to use the hats: - singly to request a type of thinking - in a sequence to explore a subject or solve a problem

Heinz Dilemma A woman was dying from a special kind of cancer. There was one drug that the doctors thought might save her. It was a form of radium that a druggist in the same town had recently discovered. The drug was expensive to make, but the druggist was charging $2,000 dollars, ten times what the drug cost him to produce. The sick woman's husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he could only get together about half of what it cost. He told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked him to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist said "No”. The husband got desperate and broke into the man's store to steal the drug for his wife. Should the husband have done that? Why?

Six Thinking Hats (cont.) the students were given an open-ended questionnaire to express their views on using the Six Thinking Hats method

Conclusion - demonstrates a different way of seeing the problem - provides for observing all the aspects of an issue, the good sides, the bad sides, the facts, the problem, the solution. - very effective, useful, productive and helpful method which can provide positive results in many fields

Conclusion (cont.) - the biggest enemy of thinking is complexity because that leads to confusion - when thinking is clear and simple, it becomes more enjoyable and more effective

Questions?

Vesna Tasevska tasevska_v@yahoo.com Thank you Vesna Tasevska tasevska_v@yahoo.com