Thank you Hassan Alamori. They are very useful resources. More so for the university level. I am particularly interested in primary level. But I could use the rubric with some modifications.

I think it is a bit difficult to assess critical thinking as what critical thinking is not not clear yet. But you may give out some problems and you ask your students to solve them out and this case you would be able to assess their problem solving skills only not the critical thinking is even difficult to quantify it.

Yes Holi Ali. In this case I am giving such an activity to observe parallel thinking. Because I believe I should assess mainly on the process rather than the end output (solutions), l want a tool to record their performance while the students are engaged and later to provide feedback. Simply conducting Six Hats Thinking may not be enough if we cannot objectively assess using a tool sensitive to the domain.

Dear Moosa

I am VERY interested in your question.

I have helped nearly two thousand people correctly use the Six Thinking Hats since 2000, when I first became an accredited trainer in Edward de Bono's thinking tools in, this has included training and supporting many teachers to introduce the Six Thinking Hats to their students.

I am currently completing my PhD on what happens when people working in teams use de Bono's thinking tools, including the Six Thinking Hats so I am sure I can help you.

If you could explain more clearly however what you are trying to achieve I would be very pleased to discuss a possible solution.

For example: I do not understand what you mean by 'observe parallel thinking' - if your students are taught and then apply the protocols of the Six Thinking Hats when they use them they will automatically be in Parallel Thinking.

Also I do not understand how you are trying to fit 'analytical thinking' and 'problem solving' with the use of the Six Thinking Hats. 

I look forward to discussing these issues with you further.

Regards Ali

Ali Sumner, glad to meet someone pursuing research in this area.

Let me outline what I have been trying to do, and pls let me know whether I am doing this right.

Basically, I have been using Six Thinking Hats to develop students thinking skills and problem solving skills - to show them there are different perspectives and angles to each problem and varied responses which ourselves might be blind to. So in the first phase, I give a basic problem similar to "We have so many flies during summer in Australia. How do we solve this problem?". Students now think of the solutions in parallel assuming different roles. 

In the second phase I do a twist, and this may be not be within the spirit of De Bono's work. I assign different hats to different students as the solutions are presented. This facilitates scrutiny, analysis and judgement as solutions are discussed.

I understand the second phase involves Socratic methods. But how else would we reconcile the design solutions?

What I am looking for is a tool to record all those interactions while the process is going on.

Hmmm - ok.

Firstly it is not possible to use the Six Thinking Hats without following the number one rule of Parallel Thinking, this being, when the Hats are used by a two or more thinkers, including children, all thinkers use the same Hat at the same time.

If you ask your students to all wear different Hats to consider an issue then they are NOT using the Six Thinking Hats, this is fundamental - not following the protocols of the methodology means you will not get the results the methodology is designed to deliver - therefore you are doing your students a disfavour rather than helping them with their thinking. 

Secondly, the Six Thinking Hats are designed by de Bono for 'operacy'. This is a very important point when teaching children how to use the Six Thinking Hats. Schools are good at educating students for numeracy and literacy but not good at educating them for operacy - this is the skill of operating or getting things done with their thinking in a way that is relevant to their everyday lives. The aim therefore is to help them learn how to use the Six Thinking Hats with issues they encounter in real life, at school, at play, at home etc.

Asking children to use the Six Thinking Hats to consider the problem "We have so many flies during summer in Australia. How do we solve this problem?" is a theoretical exercise which doesn't really give them a chance to learn to think better by using the Hats.

Unless this issue was used to train children in how to use the Six Thinking Hats in which case it could be useful, because it is not an issue that is close to what they may be concerned about, so personal feelings or concerns wont get in the way of them learning how to use the Six Thinking Hats with a 'remote' issue.

If it was used for training I suggest however that it should be presented to children with the wording: 'your thinking focus is to solve the problem of Australia having too many flies in summer" ... using the term: your thinking focus is.... is using Blue Hat language which should be used at the beginning of any thinking on any topic.

Training in the use of the Six Thinking Hats always starts with a 'remote' (but motivating) issue that is far away from the learner's concern, for example: a remote issue for a learner at primary level could be: 'create ideas for a new type of bicycle'.

After a student has personally learned step by step how to use each of the Hats with remote exercises then practice can move to 'backyard issues' ... these are issues that are closer to the learner's everyday life, for example: a backyard issue for a primary child could be: 'create ideas for birthday presents for your family'.

When the learner has personally practised and applied all the protocols, rules and principles that need to be learned for using each Hat (at the level they can handle, according to their age) on remote then backyard issues (just like someone who is learning to be a carpenter practises on rough pieces of wood before they are ready to build a fine piece of furniture) then they can be supported to come up with their own real-life issues to focus on at anytime or be given real-life issues that are important for them to think about.

For example a real-life 'academic' issue a primary child may need to think about personally could be: 'develop ways I can get better at reading' ... or a non-academic issue they may need to think about personally, could be for example: 'solve the problem I have with being alone at lunchtime'.

Working out what issue they need to focus on is done with Blue Hat thinking, after deciding on the issue then Blue Hat thinking is used to decide which Hats will be used to think about the issue.

When children have learned to use the Six Thinking Hats personally they can then learn how to use them with other children - that means learning the rule of Parallel Thinking - everyone wears the same Hat at the same time, and other rules such as:

• start with Blue Hat to work out the issue that needs to be thought about
• end with Blue Hat to work out the action that needs to be taken, decisions that need to be made
• anyone can put on Blue Hat at anytime (to help people get back to focus if they have drifted away from the issue, to make a summary of thinking so far, to get people back on the Hat that is being used if they start using a different Hat to everyone else).

A group of children who have learned to use the Six Thinking Hat can focus on anything for example: 'develop a story for our team play that is going to make everyone laugh' ... or 'solve the problem of bullying so we can all be happy at school' ... or 'create ideas on how our class can learn to write better' ... any real-life topic can be focused on with Blue Hat thinking.

The next step, still using Blue Hat thinking is to decide an appropriate sequence of Hats relevant to the issue that is being dealt with and how much time should be used on each Hat.

For example with the Australian flies issue, this might be White Hat - 5 mins (What information do we have about too many flies in Australia during summer? What information do we need?), Green Hat - 5 mins (generate many ideas on how to solve the problem of too many flies in Australia during summer), Red Hat - few seconds each person (use feelings to choose the best idea), Blue Hat - 3 mins, to decide what to do next ... Give all their ideas to the teacher? Throw all our ideas away? Write a letter to the Australian Prime Minister? Forget about solving the problem and go to lunch? ...etc.

In regards to 'socratic methods', 'analysis', 'judgement', 'critical thinking' etc  ... the Six Thinking Hats have not been designed to test children with any of this - the Six Thinking Hats should be taught to children for the reasons they were designed by de Bono this includes:

• to unravel our thinking so it is not all mixed up
• to be able to switch our thinking between different modes of thinking on-demand when we need to (to solve, create, generate, design, consider, evaluate, analyse, decide, plan, develop etc ... all of which are different thinking 'verbs' that can be used with Blue Hat focus to do everyday thinking about any issue, task or problem)
• stop adversarial thinking ... this means to stop argument, judgement of other people's ideas and critical thinking to prove 'I and right and you are wrong' and debating ... so we can be highly productive thinkers and move forward together with our thinking, creating new solutions together, instead of wasting time 
• to stop critical judgement and blocking ideas, and paralysis by analysis and a make a space for creative thinking at anytime, to come up with new solutions, solve problems, be entrepreneurial

There is so much more to thinking than analysis and judgement, if judgement is needed however to decide if an idea is going to work or to make a decision between one option or another - this is just one of many many focuses that can be set up with Blue Hat thinking, or if something needs to be evaluated this too is just one of many focuses that can be set up with Blue Hat thinking.

Then an appropriate Hat sequence can be decided ... for evaluating (i.e. judging), this will always include Yellow Hat (always first) then Black Hat. When using both of these Hats logic has to be used to justify one's ideas, if children learn how to use these two Hats properly they will know how to make sound, justifiable judgements with pristine logic ... and know when to use them, not use them all the time when it's in appropriate.

They learn that judging an idea with Yellow Hat - even if the idea seems stupid, is good thinking and judging an idea with Black Hat - even if it seems like the best idea in the world, is good thinking. Most of all they learn critical thinking to break down someone else's argument is not good thinking, it just wastes time when they and the other person could be moving forward with new ideas together.

In regards to 'analysis', this too is only needed in a small way - it is given far too much attention as being 'good thinking' ... I think however I need to leave this topic for another post :)

Cheers Ali  

Thank you Ali for the detailed response. That clarifies some important aspects of it.

Hi Moosa - I also suggest you have a look at de Bono's CoRT thinking program - this has many problem solving, decision making and creativity tools - it is a series of lessons teachers can deliver in the classroom - it is used in schools throughout the world and there have been several research studies done on the value and benefits of CoRT - I have attached a link which will take you to a website with many resources for teachers and information about CoRT https://www.dendrite.me/community/view/communityid/543539c6851dc65f418b4567#