De Bono’s “Thinking Hats” Activity: Mobile phones.

A brief description: the De Bono's "thinking hats" activity for the current week (2) consisted of a table layout as seen in figure 1, and a question or topic, which in this case was "the use of mobile phones in the classroom". The activity encourages the participants to put on a thinking hat and answer the question using that hats particular mindset. The end result as seen in figure 2, allows multiple answers or opinions to be viewed within a range of "thinking hat" perspectives. Only one "thinking hat" perspective is shown in figure 2.

Figure 1: a blank form

Figure 2: an example of the end result

Through my own personal participation, I found myself genuinely enjoying this activity as I felt I could actually approach the question and answer it in the "right" way. The simple layout and straightforward instructions allowed the task to be undertaken with ease, however most importantly for me it prompted a particular way of answering the question. While discouraging off topic answers the thinking hats allow you to answer in a multitude of ways or perspectives through donning each different hat, which in turn allows the participants to consider all aspects of the topic. This task set up leaves no vague instructions, a point I appreciated immensely as I myself struggle answering questions that are "open to interpretation" as this can often be overwhelming.

In a classroom environment an activity like this can contribute to learning through having students moving forward with their work quickly and with ease. Such an activity which allows for students to see what other students think in a semi-real time manner, which (like a debate) can allow for expanded thought processes by students who see other sides of the argument. This provides an opportunity to challenge each other with their responses through differing opinions or suggesting new views that have not yet been spoken of- such as I was challenged to do  throughout my own participation. All with which encourage deeper consideration of the task question, which in turn allows for a deeper and more valuable learning outcome. That is however, only the desired outcome. While this task works for university students who are adults and will most always have a go, high school students may differ in their approach to the task. For example this activity shows responses colour coded to the participating student's name, this could be intimidating and lead to worries such as "will my work be as good as the person that has written a whole paragraph?", "what if my opinions or ideas are wrong?" or "will this create an opportunity for bullying or belittlement?" as it can safely be assumed (in my opinion) that more students than we think are uncomfortable with such a confronting activity. I offer this opinion, as I was one of these students. Also by allowing students to see what other students have answered, it is possible that students who lack the confidence to attempt the task honestly or who are not interested or engaged by this method will simply paraphrase or re-write what other students have written, without thinking about it much themselves.

This activity can be altered for a high school setting through making it anonymous, so that students can feel safe about sharing as I am of the belief that a safe learning environment is highly important. However, this may mean that without a way to discern who has submitted what through logs or a secondary submission, this would not accepted for assessment. I would also suggest that this activity be printed or emailed out separately- this activity would need to somehow dispensed so that a student did not have the option of sabotaging another's entry although edit logs can reveal this, the possibility remains (as seen by what happens to some Wikipedia pages). Perhaps this activity would be best used as a brainstorming exercise for opinionative or analytical essays, where a student would fill out the sheet with their own answers and name and the teacher would add them anonymously to the wiki afterwards to then take advantage of this activities main perk; comparison.

This activity in its most simple form provides scaffolding with the purpose of exercising a higher level of thinking through the use of some of the terms mentioned in Bloom's taxonomy's comprehension sector such as "contrast", "compare", "differentiate" (figure 3).

Figure 3: Bloom's Taxonomy

This scaffolding can be incorporated into near any pedagogy to aid in the improvement of learning outcomes. To conclude my blog for today I have left some of my considerations and suggestions as to what I intend by this.

English: a brainstorming exercise for opinionative or analytical essays, where a student would fill out the sheet with their own answers and name and the teacher would add them anonymously to the wiki afterwards to then take advantage of this activities main perk; comparison.

Business: a pitch method within marketing possibly where students consider the best method of presentation and topic, this could also with the right class encourage a healthy competition where the teacher could incorporate some sort of reward.