Thinking Hats as Metacommunication

Thinking Hats as Metacommunication

The aim is to equip students with conversation ‘de-blocking’ responses.

1. The teacher explains the use of the 6 Hats and puts the thinking Hats (black, white, blue, red, green and yellow) in a prominent place around the room.

• The teacher could refer to https://iqdoodle.com/six-thinking-hats/

2. The students select a problem that needs to be addressed (e.g. The challenges faced by an international entrepreneur by a one week digital lock down in the Asian countries where their production factories are situated – the challenge should be as detailed as possible.
3. One of the students volunteers and selects the BLUE HAT.
4. One of the students volunteers and selects the BLACK HAT.
5. The rest of the students select a coloured Hat.
6.  The teacher explains the game which should last for 25 mins:

• The student with the BLUE Hat starts clapping and shouts out when they think the students should change hats. All the students should clap to reinforce the rhythm.
•  The BLUE Hat shouts out a colour of one of the Hats. The student with this Hat shouts a solution to the problem.   Each time the group claps the neighbour on the left continues within the same colour e.g. GREEN GREEN GREEN.  
• The BLUE HAT then shouts out another Hat colour who gives a solution to the problem.  Each time the group claps the neighbour on the left continues within the same colour e.g. RED RED RED.  
• This is repeated for the WHITE and YELLOW Hats.

7. The Student with the BLACK Hat stops the circle if they hear a solution that does not belong to that Hat colour (e.g. When a White Hat says “'I write an email to my contact person voicing my concern”.  When this happens, the circle starts all-over again. When all the Hats have given solutions, the BLUE Hat challenges the BLACK Hat by stating the problems the international entrepreneur faces, what the international entrepreneur wants to achieve and how the international entrepreneur may solve the problem.
8. The BLACK HAT points out the flaws and weaknesses in the solution and why it is likely to fail.
9. The game ends with a round of applause for the participants

For this activity, it is essential for all the students to understand how the Thinking Hats approach works. This will make the activity more fun for them. Additional help on using the Six Hats can be found at: http://www.ideasforideas.com/
The activity could be done using online tools such as Padlet, virtual whiteboard and breakout rooms in Teams/Zoom.

Inspired by: https://iqdoodle.com/six-thinking-hat