Links to the New Zealand Curriculum
English
In English the hats provide an excellent opportunity for in depth critical analysis of texts. A way for teachers to use the hats would be in the questioning around a text. Each hat provides a variety of questions for a variety of different text types. For example in a narrative the white hat asks 'what do we know about the characters?' and in a non-fiction text 'what does the text tell us about ____?'. The red hat would ask children to talk about the way they feel about the text. The wide range of questions the hats would encourage would help children extract meaning from the text.
In English the hats provide an excellent opportunity for in depth critical analysis of texts. A way for teachers to use the hats would be in the questioning around a text. Each hat provides a variety of questions for a variety of different text types. For example in a narrative the white hat asks 'what do we know about the characters?' and in a non-fiction text 'what does the text tell us about ____?'. The red hat would ask children to talk about the way they feel about the text. The wide range of questions the hats would encourage would help children extract meaning from the text.
Maths
This chart offers some ways that the thinking hats can be used to support mathematics learning.
This chart offers some ways that the thinking hats can be used to support mathematics learning.
The Arts
The Arts learning areas are about transforming people’s creative ideas into expressive works that communicate layered meanings. (Ministry of Education, 2007). The hats could be used in a variety of ways to make this happen. The white hat could be used for gathering information about your chosen medium for expression and the red hat can be used for talking about the feelings behind the way they are expressing meaning. The green hat can be used for encouraging children to come up with new ways of expressing themselves.
The Arts learning areas are about transforming people’s creative ideas into expressive works that communicate layered meanings. (Ministry of Education, 2007). The hats could be used in a variety of ways to make this happen. The white hat could be used for gathering information about your chosen medium for expression and the red hat can be used for talking about the feelings behind the way they are expressing meaning. The green hat can be used for encouraging children to come up with new ways of expressing themselves.
Health and P.E.
All of the hats could be used to talk about the many topics of health and physical education. The red hat would be useful in helping children talk about the way people are feeling. The black hat would help them identify the bad parts of decision making. Talking about yellow hat thinking as being the goal of health would help make it a goal that children can identify more clearly if they are familiar with the framework.
All of the hats could be used to talk about the many topics of health and physical education. The red hat would be useful in helping children talk about the way people are feeling. The black hat would help them identify the bad parts of decision making. Talking about yellow hat thinking as being the goal of health would help make it a goal that children can identify more clearly if they are familiar with the framework.
Social Sciences
The thinking hats could be used as a way of providing children with a way of critically thinking about and analysing current or past events. The white hat will encourage students to gather the facts. The black and yellow hats encourage students to look at the positive and negative things to come out of the event
The thinking hats could be used as a way of providing children with a way of critically thinking about and analysing current or past events. The white hat will encourage students to gather the facts. The black and yellow hats encourage students to look at the positive and negative things to come out of the event
Technology
As technology is based around students learning to be both discerning consumers and innovative producers (New Zealand Ministry of Education, 2007) one way the thinking hats can be applied to technology learning in the classroom is through the use of the yellow and black hats to analyse what makes a product good or bad. The Yellow hat encourages students to think about the benefits, positives and value in an idea while the black hat requires that they think about the negatives and bad points in a plan to help make them easier to eliminate.
As technology is based around students learning to be both discerning consumers and innovative producers (New Zealand Ministry of Education, 2007) one way the thinking hats can be applied to technology learning in the classroom is through the use of the yellow and black hats to analyse what makes a product good or bad. The Yellow hat encourages students to think about the benefits, positives and value in an idea while the black hat requires that they think about the negatives and bad points in a plan to help make them easier to eliminate.
Science
In Science the white hat would be useful as it encourages students to look at just the facts of what something tells us. This would mean that students could be more focused on the facts and if they were not focusing on the facts they could be reminded simply by asking if what they were saying would fit under the white hat
Education outside the classroom (EOTC)
The thinking hats could prove to be a useful thinking tool when applied in a context which is not in the classroom. The thinking hats would provide a way for students to analyse in depth what they are learning about. An example of this would be in talking about school camp and the new experiences the students would be facing. In this context the thinking hats would provide an opportunity for students to look at and analyse the experiences which may help alleviate any nervousness they are feeling.
In Science the white hat would be useful as it encourages students to look at just the facts of what something tells us. This would mean that students could be more focused on the facts and if they were not focusing on the facts they could be reminded simply by asking if what they were saying would fit under the white hat
Education outside the classroom (EOTC)
The thinking hats could prove to be a useful thinking tool when applied in a context which is not in the classroom. The thinking hats would provide a way for students to analyse in depth what they are learning about. An example of this would be in talking about school camp and the new experiences the students would be facing. In this context the thinking hats would provide an opportunity for students to look at and analyse the experiences which may help alleviate any nervousness they are feeling.