Lateral Thinking

Thinking

outside the Box!

Lateral Thinking

• Lateral thinking is a term coined by Edward

de Bono, a Maltese psychologist, physician,

and writer

• de Bono defines Lateral Thinking as methods

of thinking concerned with changing concepts

and perception.

Edward De Bono

Six Thinking Hats

An aid to creative thinking

Can You Solve this Puzzle?

Can You Solve this Puzzle?

Challenge

You have 60 seconds to think of as many uses as you can

for wire coat hangers

On average, 6 year old children

come up with 25 uses

of the coat hanger.

Is our our ability to think

creatively at risk of being lost?

• In most cases pre-school children explore their world through

imagination and investigation and exercise ‘possibility

thinking’(the engagement of everyday problems at a deep level).

• As children become older, the prescriptive world of formal

education pushes children through a series of educational narrow

gates reduces their capacity to exercise ‘possibility thinking.’

What are the characteristics

of creative thinking?

Creative thinking is characterised by:

• Imagination

• Open-mindedness

• A willingness to explore unexpected routes

How can we recognise

creative thinking?

When pupils are thinking and behaving

creatively in the classroom, you are likely to see them:

• Questioning and challenging

• Making connections and seeing relationships.

• Envisaging what might be

• Exploring ideas, keeping options open

• Reflecting critically on ideas, actions and outcomes.

Thinking in hats

(Edward de Bono)

To aid creative thinking Edward de Bono came up

with six notional hats that can be put on and taken off easily.

• The hats are designed to indicate a role or mode of thinking.

• It is based on the principle of parallel thinking.

Adversarial Thinking

Parallel Thinkinga b

ab

The Red Hat

• What do you feel

about the suggestion?

• What are your gut

reactions?

• What intuitions do you

have?

• Don’t think too long

or too hard.

The White Hat

• The information

seeking hat.

• What are the facts?

• What information is

available? What is

relevant?

• When wearing the

white hat we are

neutral in our thinking.

The Yellow Hat

• The sunshine hat.

• It is positive and

constructive.

• It is about

effectiveness and

getting a job done.

• What are the benefits,

the advantages?

The Black Hat

• The cautious hat.

• In black hat the

thinker points out

errors or pit-falls.

• What are the risks or

dangers involved?

• Identifies difficulties

and problems.

• This is the creative

mode of thinking.

• Green represents

growth and

movement.

• In green hat we look

to new ideas and

solutions.

• Lateral thinking wears

a green hat.

The Green Hat

• The control hat,

organising thinking

itself.

• Sets the focus, calls

for the use of other

hats.

• Monitors and reflects

on the thinking

processes used.

• Blue is for planning.

The Blue Hat

Six Thinking Hats

IntuitiveInformative

Constructive

Cautious

CreativeReflective

Red hat thinking

Your task

- say how you feel

about the painting

opposite.

Black hat thinking

Your task

- discuss the following

using black hat

thinking.

What if the school

week was only 4 days

and the weekend was

3 days long?

Green hat Thinking

Your 2 minute task

A man is walking down a

busy street with a brown

paper bag over his head.

Put on your green hat to

suggest possible reasons

why he might be doing

this. Try to come up with

at least 5 possibilities.

Activity 1

Use the six hat thinking strategy

to write a character profile of ...

(Snow White, Robin Hood, Brad Pitt,

Garfield, Lady Gaga...)