Personal development, Reflection, Teambuilding
> 60 min.
Large group
Upto 1 hour
Materials needed
Advanced
Speaking, Listening, Reading
Critical thinking, Information literacy, Separating main points and side points, Sharing knowledge
Collaboration, Empathy
Self-expression
Objectives
- Develop critical thinking and thinking processes.
- The use of different perspectives can be a positive way to get a broader insight.
Material
- Print out the attached sheets if you find them useful (depending on the groups’ writing skills).
- Texts or topics, suitable for the group’s language level
Preparation
- Prepare the introduction of the activity according to the groups’ language level. Select suitable texts or topics to use.
- It might be helpful if the teacher lets the group practice first with a simple topic just to get an idea of what the activity is about (see description).
- Make a plan for the organisation of the group activities.
Instructions
- The teacher chooses a text relevant to the group of learners and their language level. It could be for example a story, a newspaper article, a text from a website, a short film or a TV report from the news. Use some time to read/watch the chosen material to make sure everyone understands the content or main topic.
- The participants will then be divided into pairs or small groups and given an imaginable hat. The color of the given hat tells what angle or perspective they must take on the content or subject.
Examples:
Red hat: Express your feelings, emotions on the topic. Be emotional!
Black hat: Which problems or risks do you see? Be critical!
Yellow hat: What do you see as positive elements? Be optimistic!
Green hat: Focus on possibilities, solutions, alternatives and new ideas. Be creative!
Blue hat: Focus on the overall, general information. Find the basic facts. No opinions, just a conclusion. Be informative!
Tips before getting started:
It may be wise to practice first with a simple topic, preferably from everyday life that everyone can easily relate to. Otherwise, for some, it may become too advanced to understand both the method and the topic simultaneously.
Other examples of topics:
- The digitization of society in our time.
- Increasing prices of plastic bags.12
- Rising food prices.
- The aging population.
- Declining birth rates
Variant
Instead of just giving one hat to each group, it is possible for all to think under the same hat at the same time, and then continue together to the next hat. In that way, everyone can take different perspectives on the topic.