79Engaging students in different ways of thinking
Teachers can use various methods to encourage students think in a new way
about a given topic. For example, a teacher in Korea gave her class the topic:
‘English as an official language’ and asked them to consider what it meant. The
teacher then began the ‘six hat’ activity (a type of debate activity or way of ‘playing
the devil’s advocate’), for which the students were divided into six groups. Each
group was given several hats of different colours (see explanation in Figure 4).
The students were asked to put on their hats and to align their thinking with
what the colours symbolized. Throughout the class, the teacher emphasized
that there was no stupid question or stupid answer. After the activity, the teacher
explained to the class that human beings have an inclination towards one way
of thinking, and tend to ignore or exclude evidence that contradicts their way
of thinking, and that this was called ‘confirmation bias’. According to the teacher,
the students paid a great deal of attention to the lesson and to the roles they
were supposed to play while wearing the hats. Furthermore, all of the group
members took an active part in the discussion, so it was not dominated by one
or two students, and the teacher found the activity to be effective in developing
flexibility, fluency, creativity and critical-thinking skills (Lee et al., 2011).
Figure 4: Engaging in different ways of thinking
A Korean class for middle school 3rd graders
Learning goals:- To be able to discuss the topic related to the reading text.
- To be able to listen to others and understand their intentions.
Seating arrangement: Six groups of five, sitting face to face.
Procedure: - The students read a text about the English language in the globalized world.
- The class was given the discussion topic, ‘English as an official language’.
- The students put on their coloured hats, and played the role assigned to each colour,
discussing the topic within their groups.
Colour Role
White Explain reasons for the social phenomenon related to the topic
Black Specify negative sides
Green Alternatives to solve the problem
Yellow Specify positive sides
Blue Chair (taking notes) - Each group then shared what its members thought about the topic.
- Six students were then selected (one from each group) to present their arguments on
the issue, ‘Is it necessary to make English an official language?’.
Source: Lee et al., 2011, p. 79.