Thinking tools

Success story

Caterham School, Surrey (Independent 11-18 school)

Length of research

First half Autumn term.

Extent of research

Four teachers introduced the skills to their Sixth Form classes in French, Psychology and History One skill was taught each week over a six week period.

Validity

De Bono strategies – 6 Thinking Hats, PMI, CAP + FIP The teachers did not teach any differently to normal to minimise “noise” and make it a ‘fair’ test. To ensure that the content, not the style of the lesson was being measured, the only major variable in the lesson was the use of the de Bono strategies. The skills were introduced independently to facilitate clear feedback from pupils.

Quantitative Outcomes

The impact of the strategies on motivation, understanding, learning, and the development of thinking skills was almost exclusively positive.
Average scores for the skills were all over 7 out of 10. The highest scores were for helping students understand a subject better (ave. 8.2 across all three subjects) and for helping them to think on their own two feet (ave. 7.9).
CAF + FIP proved the most effective in helping students to understand the lesson content, scoring well over 9 in both French and Psychology. However, it was the least popular technique in History.
The 6 Hats scored best on provoking thought amongst the students.

What the Students had to say

It is fascinating that the students echoed so many of the benefits that de Bono himself has linked to the tools:

that they are a “deliberate” and “systematic” approach to thinking,
they provide a “common language” across all subjects,
they enable you to create better ideas and quicker,
they create a conceptual framework that is transferable to other activities (such as university applications) and so on.