Developing a New Major

Initial Ideas – Blue, White, Green, Blue

people take on roles during hte brainstorming and brainstorm session goes thru stages – that’s the blue, white, green,blue

green is the creative phase, blue is when ya think/talk about the process, white is the factual statement phase

there are other phases (other hats) for other kinds of group sessions – other hats add more critique, emotions

each hat/each phase can be very short – don’t need to talk about process for a long time, in the types of discussions with many more phases, people might specialize in the kind of hat they’re going to wear

White hat – Facts & Information

Participants make statements of fact, including identifying information that is absent and presenting the views of people who are not present in a factual manner. In many thinking sessions this occurs immediately after an initial blue hat, and it often an extended action with participants presenting details about their organisation and the background to the purpose of the thinkng session. The key information that represents the inputs to the session are presented and discussed. Key absences of information (ie information needs) can also be identified at this point.

Examples in the given context are:

• Students are talking while the teacher is talking
• There is noise and therefore other students are distracted and can’t hear the teacher
• Students don’t know what to do once instructions are given
• Many students become distracted and off task resulting in the failure to complete work
• Students are not understanding the focused lecture due to lack of concentration

Blue hat – The Big Picture

This is the hat under which all participants discuss the thinking process. The facilitator will generally wear it throughout and each member of the team will put it on from time to time to think about directing their work together. This hat should be used at the start and end of each thinking session, to set objectives, to define the route to take to get to them, to evaluate where the group has got to, and where the thinking process is going. Having a facilitator maintain this role throughout helps ensure that the group remains focused on task and improves their chances of achieving their objectives.

Statements from the example cited above are:

• Teacher learns that they need to monitor the amount of time that they spend talking within the classroom
• Teacher needs to involve all students within discussions
• Teacher needs to recognize that some students need thinking time before responding. Allowing these students time to compute solutions promotes wider participation and increased learning
• Students realize that their talking makes the speaker feel unappreciated and disrespected
• Students realize that their comments are jeopardizing the learning of other individuals
• Students realize that talking out of time demonstrates a lack of self-discipline and that not all comments require sharing

Green hat – Alternatives and creativity

This is the hat of thinking new thoughts. It is based around the idea of provocation and thinking for the sake of identifying new possibilities. Things are said for the sake of seeing what they might mean, rather than to form a judgement. This is often carried out on black hat statements in order to identify how to get past the barriers or failings identified there (green on black thinking). Because green hat thinking covers the full spectrum of creativity, it can take many forms.

Statements from the example above are:

• Teacher will be more aware about the amount of time they spend talking
• Teacher will try to incorporate interaction from a variety of different students rather than just the ‘smart kids’
• Students will resist the urge to say whatever is on their mind. They will think about what they have to say and whether it is relevant to the topic
• Students will take into account whether their comment will interfere with other people’s learning
• Students will think of new ways to communicate rather than talking in class, for example, talk on MSN Messenger
• Students will be able to develop ideas as a result of being creative in class

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