6 thinking hats

White hat: facts and information

- Represents objective and neutral thinking

- Focuses on gathering and analysing factual information.

Red hat: emotions and feelings

- Represents subjective and emotional thinking

- Encourages individuals to express feelings and intuitions without having to offer a rational
reason

Black hat: critical judgement

- Represents critical and cautious thinking

- Focuses on identifying potential risks, weaknesses and problems

Yellow: positive thinking

- Represents positive and optimistic thinking

- Encourages individuals to generate ideas, benefits and possibilities

Green hat: creative thinking

- Represents creative and exploratory thinking

- Encourages individuals to generate new ideas, alternatives and solutions

Blue hat: process and organisation

- Represents organisational and oriented thinking

- Manages and facilitates thinking process, set goals and define objectives.
Critical thinking standards CARLPDBF

1. Clarity
Ensure that ideas, arguments and statements are expressed clearly without ambiguity
Eg: could you elaborate further on that point?

2. Accuracy
Ensure factual correctness and precision in reasoning
Eg: is this really true?

3. Relevance
Ensure ideas, arguments and statements are connected and applicable to the topic or
problem addressed.
Eg: how is this connected to the question?

4. Logical consistency
Ensure that there are no contradictions in reasoning
Eg: does this follow what you mentioned earlier?

5. Precision
Ensure ideas, statements and arguments are specific and exact in language and thoughts.
Eg: could you give more details?

6. Depth
Going beyond surface level understanding
Eg: how does your answer address complexities in the question?

7. Breadth
Considering multiple perspectives when approaching a topic or problem.
Eg: is there another way to look at this question?

8. Fairness
Approaching information and arguments with an open mind, free of bias.
Eg:
Barriers to critical thinking MINEM

1. Misunderstanding to what is meant by criticism

Some students only make negative or positive comments, but critical analysis means
identifying both positive and negative aspects.
Eg
Person A: I have some criticism about your artwork
Person B: are you saying that my artwork I terrible?!

2. Insufficient focus
Critical thinking requires focus on one exact task, rather than being distracted by other
interesting ideas.
Eg
Person A: we should carefully examine the quality issues in our manufacturing process.
Person B (insufficient focus): I just found a recipe that we can use for our new dessert! Let’s
talk about that instead.

3. Not applying theoretical knowledge to actual situations

Students need to be able to illustrate comments with real life examples, and recognise the
connections between topics.
Eg
Person A: based on our psychology studies, implementing a reward system can increase
employee motivation
Person B (not applying theoretical knowledge): I don’t think rewards will
work. Plus our employees are already motivated and they love their job.

4. Emotional reasoning
It can be hard to hear deeply held religious, political or ideological beliefs being challenged.
Emotional reasoning means letting these emotions take over decision making, clouding
critical thinking.
Eg
Person A: I believe in treating all individuals with respect and equality, regardless of their
sexual orientation
Person B: my religious teachings tell me that homosexuality is wrong, so I can’t support that.

5. Mistaking information for understanding

Many students prefer facts and answers rather than the skills that help them make well-
founded judgements for themselves.
Eg
Teacher: today we will be exploring the concept of photosynthesis and how plants convert
sunlight into energy
Student: can’t you just give us the formula for photosynthesis? I don’t want to understand
the process.