·       When studying the prescribed theme “Identities”;

·       When exploring realistic situations by interacting with other people;

·       When developing experience and trial different strategies in a supported environment;

·       When developing critical thinking skills and encouraging the students to develop an understanding of the situation from another point of view;

·       When fostering high order thinking skills and deeper learning.

·       Set aside a few hours to prepare this activity, as it is moderately heavy (C) and must be prepared (D);

·       Divide the class into 6 groups of 4;

·       Give each group a particular role to play in the discussion;

·       Give the groups instructions on how to act (you can make cards and hand them out to each group; it’s important that the other groups don’t know how each group is supposed to act):

1)    Group 1 > White hat | With this hat you focus on the available data; look at the information that you have, see what you can learn from it, look for gaps in your knowledge and try to fill them or take account of them;

2)    Group 2 > Red hat | "Wearing" the Red Hat, you look at problems using your intuition, gut reaction, and emotion. Also, think how others could react emotionally;

3)    Group 3 > Black hat | Using the Black Hat thinking, look at a decision's potentially negative outcomes. Look at it cautiously and defensively. Try to see why it might not work. This is important because it highlights the weak points in a plan. It allows you to eliminate them, alter them, or prepare contingency plans to counter them;

4)    Group 4 > Yellow hat | This hat helps you to think positively. It is the optimistic viewpoint that helps you to see all the benefits of the decision and the value in it. Yellow Hat thinking helps you to keep going when everything looks gloomy and difficult;

5)    Group 5 > Green hat | The Green Hat represents creativity. This is where you develop creative solutions to a problem. It is a freewheeling way of thinking, in which there is little criticism of ideas;

6)    Group 6 > Blue Hat | This hat represents process control. It's the hat worn by people chairing meetings, for example. When facing difficulties because ideas are running dry, they may direct activity into Green Hat thinking. When contingency plans are needed, they will ask for Black Hat thinking;

·       Allow the groups some time to prepare their perspectives and approaches (some research work might be necessary);

·       Students will then act out the scenario, teacher will act out as the moderator;

·       Reflect and discuss about the interactions, identifying the different perspectives and approaches to a situation (how have the six thinking hats helped you discuss the question presented? What did you gain?), how knowledge, intuition, feelings, faith may influence the outcomes of something;

·       Reflect and discuss about how language (verbal and non-verbal) was used by each group (differences, similarities, specific vocabulary...);