You Can be Great If You Really Want To

INTRODUCTION

Chatting is a common occurrence in secondary school language classes such as in Chinese. It often presents a problem to language teachers and has an adverse effect on students’ learning. Although various disciplinary measures can be taken to stop this type of disruptive behaviours in class, it could only be temporary and on the surface. Applying the Six Thinking Hats method created by de Bono (1985) could have a positive and everlasting effect on students as it will change each individual student’s behaviour from within. This paper reports on a case in Chinese where success has been achieved by employing de Bono’s (1985) Six Thinking Hats method. The paper intends to show to other LOTE teachers that if you walk with your students together to the heart of the problem of chatting in class, your students will see what they could not normally see only by following the conventional thinking method to approach this problem. This paper encourages the secondary school language teachers to mobilise their students to take part in the thinking process of solving the problem of chatting in class openly, collectively and creatively. This approach could help the students involved gain a better understanding of the problem concerned and improve their thinking skills in a fun, tangible and creative way. The thinking skills gained through this approach could also be transferred to the problem-solving in the teaching of other subject areas beyond the secondary schooling.

THE SIX THINKING HATS

Thinking has various modes: objective thinking, emotional thinking, negative thinking, positive thinking, critical thinking and creative thinking. de Bono (1985) used six different colours to represent these different thinking modes and created the Six Thinking Hats method. The White Hat possesses the feature of coldness; therefore, it represents objective thinking. When one wears a While Hat to think, one looks at the facts and figures only, not anything else. The Red Hat represents emotional thinking, because red is associated with anger; therefore, when one wears a Red Hat to think, one normally follows his or her emotions in the process of thinking. Black often suggests the negative and its feature is gloomy. When one wears a Black Hat to think, one will look at the issues under consideration more critically. Positive thinking is represented by the yellow colour. This colour is often related to the sun; therefore, its feature is bright and sunny. When one wears a Yellow Hat to think, one tends to look for all the positive things of a particular issue. Creative thinking is represented by the green colour which suggests fertile and growth; therefore, when one wears a Green Hat to think, one needs to search for new ideas. Blue symbolises the sky high above everything. When one wears a Blue Hat to think, one needs to look for the overall picture of a situation rather than only one tiny section of the problem area. Blue also suggest the Big Picture. According to de Bono (1985), people tend to wear one single colour hat when thinking of a problem.  This will result in a narrow understanding of the whole issue under consideration. The most effective way of thinking is to wear all six colour hats to look at an issue or a problem from all six directions. This will help put us in a good perspective to deal with the issue on hand.

EVIDENCE OF DIFFERENT THINKING OUTCOMES

Sixty Years 10-12 students of Chinese from four different classes were involved in this experiment in Term 1, 2007. Among them, 21 were from Year 10; 28 from Year 11; and 11 from Year 12. All studied Chinese as an elective in a Melbourne-based boys’ school. The steps to gather the evidence of different thinking outcomes include:

introducing de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats method in class with highlight on the colour features of this thinking method; presenting the problem of chatting in Chinese classes to all the students involved; dividing classes into small groups to employ the Six Thinking Hats method to solve the problem defined through filling out the worksheet given; and in-class discussion on the best outcomes for all.

Based on the features of the Six Thinking Hats coined by de Bono (1985), the following from the students involved were obtained:

White Hat Thinking

Students chat in language classes at any point of time during class. There is much noise that others can hear. There are students who become silly while chatting. There is much chaos in the classroom. The neighbouring classes can be affected by the noise.

Red Hat Thinking

Some students feel happy to chat. Some feel frustrated by the noise. Some enjoy being heard. Some are angry to hear what they do not want to hear. Some feel bored so they start chatting. Some feel relaxed when they chat. Some are annoyed by the noise. Some are entertained by others chatting. Someone is hurt by the subject/topic of the chat.

Black Hat Thinking

Valuable class time is wasted. Class is disrupted. Classroom is too noisy. Learning is compromised. Everyone is shouting and nobody is listening. It can cause the teacher to scream. Schoolwork is not done because of chatting.

Yellow Hat Thinking

It is fun. It can help students get rid of stress. Everyone can say what he wants to say. I do not have to wait for my turn to say something; therefore, I do not forget what I want to say. It is socialising. It can help improve my verbal communication skills. It may cheer me up. Students can share information related to the areas other than the content to be covered in class. It can cover my fear of not knowing the content taught.

After each group leader presented their group views on this issue from four directions represented by the colours of white, red, black and yellow, the students from each class were encouraged to move on to creative thinking by ‘wearing’ the Green Hat first and then the Blue Hat aiming for the best solutions:

Green Hat Thinking

Establishing one-on-one teaching so that the student has nobody to chat to. Sending students chatting into a different room. Teacher using a microphone to talk. Awarding those who do not chat in class with Chupa-Chups. Making those chatting to sing or dance for class. Students who chat in class have to pay coins to class for using the class time to chat. Sticking a “Strictly No Chatting” sign on the desk of those chatting in class. Allocating a couple of minutes as chatting time at the beginning or the end of each period. Chatting in Chinese only. Organising more class discussion in Chinese. Chatting should be focused on how to learn Chinese well. Varying classroom activities so that students do not have time to chat.

Blue Hat Thinking

At the end of this problem-solving session, the students from each class were asked to make a choice to reflect their stance in relation to the problem of chatting in class. The following three choices were made in responding to the question of “I come to this class to”

learn learn and chat chat

Then, those who made the first choice were asked to move to the front of the classroom; those who made the second were requested to stay in the middle of the room; and those who made the third choice were requested to move to the back of the room. Being encouraged to keep wearing a Blue Hat to think about solving the problem defined, the students from each class were asked to label the three choices they made, thus:

Choice One = LEARNERS Choice Two = CONFUSED INDIVIDUALS Choice Three = CHATTER BOX

Surprisingly, as soon as these labels were announced to each class, a couple of students who initially moved to the back of the classroom immediately joined the middle group. This suggested that they did not want to be singled out as a chatter box.

SOLUTIONS

After some physical movements within the classroom, the students from each class were explained that they would need a TEACHER to teach the LEARNERS; a KEEPER to keep the CONFUSED INDIVIDUALS; and a MANAGER to manage the CHATTER BOX. Since there was only one Chinese teacher (the author of this article) in each classroom, this teacher had to concentrate on the teaching of the group who made the first choice and those who made the second or the third choice had to go to a separate room to let another member of staff if available to manage them. After this explanation was given, the students from each class were asked to move again according to their new choices. Much to the author’s surprise, all said that they wanted to stay with their Chinese teacher to learn. After a full in-class discussion of de Bono’s (1985) Six Thinking Hats method, all four classes changed their culture and everyone concentrated on learning. If somebody chatted at any point of time in class later in the year, this student was called out as ‘CHATTER BOX’. Finally after the experiment, chatting in these Chinese classes has been kept to the minimum; this disruptive behaviour has been self-regulated by the students themselves; and the Big Picture of “coming to learn” has been maintained.

CONCLUSION

Employing the Six Thinking Hats method by de Bono (1985) with language students can be a fun way of solving behavioural problems in class. This method is more effective on students as they are more receptive to this type of approach compared with the direct authoritative and disciplinary approach practised by many language teachers in the past. Most importantly, it helps improve students’ thinking skills which could be transferred to solving problems in other areas of their life beyond their secondary education.

REFERENCES

de Bono, E. (1985). Six Thinking Hats. Little, Brown and Company.

de Bono, E. (2004). Parallel thinking – the Six Thinking Hats.

Creative thinking – how to use de Bono’s ‘Six Thinking Hats’ to improve your thinking skills.

Mind Tools: Six Thinking Hats. (1995).

Everyone experiences anger. When we get upset the primary emotion we feel is anger, even if anger itself isn’t the result of an event that upsets us. Anger can be triggered by another emotion. In many cases, anger is a secondary response, in reaction to another emotion coming before it.

Realizing that anger is triggered by other emotions is the first step that individuals learn in anger management classes. We learn to identify their true feelings that are often hidden by anger, so that we can begin to learn how to effectively express our anger.

No matter how much anger you experience, it can be very helpful to take an anger management class. Contrary to the popular belief that anger management classes are only for individuals who get sent by the court, they are actually for all kinds of people. Attendees can include employees of large corporations, managers, law offices, school personal, families and volunteers. Anger management classes can help teach you skills you wouldn’t be able to learn anywhere else. These classes teach you how to communicate better and how you can clearly express your needs.

Assertiveness is one of the most common skills taught in anger management classes. By learning this, people acquire the ability to express their moods, needs and feelings in appropriate ways, rather than succumbing to anger to taking control. A part of using assertive language means doing so in a reasonable way with good eye contact. If people don’t learn proper assertiveness then they will usually resort to aggressive or passive-aggressive behavior.

Another skill you learn in anger management classes is how to reduce the amount of stress in your life. By reducing the stress in your life you will notice an overall increase in your health. Too much stress for too long of a time period can lead to damaging effects on our bodies and a decreased life expectancy. Anger management classes show you how you can notice your stress and manage it.

The final skill taught in anger management classes is to show more empathy. By learning this individuals can understand another persons feelings easier. This decreases your chances of becoming frustrated with others and increases your understanding of your own feelings. As a result of learning these skills you will be able to work better with others and build relationships that are strong and last longer.

Since anger management classes can provide so many benefits and greatly improve your life it is important to take advantage of them. Rather than waiting for your anger to get out of control and ruin your life or the lives of those around you, take an anger management class today. You can understand your anger and learn to control it better by taking anger management classes. You can learn to react in positive and appropriate ways which can prevent you from ruining any relationships in your life.

If you learn more about your anger today you will be able to do something about it that can improve your lifestyle. So consider signing up for an anger management class today and prevent anger from taking control of your life.

Related Blogs

• The Universality of English | The Miami Hurricane
• Norman G. Finkelstein » Finkelstein Interview (English)
• Ron English « DDotOmen.com: The DMV's Front Office

Free anger management classes are arranged regularly that focus on control and managing anger that that in turn can help to improve human relationships. You can learn how to get relief from negative thoughts and emotions. Anger is a emotional feeling that any human being in the world will experience. Every body thinks that it is more difficult to manage anger. But it is an easy technique that you can learn in free management classes.

Be still and know is a simple but effective technique to get immediate relief from anger. Most of us believe that we are getting angry and thereby stress because of stress causing people and situations. But we forget to know that our over reaction to anger causes stress. Be still and know technique helps you to increase your awareness and how to deal with the stresses in day to day life calmly.

You can practice the technique daily for about 20 minutes. This will help to cope up with family, friends, coworkers, subordinates and so on. It is like meditation that helps to calm you to get rid of anger related problems.

Online anger management classes are held freely to provide relief from anger and stress. It will help you to understand that anger is just an emotion that must be over ruled by you. The online anger management classes will help you to get rid of negative thoughts and also to develop problem solving abilities. Many people feel shame, sad, depression and fear as the effects of anger. Online anger management classes teach you all appropriate ways to deal with anger.

The online classes are available at reasonable prices affordable to at various time periods. The time periods will be up o 10 hours, 20 hours, and 30 hours and so on. These programs have world wide reputation and they are recognized by court and human resource departments. There are various benefits in these anger management classes. The first and important benefit is that you can learn conveniently when your time permits. You need not spend on traveling expenses. You can interact with various persons all over the world. So you can learn different cultures and habits additionally.

You can learn here according to your own skills. No compulsion is there to learn in a hurry. You can discuss the topics in group. So you can interact well with many people. You have a supportive environment that helps to feel easy to learn. This class is open to any one who is interested to learn how to manage anger irrespective of age, status and your educational qualification. You can get certificates also.