Teaching thinking & De Bono

David Perks, writing for Spiked, is skeptical about the explicit teaching of thinking skills to high school learners in Britain. He criticizes the influence of management training ideas on school education and the resulting de-emphasis of the importance of knowledge. Perks specifically questions the introduction of Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats methodology into schools.

I do not know just how central De Bono's methods would be in the teaching of thinking skills in British schools. What I do know is that whatever happens in American and British schools have a high probability of migrating to South African schools.

That considered, I had another look at De Bono's concepts and techniques. From what I saw, De Bono's techniques would be useful as a limited part of a general programme to enhance critical thinking within schools. Critical thinking, however, forms just a small part of De Bono's Six Thinking Hats methodology, the black hat. Perks characterises his view of critical thinking thus:

"In fact, argument and criticism – the tools of philosophers and thinkers in any serious field of knowledge – are to be dispensed with in the de Bono outlook, since they apparently lead to a ‘dangerous arrogance’."

Francis Wheen, in his book "How mumbo-jumbo conquered the world", quotes De Bono as follows:

"Without wishing to boast, this is the first new way of thinking to be developed for 2 400 years since the days of Plato, Socrates and Aritotle."

On his own website De Bono is quite derogatory about Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, referring to them as the "Greek Gang of Three". A good review on De Bono's views and methods can be found at Think Differently!!, the blog of Dr. Lauchlan MacKinnon. Evidence to support De Bono's methods is somewhat lacking, considering the period it's been used. Some mainly anecdotal evidence can be found on his website.

De Bono has not always been well received in the press, as the following quote by William Harston shows:

"Well, the English language has a word that means: 'I have listened to what you have to say and I understand the points you are trying to make, but I find your argument utterly unconvincing.'That word is 'bullshit', and this book is full of it."

In conclusion, some of De Bono's methods seem useful, but hardly justify all the hype. An excellent book on teaching learners to think was available in 1936, why does the wheel need to be re-invented? I'm referring to the book "Clear Thinking" by R.W. Jepson, at that time the headmaster of Mercer's School, Holborn. Jepson's book can form the basis of a good programme to teach thinking - and it's free online!