Mrs. Pakize ÖNGÖR

She is philosophy teacher at vocational school for 12 years. She has worked at different high schools.

One of the popular technique that I like is: six thinking hats. It is very well known for many years and I heard about It during my education at university. I did not expect that It will be so useful at lectures but It really helps me and my students.

At my lectures main problems are shy students and stubborn students who do not want to think differently. Sometimes really hard to communicate with them and take their attention. For both students I decided to use this technique and first they do not want to involve and keep a distance between class. Over time, they got used to this technique and actively participated in the practice. After using this technique, I got shy students to talk in class and I made progress in expressing their ideas. My lessons are about thinking and expressing what you think. It is not easy to give students a different perspective, and since the students in vocational high schools mostly work in technical jobs, their mentality is different from the students in other schools. However, this is not fixed and must be of a variable nature. Philosophy helps us with this. It was difficult for them at first to ask each student or group to defend this imaginary idea by giving them a different colored hat, but after a while there were those who argued that it was fun. Over time, I had many students who had ideas to say about everything.

A student of mine described the change in himself a few months after using this technique:

I’m even surprised at myself now. I’m not always opinionated and I can look at things from different angles. I have no trouble expressing this.

The technique may be of interest to the students first, or they may want to participate. However, if the practice is continued, it will be seen how positive the results are. The process that starts with a few students will spread to the whole class with positive motivation. Adjusting the speaking times of the speakers equally will save the event from being boring. Since they will speak in a limited time, they will use smarter sentences.