Before you begin,
meet your tools.
You will explore the situation below through De Bono's six thinking hats. Each hat asks you to think in a different way. Together they will take you somewhere you could not reach alone. Here is what each hat does.
You will receive a full set of these cards to keep when you finish. They are yours to use in any classroom, staffroom, or conversation.
can look like.
These are thinking tools Lu put on her wall to allow her learners to self-select them for future use. Six hats is still a valuable tool to get learners to think divergently.
prior knowledge.
You already know Head, Heart, and Hands. You have used it as a lens for understanding how we learn. Now watch what happens when you bring it into contact with something unfamiliar, the six thinking hats.
We will use six questions to move through Head, Heart, and Hands. We will focus on feeling the situation first, thinking it through honestly, then deciding what to do with what we know. This sequence is not accidental. It is the same process we want learners to experience every time they meet something new, whether in a classroom, at home, or in the world beyond.
This is what transfer looks like. A framework you trust, applied somewhere it has never been before.
How will you capture your thinking?
When we model learning, we allow our learners to demonstrate agency while still scaffolding the process, so those who are not quite ready have the support they need to be independent. If this sounds like you, here are some ways others have captured their thinking. They are not the only tools, but they get your thinking started. If you already have a tool or process in mind, have fun with it. I cannot wait to see what you post on the Padlet.
No need to commit. This is your process.
Read this.
Let it land.
This is a real situation. You may have lived inside it. You may be living inside it now.
The community has been together for years.
There are rituals. Traditions. Ways of doing things. Most people know the unwritten rules. They know what to say, when to laugh, and how to move through the space without thinking about it.
But there are others who have never been considered in those rituals. Their culture, belief system, and way of living are not considered.
They have never felt like the space was built for them.
You have the tools.
Now try them.
You have done the thinking. Now it is time to try it on your own.
This is exactly what we do with our learners. We set up the conditions. We show them the tools. Then we step back and let them find their own way through.
You do not have to answer all six questions, because they are a choice menu. Put together the Head, Heart, and Hands combination that makes sense to you right now. Under each big question, there are smaller questions to choose from. Pick one or two that you want to answer. We scaffold choice so learners have multiple ways to approach the same task.
Try. Adjust. Try again. This is not failure. This is the process of mistake-making for understanding. It is exactly what we want our learners to do.
When you finish, you will have something entirely your own. A differentiated product that speaks to who you are, ready to share with the community.
Head
Thinking it through
This hat helps us focus on what is actually true, not what we assume or hope.
Whose story is being told here, and whose is missing?
Not what you assume. Not what you hope. What is measurably true right now? Who designed the rituals? Whose voices shaped what this community celebrates? If you counted whose stories are told most often and whose are absent, what would you find?
This hat helps us make honest decisions and see what could genuinely go wrong.
What would be disturbed if this community redesigned itself for everyone?
If this community decided tomorrow to redesign itself with everyone in mind, what might break? Whose comfort would be disturbed? What assumptions would be challenged? What risks are real and what risks are just unfamiliarity wearing the mask of caution?
Heart
Feeling it honestly
This hat helps us notice the relationships between people and between ideas.
What does it feel like to belong? What does it feel like when you do not?
When you imagine someone arriving in this community and realising the space was not built with them in mind, what happens in you? Notice the gap between the people who move through this space without thinking and the people who have to translate themselves every single day just to be present.
This hat helps us see what is already working and worth building from.
Where is genuine welcome already happening, even in small ways?
What is already working, even partially? Where do you see genuine welcome, even in small moments? What does this community already have that could become the foundation of something more inclusive? Look for what is worth keeping before you think about what needs to change.
Hands
Making something from it
This hat helps us reach for creative thinking and ideas that do not exist yet.
What would this community look like if it was built by the people who have never been asked?
If this community started with one small ritual, designed entirely by the people who have never been asked before, what might it look like? What would it sound like? Who would be in the room who has never been in the room before? Do not be reasonable yet. Be generative.
This hat helps us step back, organise our thinking, and name what we have learned.
What is the one shift in thinking that would change how this community includes everyone?
Now step back. What is the real problem this community is trying to solve? Not the rituals. Not the programme. The deeper thing underneath all of it. What is the one shift in thinking that would change everything?
that is yours.
Your product holds your thinking and it is yours to keep. Before you post, sit with these questions.
Which lens helped you see something new?
What do you now want your learners to experience?
What changes need to happen in your school now?
paper tools?
Enter your name and email to unlock three tools you can print and use tomorrow. These are designed to live on walls, in journals, and in conversations, not just on screens.
You worked through a real situation. You looked at it through six lenses. Now take a moment to mark what that means before moving on.
I am ready to move forward →