Critical Thinking based Training for Kids
On Friday, February 25, 2011 CMB facilitated a training for a class of 4th graders at the Universe Lions High School in Chisinau. This training was modeled after a series of trainings that CMB has conducted that focus on giving adult style content trainings to youth. This particular training focused on self-reflection and writing skills.
The agenda for this training was modeled after Dr. Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats, a thinking tool used for both group discussion and individual thinking. Six Thinking Hats provides a means for groups and individuals to think more effectively, and a means to plan thinking processes in a detailed and cohesive way. For this training, CMB used the Six Thinking Hats methodology, but modified it in a way that concentrated on the art of self-reflection.
For this training, the facilitator was CMB president Veronica Cretu, who had several activities planned for the students. The first activity on the agenda consisted of having the students write out 10 activities/hobbies that they each liked to do in their free time. The kids were also instructed to write what emotions they felt when they did each of their chosen activities. Once the kids where done filling out the sheet, they went around the room and shared their hobbies and emotions the felt while doing these activities with the other students in the class. It was great to see the kids sharing with one another about activities that make them happy and why. This exercise got the student’s thinking about who they are and what they enjoy in life.
The next activity continued with the overall them of self-reflection. The students were asked to simply write out at least 15 key words that they thought described themselves. After the kids wrote out their list, they went around the classroom and shared their list with others. The next activity consisted of having the kids write out any words that surprised them or where new to them when they went around the class telling one another about the words they wrote down for themselves. This got the students thinking about different descriptive characteristics, and demonstrated how each where unique individuals.
The next stage of the training got the students thinking about different levels of self-reflection by using the Six Thinking Hats methodology. For this activity, we started by explaining the six different thinking hats, for each hat the students had to imagine that they were trying on the hat, and had to write out some thoughts about each one of the themes that the hats represented.
The first hat the kids tried on was the white hat. In Dr. de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats, the white hat represents facts and information. For the white hat the students wrote out concrete facts about themselves, how old they were, where they lived, if they had brothers or sisters, how tall they were ect. It was stressed that all sentences written for the white hat had to be true, because if you tell somebody about yourself, it is important to tell them the truth. One student wrote down what her home phone number was, to verify it was the truth, she called the phone number and talked to her mom about what she was doing in class, all the students had a good laugh!
The next hat that they kids tried on was the red hat. The red hat represents feelings and emotions. For this hat the students had to describe themselves by writing down emotions that fit their personality. After this, the students went around the classroom and shared what they wrote down with others. It was good to hear all the positive and confident emotions that were written down by the kids in the class.
The third hat the students tried on was the black hat, which is about being cautious. For this hat, the students were encouraged to think critically, and identify some issues that bothered them about themselves. The students had to write down some phrases about things they would perhaps like to change about themselves and then share some of their ideas with their classmates. This exercise encouraged the kids to identify weaknesses and encouraged them to always try to improve as a person.
The next hat the students tried on was the yellow hat. The yellow hat is about being positive and optimistic. For this hat, the kids had to describe themselves by writing a list of things good and positive about themselves. For this, the kids wrote down good characteristics about themselves as well as things that they thought they were good at. Afterwards they shared what they wrote down with others in the class. This activity helped the students identify what talents they had as individuals.
The fifth hat the students tried on was the green hat, which represents new ideas and possibilities. For this hat, the kids had to write down what they thought they would be in 10 years. The kids wrote down at least 5 sentences describing what their lives would look like in 10 years.
Each student got the chance to say what they would be doing in 10 years, while the CMB staff would give examples of how each person could go about reaching their goals. For example, a few of the students mentioned that they wanted to become airline pilots, so it was mentioned that these students could start be going to the airport and interviewing some current pilots and asking them the steps they took to be able to fly planes. This was an exciting exercise that taught the students about formulating goals for the future.
The last hat the students tried on was the blue hat. The Blue hat represents the big picture. For this hat, the students were asked to write at least 5 sentences about what they wanted to think about themselves, or how they pictured themselves. Here the kids had a quiet moment of self-reflection and then wrote about who they thought they were. They then went around the room and shared their thoughts with the other students.
The Six Thinking Hats activity was a great way for getting the students to self-reflect about themselves through fun games and activities. The students all participated with great enthusiasm and learned a lot about themselves in the process.
The last activity the students did for this training was related to forming goals around the important components of daily life. For this activity the students drew a chart and together identified 8 important components to daily life. The components consisted of family, friends, school, health, hobbies, material goods, extra-curricular activities, and meditation or self-reflection. It was discussed that in order to have a fulfilling life, it is important to have an even balance between all of these components. To demonstrate this importance, the students wrote out personal goals for each of the components and shared their thoughts with the class. This was a great activity that got the kids thinking about what steps they can take to live a balanced life.
The self-reflection training turned out to be a great success. The subject was a little difficult and a bit unconventional to teach to 4th graders, but the kids were fully engaged and really enjoyed the training.
There were several moments which demonstrated that the kids were really learning something about themselves, and that this type of thinking was rather new to them. The students appeared to learn a lot about the importance of self-reflection and why it matters.
This type of thinking is very important to instill in youth because it helps them identify who they are and what they want to accomplish in the future. CMB looks forward to continuing with the critical thinking trainings for youth, and is very excited to facilitate another training at the Universe Lions School in the near future.
Romana
Engleza