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1. Introduction

1.1 Why teach thinking?

Edward de Bono's ambition is reflected in the work of a number of people who have researched the impact of teaching the de Bono thinking skills in schools and is reflected in the action research which has recently been conducted in Malta. A typical example is the experience of a postgraduate student, Josette Leone Ganado, who taught thinking skills at a Primary school in Malta as part of her dissertation. She experienced the following remark from an eight-year-old pupil who said: "I used to think that I was good at nothing, but now I know I am good at thinking." Research carried out by teachers on the direct teaching of thinking reinforces de Bono's claim that "Several teachers have reported that pupils who had hitherto been regarded as backward in the academic subjects suddenly seemed to take an interest and shine in the CoRT thinking lesson." Leone Ganado describes the experience of Roy who was extremely disruptive and who had fallen behind with his school work, thus adopting an attitude of cynicism in the classroom. She states that one day Roy contributed one of the most valuable items in a thinking exercise with the result that the thinking lessons became his favourite lessons. She states:

"He blossomed as a thinker, surprising and gaining the respect of everyone around him. This new found capability helped him start to take a new interest in the conventional subjects also, eager to dispel the old image he had gained as a troublemaker."

Edward de Bono strongly believes that thinking is a skill and he calls the skill of thinking "operacy". He suggests that operacy should be included alongside literacy and numeracy as good thinking is essential for problem solving, decision making, constructive thinking, critical thinking and for coping with change, all of which are essential for survival and for success in today's world. In this manner, a new gateway would be available for pupils who may not be good at literacy or numeracy but who may be good at operacy. It is important, he maintains, for operacy to be included in education, as he states:

This view is elaborated by Robert Fisher who states:

Although this opinion may initially appear to contrast with that of de Bono regarding operacy, on closer examination one realises that this is not necessarily the case. Rather, de Bono's claims regarding operacy could easily be combined with Fisher's regarding reasoning. Operacy, or the direct teaching of thinking, should be introduced into all systems of education as a subject in its own right. In this manner, pupils who are left behind by the system and who often end up victims of a downward spiral of regression are given the opportunity to develop their thinking potential and to learn how to broaden their perception and become autonomous thinkers. Moreover, improved thinking skills, when successfully transferred to other subjects in the curriculum, can provide a basis for improving what Fisher calls "highly diversified cognitive skills and mental acts." Fisher advocates the improvement of the thinking potential of individuals as he states:

The thinking skills programme which is used in this research is de Bono's CoRT 1. The programme teaches thinking directly through training in basic skills and is described as follows:

Resistance to the direct teaching of thinking in education often comes about because it is claimed that one of the distinguishing characteristics of the human race is that everyone thinks anyway, so why should we do anything about our thinking. However, as an unpublished report prepared by the three Thinking Skills (T.S.) teachers remarks,

They quote the Minister of Education, Dr. Louis Galea, who states that "the beauty of these thinking skills � is that they enable one to generate new ideas on demand, rather than waiting around for inspiration." The T.S. note that "Rather than being left to wade and sift through a quagmire of possible trails of thought and courses of action, de Bono's tools direct our attention to particular aspects of a task in a systematic and rigorous manner." This reinforces the view of the de Bono T.S. as operating concepts that can easily be learnt and which can be used whenever required. The teachers add: "This characteristic of quickly and effectively focusing attention is particularly valuable to teachers, who know how difficult this often is when working with elementary school children." Moreover, they observe that learning the de Bono T.S. helps with regards to group work, which is one of the basic recommendations of the National Minimum Curriculum, "because different groups can work on the same main task but approach it from different angles by using different tools." This reinforces one of the observations made by Leone Ganado who remarks that the CoRT programme lends itself naturally to group work which "not only helps the children's social and communication skills but also helps them to learn to work together in a collaborative setting and instils a sense of cooperation rather than competition." She further observes that group work helps children to learn from each other, gives a sense of security to shyer pupils to give their input, transfers to other contexts where group work is also valuable, and allows more thinking time than that which is normally permitted through individual contributions. She however suggests careful placements of the children within the groups as pupils with strong personalities may tend to dominate group work.

Criticism has often been directed towards the direct teaching of thinking because, it is claimed, not much research has been carried out on its effects. In order to counteract such claims, this report contains a brief literature review which lists research which has been carried out on the direct teaching of thinking, using the de Bono methods (see Appendix VI).

One of the recommendations of the recently published National Minimum Curriculum (NMC) was the introduction of T.S. within the curriculum. These were considered to be most appropriately inserted within Personal and Social Education (P.S.E.), which has been established in Secondary schools for the past nine years.

During the past two scholastic years, over 100 P.S.E. teachers have been trained in De Bono's T.S. The Thinking Skills Programme (T.S.P.), based upon Dr. Edward De Bono's CoRT 1 and the Six Thinking Hats was introduced concurrently with the introduction of P.S.E. in the Primary Sector in October 2000.

Following a number of discussions with the Education Division in Malta, it was decided to implement the de Bono T.S. (CoRT 1) into local state primary schools through P.S.E. in October 2000. This would be initiated by means of a pilot project for which eight peripatetic primary school teachers were employed. Three teachers would teach only the de Bono T.S., while the other five teachers would teach P.S.E. in primary schools, which would include the direct teaching of thinking using de Bono's CoRT Programme.

The essential features and benefits of the CoRT Programme are, according to de Bono, as follows:

• the CoRT lessons provide a framework where the emphasis is placed directly on thinking
• pupils are encouraged to think and given credit for their individual thinking
• pupils get opportunities to think in groups, to express their ideas and to interact with the ideas of others
• CoRT offers a selection of specific and deliberate thinking skills
• pupils are encouraged to view thinking as a skill that can be learned and practised, and pupils can practise and see their own improvement
• through learning CoRT thinking skills pupils improve in confidence, focus, fluency and application
• pupils feel in control of their thinking, rather than drifting in a sea of emotion and confusion
• through CoRT pupils learn specific thinking tools which can be transferred to other situations

It was decided to introduce the de Bono T.S. through P.S.E. mainly due to the fact that the curriculum is already very crowded and primary school teachers have a number of demands and pressures placed on them with their present load. The choice of P.S.E. was thought to be suitable because P.S.E. and a T.S.P. have a number of objectives in common, namely:

• Both P.S.E. and Thinking Lessons equip students with specific skills that can be used in every area of their life. This includes skills that are essential for students to manage change in today's rapidly evolving world.
• Class sizes for P.S.E. are half a normal class size and this allows space for individual attention.
• The classroom environment that is created for P.S.E. lessons is conducive to allowing students to freely express their opinion without fear of censure as long as the focus of the subject under discussion is maintained.
• Smaller class sizes allow for the possibility of attention to be given to students with low self-esteem who are made to feel that their contribution to the discussion is important and who, therefore, do not hold back from expressing their opinion, as they may do under normal class-size circumstances.
• Elements which are common to both P.S.E. and Thinking Lessons (but which are tackled using different approaches) include metacognitive thinking, process of thinking, self-expression, facilitation of communication and tackling subjects which are not considered to be of an academic nature.
• P.S.E. is not an examinable subject and, at least at present, Thinking Lessons should not be examinable.
• The pedagogy for both P.S.E. and Thinking Lessons is similar as it involves the teacher as a facilitator amongst a small group of students rather than as a provider of knowledge.
• Experience demonstrates that both P.S.E. and Thinking Lessons enable students to increase their self-esteem and self confidence and to become more autonomous thinkers.

The objectives of the project were put together by the teachers and project coordinators during the first phase of the project (October 2000 � January 2001). They were formulated by making use of one of the de Bono Thinking Skills, an AGO (Aims, Goals and Objectives). These are:

To create a thinking community

• Which considers thinking to be a skill that can be improved
• Which makes use of the de Bono thinking skills which are simple, yet powerful and effective, in order to broaden perception
• Which reaches out to as large a section of the population as possible
• Which facilitates transfer of skills to other areas
• Which considers thinking to be fun
• Which increases team-work and extends participation to all involved
• Which enables participants to become more autonomous thinkers and increases their self-esteem and self-confidence