Abstract:

Critical thinking refers to the ability to analyse information systematically in a given scenario and make a reasoned judgment, including the formation of assumptions and implications. Creativity is related to the ability to generate new ideas driven from the combination, changing or improvement of existing ideas. Creative thinking then refers to the creation of something (such as idea, process or practice) new or original. Critical thinking requires creativity in many situations, such as when generating alternatives, or refining goals. So, there is no clear demarcation between such definitions, being impossible to determine when one type begins and the other ends.

Six Thinking Hats is a powerful technique to engage people actively in critical and creative thinking via a constructivist approach. The technique can effectively aid people to free themselves of the habitual ways of thinking that often lack creativity and innovation, and inhibit problem solving. The technique proposes six figurative hats (blue, white, red, green, yellow, and black), which represent different styles of thinking. The main idea is to allow people to fulfill valuable roles and to be equal contributors to the though process.

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education is a theme of great relevance, since STEM permeates everything today. STEM education is seen as a strategy to gather a workforce with deep technical skills to address challenges in our society. Being constructive and creative in education is essential to keep with rapid growth in world and accelerating changes in society. So the application of critical and creative thinking can aid to increase the probability of desirable outcomes in STEM education.

In this paper, we propose an approach, based on Six Thinking Hats technique, to support reasoning about initiatives in STEM education. Firstly, we present the technique and explain how to practice it using a case study. Later, we indicate examples of STEM initiatives to be developed using Six Thinking Hats. One initiave is to organize a national workshop on ‘Women in STEM’, and the other initiative is to structure participation of volunteers to aid the ‘Women in STEM’ cause. We also discuss the evaluation of our approach, considering a group of approximately 25 people (professors and undergrad students) from six distinct universities that conduct programs to attract and retain women in STEM areas.

For the proposal evaluation, we included aspects related to the proposed approach, such as participation satisfaction, session organization, timing, attractiveness of proposed cases, and discussion productivity. We also investigated the advantages of using Six Thinking Hats, assessing if the technique contributes to the analysis of distinct points and the continuous improvement of the identified solution. Participants reported to have an excellent experience when applying the proposed approach. They really recognized the importance of Six Thinking Hats to conduct their discussions and to combine distinct perspectives. Our initial results show the potential of our approach to support the design of strategies for complex issues as promoting STEM education.

Keywords:

Critical Thinking, Creatively Thinking, STEM, Initiatives.