Why 6 thinking hats?

Why did Izawany and I decide to design and develop a learning module for form 5 students using the idea created by Edward de Bono in training students to chunk their thinking using 6 different thinking hats? We are aiming:

1. to help them adopt a higher thinking order (able to analyze, synthesize and evaluate)
   
2. to help them think critically, constructively and creatively
3. to help them to see things deductively and inductively
4. to help them become alert towards their surroundings ( aware of possibilities, setbacks, alternatives and consequences).
   

Being both English teachers we found that majority of the students have a hard time to develop ideas. I sincerely think that the reason why their thinking scope is very limited because they don't read enough. For example, when I asked my form five students (the best class) to debate on the issue of the cancellation of building the crooked bridge to replace the existing Johor bridge, I ended up giving them all the information via newspaper cuttings and articles from the internet. They were not able to debate on the issue not because of language barrier but because they do not read enough. When students lack reading, they do not have substance. How could we train them to think when they have no ideas on what to think.

Iza and I hope by introducing Six Thinking Hats to students, they are able to train their thinking
in six different perspectives. The aim is not only for the students to use the skills in developing ideas in speaking and writing at secondary level but also to make them realize that people do think differently and they would need to be able to adopt and adapt as they merge into the mainstream in the society.

We use moodle http://www.nurulhana.com/course/view.php?id=3 for our website. This is version 0.02. The first feedback I received was from Lim last week when I showed him the first version. Lim commented that the layout was not interesting. He suggested that I put animated hats instead to capture students' attention. Up to now I still could not find any free animated hats yet. What I did instead was insert a row of 6 colours hats at the top of the web page.
Another alternative would be to use Joomla but I am afraid I would need to have more time to learn how to develop the content using Joomla.

Once the school reopens on Monday, Iza will ask her students to try out the learning activity and answer the evaluation part at the end of the lesson. Once that is done meaning we have gone through the second cycle of the Design->Develop->Evaluate of ADDIE Model. Before that, I think I still need to redesign the activities and break them into levels 1, 2 and 3 for beginner, intermediate and advanced.