Classroom Decision Skills

Teaching Decision Skills in the Classroom

Researchers: Robin Gregory, Lee Failing & Brooke Moore

We live in an age when children still in elementary school are being asked to make difficult choices, yet most young people receive little or no formal training in the required decision-making skills. We find this omission troubling, because students are less likely to be confident in expressing themselves, facing life’s daily problems, or contributing meaningfully to society if they lack the ability to make good choices. The skills themselves are not difficult, but unless they’re made explicit it’s easy to neglect key steps. With the support of administrators and teachers we have been exploring the possibilities for systemic changes in students’ individual and collective choice-making skills. Although our project remains in its early stages, we find that in classrooms where decision skills have been introduced, the response of both teachers and students is highly positive and students’ levels of discourse and sophistication in decision making have improved. Larger goals of the program include helping younger people to engage more actively in civil society and to overcome feelings of hopelessness that often characterize the relationship of youth to larger social issues, such as climate change, poverty, and immigration. Just think about how the world could change when these decision-smart kids grow up.

Principal Investigators: Robin Gregory