Teaching Decision Making Skills

Summarized in this document are results from a survey distributed to find the number of hours elementary, middle and high school teachers were trained to teach the six decision making skills to students . This survey found that at least sixty percent of all teachers responding received no training. The teachers indicated which skills were the most important for students to acquire . The skills which were most important for students to acquire were rated among the lowest for student mastery of the concept/skill. Although many of the teachers were not trained, they did report teaching the skills as the situation demanded. The decision making curricula most often used by teachers is a part of a larger social skills program. Teachers view decision making as an important critical thinking skill, but the findings indicate that training for teachers to teach the skills so that students can become informed decision makers, needs to obtain a higher priority in the colleges and school districts