Development of an Effective Decision-Skills Curriculum for Secondary School Students

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9450237 Gregory Improvement of the decision-making skills of secondary school students is an important component of the educational reform movement. It is also a component in the education of workers for the competitive workforce. In a previously-funded, exploratory grant, modules were developed for a variety of disciplines in which the content was taught by also emphasizing decision skills. This project builds upon that base to further develop, test and evaluate content-specific modules which teach the eight decision skills. Decision skills are interwoven with subject-based material. Students are placed in the role of active decision makers, faced with problems confronting scientists: interpreting conflicting outcomes, understanding sources of uncertainty, knowing when to go ahead despite a lack of information and when it is necessary to seek out additional information, distinguishing personal from professional values and knowing how best to work with a team of colleagues, possessing diverse skills, all of whom may see the world a little differently. The project is done with teachers in Eugene, Oregon and other locations. Results to date indicate that students and teachers find the materials engaging and that the learning of science becomes more relevant. The materials include discipline-specific modules which link decision-making skills, serving as an introduction to both the science and the decision-making and a decision skills handbook and video for teachers to see how to augment traditional science teaching. ***