Decision Making Styles In Relation To Their Academic Achievement Among B.Ed.Students

Abstract

Teaching is a series of decisions we make to help students learn. Some decisions are made by the syllabus or school, but the majority are made by us, the teachers. We make a huge number of decisions every day, with some researchers reporting that teachers make 0.7 decisions per minute during interactive teaching (Borko et al, 1990). Another study showed that elementary school teachers had 200–300 exchanges with students every hour, most of them unplanned and requiring decision-making (Jackson,1990). Making good choices is not easy: psychological research has revealed that a number of biases often distort how we make decisions and place an emphasis on faster, more automatic aspects of our thinking rather than slower, more analytic approaches. These biases can be addressed, but first decision making itself needs to be viewed as a skill, one that can be learned through a sequence of guided steps much as driving a car or speaking a new language can be learned. Schools are supposed to teach children how to become thoughtful, engaged, and productive citizens, but the important skill of making good decisions is rarely part of classroom activities. A group of researchers and teachers is seeking to change that.