SEL Toolkit: Decision Making
Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) fosters the ability to make positive choices about how we behave. On this page of the SEL Toolkit, we link to tools and resources for professionals who seek to strengthen young people's decision-making skills.
Promote Problem-Solving
There are many simple ways to infuse problem-solving thinking and reflection into program activities:
- Articulate differences and connections
- Identify emotions behind actions
- Brainstorm different approaches or solutions to a task
- Explore possible consequences
- Model and articulate decision-making process
- Reflect on past experiences
- Evaluate actions - did they meet the goal?
- Simulate or role play a task
Teaching Problem Solving: Let students get "stuck" and "unstuck"
This Brookings article describes methods for creating a "culture of problem solvers."
Decision-making and Problem-solving: Class Activity
This activity from Climate Schools in Australia includes a useful worksheet to help a young person think through a decision.
Teach Critical Thinking and Decision-Making Skills
Games for Building Decision-Making Skills
Here, Common Sense Education reviews classroom-friendly games for improving students' decision-making and problem-solving skills.
7 Steps to Effective Decision Making
This handout from the University of Massachusetts outlines steps to making more deliberate, thoughtful decisions.
5 Tips to Improve Your Critical Thinking - Samantha Agoos
This 5-minute TED-Ed video discusses how to make informed decisions.
Teaching Resources: Bring Decision Education into Your Classroom
The Alliance for Decision Education's Teacher Resources page offers lesson plans to integrate decision education into classrooms. Resources cover topics such as recognizing cognitive biases, structuring decisions, and thinking probabilistically.
Edutopia: The Benefits of Teaching Ethical Dilemmas
Introducing ethical dilemmas in the classroom can open up opportunities not only for debate and critical thinking, but also for personal growth, empathy for other viewpoints, and self-reflection.
Reflective Group Conversation
This worksheet can be used to guide critical thinking within a group.
SWOT Analysis
This worksheet can be used in a discussion of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
