Enhancing children's thinking skills: an instructional model for decision-making under certainty

Modern society is characterized by rapid change, an overload of information, an interrelation between once distinct fields (science, technology and society) and a growing recognition of the importance of personal and social values. In such a dynamic society the teaching of facts becomes less vital while the teaching of thinking skills turns out to be indispensable. Educators have recognized the need for curricula devoted to thinking skills in general and attempts to attain this goal have already been made. However, almost no attention has been given to teaching children the very important and daily used skill of decision-making under certainty. In the present paper we propose a framework for developing school material which cultivates decision-making skills. This framework is a tripartite model which describes (a) the general strategy an ideal decision maker should adopt, (b) the underlying cognitive skills needed for that strategy and (c) the educational objectives for the promotion of each cognitive skill mentioned. "Science in a Technological Society", a curriculum developed in the Israeli Science Teaching Center, Center for Curriculum Research and Development, School of Education, Tel-Aviv University.