Decision making as a pedagogy for social emotional learning

This paper makes the case for adults in children’s lives to incorporate the science of decision-making skills as a pedagogy for social emotional learning (SEL), the process through which humans acquire a set of five core competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, 2020). Choices require learners to activate the first four SEL components while being explicit about the fifth, which can be an inclusive protocol for teaching and practicing SEL. The interdisciplinary decision and behavioural sciences (Kahneman, 2003) offer many insights into why a structured decision-making process can help youth move strategically through a choice to create new opportunities and develop their social emotional development while avoiding common missteps (which decrease social emotional development). Missteps are likely in more common approaches such as pros and cons lists, vague directives to “stop and think,” and voting. In terms of collaborative decisions, the decision sciences illustrate how approaches based on understanding values and being curious about others’ perspectives can help to build choices that embrace diversity and minimize polarizing reliance on misinformation. Models of collaborative structured decision-making, in particular, help teachers encourage their students to embrace transformative SEL oriented towards social justice, positioning diversity within groups as a necessary asset in reaching a quality decision (Jagers et al., 2019). The incorporation of a plain-language, science-based framework, such as the one detailed in this paper, provides a foundation for students to responsibly make minor decisions and significant decisions, all while explicitly and implicitly developing their social emotional skills.