Enabling better decision making

Washington: Children who participate in collaborative group work to learn about significant social issues become better decision-makers than their peers who learn the same curriculum through teacher-led discussions, a new study has found.

Researchers at the University of Illinois in US conducted a study on 760 fifth-grade students which compared the efficacy of collaborative group work with conventional direct instruction at promoting students' ability to make reasoned decisions and apply those skills in a novel task.

The students studied a six-week curriculum in which they explored whether a community should hire professional hunters to kill a pack of wolves that was causing many residents concern. Students examined various perspectives on the issue, including the potential impact on the ecosystem, the local economy and public policy.

The curriculum's purpose was not to lead students to a predetermined best answer but to raise their awareness about making responsible and reasoned decisions, researchers said. After completing the wolf curriculum, the students wrote two individual essays - one that explained their personal decision on what should be done about the wolf pack, and another about their decision on an unrelated moral dilemma between two friends, presented in the story 'The Pinewood Derby.'

In the story, a boy named Jack has an unpopular friend named Thomas who wins a pinewood derby competition but later confesses to Jack that he violated the rules by enlisting his older brother's help in building his car.

After reading the story, the students were asked to write an essay about whether Jack should reveal his friend's dishonesty. Children who had worked in collaborative groups on the wolf project were better prepared to take on the role of decision-maker about Jack's moral dilemma with his friend Thomas, the researchers found.

These children were more proficient at three key aspects of decision-making - recognising more than one side of a dilemma, considering a range of reasons to support differing viewpoints, and weighing the costs and benefits associated with different decisions, according to the researchers.

These children appealed to a significantly greater number of moral principles and practical considerations when drawing conclusions about the action Jack should take, the researchers found. By contrast, students who studied the wolf curriculum in teacher-led discussions were no better at making a decision on Jack's dilemma than children in the control groups who had not been exposed to the wolf project, according to the study.

"Collaborative group work positions students as active decision-makers, whereas direct instruction places them in a passive role, following the reasoning of their teacher," said Xin Zhang from the University of Illinois.