Connections to Connectivism: Decision-Making

https://www.awesomeinventions.com/charts-relate-hate-making-decisions/

Connectivism has many important aspects to it that make it an impactful concept in the educational field, it also is relatively new to new educators which means there will be those who are uncertain about implementing it in their classrooms. I would like to talk about how/why we can embrace connectivism, mainly through the fourth part of it, which is the decision-making as a learning process lens (http://itdl.org/journal/jan_05/article01.htm). Personally, my initial thoughts about decision making are a replica of the pie chart above, it makes me nervous, I do not like it, I avoid it. How different would that have been for me if I had a chance to learn decision making skills in the classroom when I was a kid? It is one of the major skills that we take out with us into the real world that is not taught as often in classrooms. If it was taught more in classrooms then that "think rationally" section would be much higher and I feel that anxiety over decisions my decrease. In a few of our other classes we have been taught ways in which decision making is used as a learning process within a classroom, and one that may even help worried teachers feel that it connects children to figuring out the right answer on a test (if standardized testing is a stressor that would keep a teacher from leading lessons through a decision-making strategy). First of all, in our Social Studies Methods class we learned about a method called "story path" and with this method you can have students be engaged in the lesson by making an educated decision. For example, you could have your students build a government and certain students can choose or be chosen for specific roles. Then the teacher can pose a problem for the government to solve, and the students need to collaborate and make decisions on what they want to do for their people. Another way we have been learning about using decision making in the classroom is through our Teaching Math class. This way our professor teaches us a little differently, he has us solve a math problem and then asks us how we did it. He wants to know our thought process instead of the product and then expands our knowledge by asking deeper questions. This helped us realize that when we solve these math problems, we make decisions on how to do it because not everyone reaches the specific numbers in the same ways. This helps us learn how to defend our decisions and that could be useful in a standardized test because if you recognize how you reached something it can help you either be sure of your answer or adjust your thinking (if you recognize the flaw you made along the way). These example just show how I have realized decision making is becoming an important part of the classroom and is a very practical skill to teach students, one that they will take with them and use always.