Decision making: a study in guidance

Abstract

The thesis examines the development of guidance in secondary schools in Scotland. Particular emphasis is placed on studying how pupils learn to make decisions. This process is seen as integral to the process of education and it it is through decision making that the individual exercises control.

Considerable emphasis is placed on the role of parents in the education of their children. The study focuses on alienated families and an attempt is made to develop procedures designed to place parents and children in control of the child’s education.

In considering how the individual child learns to make decisions, particular attention is paid to the relationship between consistency of learning experience and the child's development of decision making competence. An attempt is made to identify specific levels of performance and to select criteria which will indicate development.

The methods selected were chosen because they involve parents and pupils as well as teachers. They are also designed to enable the promoted guidance teacher to establish a specialist role in the school. The training aspect of this role is stressed in view of the potential for development of the guidance role of all teachers.