Developing Social Studies Decision-making:Methods that Focus on Controlling the Bias of Intuition

Abstract

　　The purpose of this paper is to enhance logicality in decision-making by developing social studies methods. Previous studies revealed that in the decision-making process, intuition performed a significant role.

　　Decision-making is influenced by the bias of intuition, thus in the decision-making process intuition must be controlled. However, previous studies about decision-making in social studies lessons have not suggested methods to control biased intuition. This study presents three main significant appeals:

　　First, decision-making methods must control the bias of intuition of learners to ensure logicality.

　　Second, develop social studies learning methods of “comparison-examination” and “self-discussion” that help to control the bias of intuition. This method suggests the solution of the former issues in learners’ decision-making processes (where learners tend to focus on conclusions and conduct unfair comparisons) which was observed in the survey of student’s description. This method allows learners to foster the logicality through comparisons between advantages and disadvantages, comparing the merits of each option in light of various criterions. Furthermore, this method should help learners reflect on the validity of their own decision-making.

　　Finally, revealing the effect of this method provides the cases tested in actual lessons.

　　Using this method then, the issues in learner’s decision-making processes such as “non-logical thinking” caused by focusing on conclusions and “unfair comparisons” are solved.