STARTER PACK: SOCIAL STUDIES
Help students think clearly about the past, present, and future.
Social studies teachers can bring Decision Education to their classrooms, giving students practical tools to help evaluate information, consider multiple perspectives, reason through uncertainty, and make thoughtful judgments.
START HERE
Conversation prompts for social studies classrooms
Use these questions to help students analyze historical events, current issues, policy debates, and civic choices.
“What decision was being made?”
Help students move beyond “What happened?” and toward the options, constraints, and trade-offs that decision makers faced.
- What problem were people trying to solve?
- What options did they have?
- What other options might they have considered?
“What did people know at the time?”
Support students in avoiding hindsight and understanding decisions made under uncertainty.
- What information was available?
- What was unknown?
- What assumptions shaped the decision?
“Whose priorities and perspectives were included?”
Help students examine who was making the decision, what matters most to them in this situation, what internal and outside pressures they faced, and what different people wanted.
- Who was included in the decision?
- Who was affected but not included?
- What priorities were in conflict?
“If you were the key decision maker, what would you have decided?”
Help students look at a situation from different points of view and explain their reasoning.
- What evidence supports your decision?
- What evidence challenges it?
- What are your trade-offs?
HISTORY + DECISION-MAKING
Decision-Making During the Cuban Missile Crisis
Help students examine one of the most consequential decision points of the 20th century through the lens of uncertainty, options, risk, and judgment.
Students explore how President Kennedy and his advisers weighed competing options during the Cuban Missile Crisis, practicing how to consider multiple options, think through outcomes, and analyze decisions without relying only on hindsight.
BLOG SPOTLIGHT
History as a Decision Lab
Looking back at history allows students the opportunity to examine how decisions were made. In this blog post, Joe Schmidt, Executive Director of K–12 Education at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and President of National Council for the Social Studies, explores how to use history as a “decision lab” in the context of the America Revolution.
CIVICS, POLICY, AND DEBATE
Explore lesson plans that will help your students reason through real-world civic decisions
Decision Education gives students a structured way to analyze public problems, evaluate policies, and discuss disagreements productively.
I’ve found that integrating concepts from Decision Education in my lessons contributes substantially to students’ overall learning experience.
Paul Wright
Government and Economics Teacher
PODCAST EPISODES
Listen and bring big ideas into your classroom
The Decision Education Podcast features conversations that can help students understand judgment, disagreement, uncertainty, and decision-making.
EXPLORE ALL TEACHING RESOURCES
Connect Decision Education to what you already teach
By giving students practical tools to evaluate information, consider multiple perspectives and options, weigh trade-offs, and reason through uncertainty, teachers can help students make thoughtful decisions in the classroom and beyond.
