A Comparative Analysis of the Skills and Satisfaction of Teenagers Taught Decision-Making Models

Abstract

This study was designed to measure the effectiveness of two generic types of decision-making models currently used to teach high school students decision-making.\nModels that were used in this study were a deductive and an inductive model. Deductive decision-making is the philosophical process, that is a generalization of personal values to specific choice items. Induction is the scientific process; students consider a series of specific items and generalize a decision from the examinations.\nEffectiveness in this study was defined as the process skills and student satisfaction with the methods. Individual student differences that were considered in the study were grades, decision-maturity, gender, and cognitive style. There were 32 hypotheses generated comparing the skills and satisfaction of students, with individual differences, using the two different models.\nStudents who were sampled in the study came from eleven different high schools in Van Buren County in southwestern Michigan. The 124 students in this study attend the Van Buren Skills Center. Students from seven representative vocational programs filled out a researcher designed questionnaire that was developed to identify individual student differences. Students were then invited to attend one of the two treatment groups. One of the groups was taught a deductive decision-making process. The other group was taught an inductive decision-making process. Both groups were taught by the researcher.\nFollowing the lesson, students in both groups were asked to make five decisions. Decisions the students were asked to make concerned: menu items, dates, cars, houses, and presidential candidates.\nA one-factor analysis of variance was used to compare the skills; a chi-square analysis was used to compare satisfaction. a p < .05 level of confidence was set for the study.\nThe results of the study by individual difference groups were:\nGrades. (1) Students with high grades were more satisfied with the deductive model than with the inductive model at the p < .05 level of confidence. (2) Students with low grades were more satisfied with the inductive model at the p < .05 level of confidence. (3) Students with high grades had higher skill scores using the deductive model at the p < .05 level. (4) Students with low grades had higher skill scores using the deductive model at the p < .05 level.\nDecision-maturity. (1) Decision-immature students had lower skill scores using the inductive model than did decision-mature students at the p < .01 level. (2) Decision-mature students had higher skill scores with the deductive model than with the inductive model at the p < .05 level. (3) Decision-immature students had higher skill scores with the deductive model than with the inductive model at the p < .01 level.\nGender. (1) Female students had higher skill scores than did male students using the inductive model at the p < .01 level. (2) Female students were more satisfied with the inductive model than were male students at the p < .5 level. (3) Male students had higher skill scores with the deductive model than they did with the inductive model at the p < .01 level (4) Female students were more satisfied with the deductive model than were male students at the p < .05 level.\nCognitive Style. (1) Students with a deductive cognitive style had higher skill scores using the deductive model than did inductive style students using the same model at the p < .05 level. (2) Students with a deductive cognitive style had higher skill scores using the deductive model than they did using the inductive model at the p < .01 level.\nAn implication for educators from this study is that, if only one method of decision-making could be selected for all high school students, the deductive method would probably be the preferred choice. If the instructor is working with a largely female population, either model could be used effectively.

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