Explore decision-making

Getting started

• Ask the class to come up with a practical idea which might improve your school in some way, but which might not be popular with all students, for example:
  • • No unhealthy food in the school canteen.
    • First fifteen minutes of every school day is for exercise and stretching.
    • No mobile phones at school.
    • Students should have to wear school uniform/stop wearing school uniform.
• Tell the students that this is an important decision and that there are a number of ways that they could make this decision. How should this decision be made in your school?

Activity (30 minutes)

1. Explain that now students are going to learn about different types of decision-making processes.
2. Divide the class into pairs. Show students photos of strawberries, a salad sandwich, and a chocolate cupcake. 
3. Ask pairs to discuss which snack they would like for themselves, and to explain how they arrived at this decision. Ask the students to decide:
   • Which they would prefer as a snack, and why.
   • What snack they would provide for their pair, and to explain how they arrived at this decision.
   • What snack they would provide for the whole class, and to explain how they arrived at this decision.
   • What snack they would provide for the class every day at school and to explain how they arrived at this decision.
4. Discuss whether students have different answers and why this might be. Did the students make different decisions for themselves than they did for others? Why might this be? Explain that representation involves making decisions for other people.
5. Now that your students are thinking about the difference between making a decision for themselves compared to others, you can introduce some other ways of making decisions:
   • Autocrat (randomly select one person to decide) 
   • Executive decision (choose a small group to decide) – this is similar to how decisions are made through Cabinet
   • Majority decision (show of hands or vote) – decisions made by voting in the Senate and House of Representatives are decided by majority
   • Consensus (discussing until everyone agrees)
6. Using the Decision-making table in the toolkit, lead the class through the decision-making process for autocratic, executive, majority and consensus decisions. You might like to use the idea your class discussed in the Getting started section (above) or continue the discussion with snacks.

Discussion questions

• Which form of decision-making was most efficient?
• Was it difficult to reach a consensus? Why? What difference would 60 students or 120 students make to this method?
• Which form of decision-making was most fair? Least fair?
• Tell the students that the Australian Parliament uses majority rule rather than consensus for making decisions. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this method.
   

Extension

Explore some ways that students can influence decisions that affect them. They might like to contact their local member, write a speech or start a petition.

• Getting involved
• Years 5+6
• Years 7+8