Decision Making Activities
This page describes the technique and the uses of the Decision Making model and then lists all the activities that are based on this model.
What are Decision Making Activities?
The activity model provided by, for example, the King John: the Decision-Making Game can be used with a variety of age-ranges, varying the level of detail and the number of decisions to suit ability and concentration levels.
The idea is straightforward – present students with a range of decisions, each with two or three options to choose from. To make the activity competitive or give it an edge, make sure that students can win or lose. In this case, students begin with a number of crowns but foolish decisions (not necessarily different ones from those John took) leads to losing crowns. A series of bad decisions leads to deposition. The historical value comes in the debriefing as you unpick their decisions and the reasons behind them.
Benefits
Such an activity provides students with an outline of the key issues of the period, plus an introduction to people and events. I found these activities particularly useful at A level where they are best used as an introduction to a topic, providing a first layer of knowledge and therefore creating an effective framework for reading. Students read more confidently and effectively if first introduced to the issues by such an activity.
Improving Class Dynamics
This model of activity is also excellent for improving the dynamics with a class – it provides a structured framework for discussion and the competitiveness as groups struggle to see who keeps their crowns longest helps newly-formed classes relax with each other. At A level a revision activity would be to ask a group of students to write their own decision-making activity on a topic.
Inside a Past Situation
This section includes other variations on the decision-making model but what they have in common is putting students ‘inside a past situation’ and asking them to try to think from that contemporary standpoint. No matter if they get the answers wrong because that’s revealing, that shows what’s not understood and identifying those misconceptions is another key benefit of these activities.
Activities
Big Brother meets History of Medicine: Debating Significance |
Who was the most significant figure in Ancient Medicine? Was it really Hippocrates or would you chose someone else? |
Can your students do better than King John or will they lose their crowns? |
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Bring the accused to court to tell their stories. Can the rest of the class predict who will receive the death penalty? Why was the legal system so unpredictable? |
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Get your next A level topic off to a demanding start by turning your class into the royal council, the cabinet or the Politburo. |
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