…and duties as assigned

According to a 2021 Education Week article, teachers make approximately 1500 decisions per day. Even before school begins, we attend to decisions about the delivery of instruction, a host of logistical details, and the ongoing needs of students. Not including weekends, late evenings spent grading, or prep work during the summer, 1500 decisions per day adds up to 8,640,000 decisions over the course of a 32-year career, a staggering number to wrap one’s head around.

None of us step into teaching properly prepared for the barrage of decisions we will face. There is no guidebook to provide simple answers when tensions converge, nor a pause button to buy us time when class is underway. Over time, decision-making strategies emerge.

Fifteen hundred decisions per day equates to roughly 3 decisions each minute throughout an 8-hour day. It’s no wonder that teachers show signs of decision fatigue, a term used to describe a cluster of red flags including feeling overwhelmed, anxious, depressed, and exhausted. Given the decision-laden nature of the profession, how might we support teachers in this dilemma?

Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Prize recipient in Economic Sciences and author of Thinking, Fast and Slow describes two systems at work when we think. System 1, called fast thinking happens quickly and relies on intuition and impulse. System 1 decisions solve problems fast, but they integrate hidden biases and emotions and so are subject to the fallout that results. In contrast, system 2 or slow thinking requires time to weigh alternatives, consider relevant connections, and reflect on broader contexts. Logical, informed decisions utilize system 2 thinking.

Healthy school culture depends as much on the quality of teacher decisions as it does on curbing their quantity. Improving opportunities for teachers to learn about the dilemmas of fast and slow thinking and to explore new decision-making strategies benefits the whole school community. Here are five ways to integrate fast and slow thinking for improved decision-making:

• regularly analyze the intent and impact of in-the-moment decisions with a trusted colleague; seek different perspectives to expose hidden biases
• stay curious about the cause-effect understory of what’s working and what isn’t
• share decision-making responsibilities with colleagues and students to expand ownership
• design useful protocols using system 2 thinking to simplify the complexity of routines,
• learn to recognize what enhances learning and/or is truly urgent; limit the other stuff.

As philosopher and poet Bayo Akomolafe observes, “The times are urgent; let’s slow down.”

#decisionmaking, #humanesystems, #teacherwellbeing, #lessismore, #thinkingdifferently