Development of decision-making skills in the educational process according to the teachers

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to comprehensively assess the level of skills acquired by school leavers, particularly in the areas of decision making, making decisions under conditions of uncertainty and risk, taking responsibility for one's decisions, making choices, setting goals, striving to achieve them and solving problems.The paper presents the results of a survey that have allowed us to determine the extent to which the pupils have acquired these skills during their education, according to the teachers who assess their development in these areas at different stages of their education.Design/methodology/approach: In order to achieve this purpose, a quantitative method was used, based on a survey of 1472 primary and post-primary school teachers employed by educational institutions, including primary schools, vocational schools, high schools and technical secondary schools, located in one of 16 regions of Poland -the Kuyavia-Pomerania Province.Findings: The findings of the conducted research indicate that the level of decision-making, goal-setting and goal-achieving as well as problem-solving skills among school leavers is most often assessed by teachers as average, which is dominant in all types of schools.Detailed analysis shows that better results in development of these skills are observed in high schools and vocational schools rather than among primary school and technical secondary school pupils.Extreme scores, both very high and very low, were rare in all types of schools.Research limitations/implications: The survey was conducted among teachers from schools in the Kuyavia-Pomerania Province, making the results obtained representative for this region of Poland.At the same time, these results cannot be generalized to pupils from other provinces.Therefore, any conclusions apply exclusively to the surveyed group and region and their usage in a wider context may be limited. Practical implications:The results of this study can provide valuable insights into the level of decision-making skills of school leavers in the Kuyavia and Pomerania region, which can help to adapt teaching methods to their developmental needs in this area.Originality/value: This study can make an important contribution to the discussion on developing decision-making skills in the educational process of pupils at various stages of their education.