Learn more about the decision making process, and how you can make informed decisions. Footage: pexels.com

The purpose of this study was to determine the decision-making and problem-solving approaches most frequently used by school superintendents in two mid-western states when confronted with district dilemmas. The research replicated a study conducted by Polka, Litchka, Caizi, Denig and Mete (2011) in five Mid-Atlantic states. The survey used in both studies was based on the work of Tarter and Hoy (1998). Results between the two regions were compared and significant differences were found in how superintendents manage dilemmas and their preferences for making decisions. In addition, significant differences were found between male and female superintendents in the mid-western states.

This is a course about how research knowledge and other types of knowledge come to be actionable and influential in the world — or not. The course explores ways to make research knowledge more accessible, credible, and useful in the realm of public policy and practice, a project in which the course faculty collectively bring decades of professional experience, in both academic and non-academic roles.
The course addresses the politics of the policymaking process, the power of framing and agenda-setting, fads and paradigms in the design professions and society in general, how knowledge diffuses along knowledge and influence networks, and how varied types of knowledge (rational, craft, other) and deliberation shape decision-making and action. The course engages a number of guests to present case studies of research in use (and abuse) in varied fields, highlighting rich areas for potential research contributions, along with major conflicts in public values, political interests, ethical obligations, and more. The resulting dilemmas confront scholars, policymakers, practitioners, and others as they look to research — sometimes — for useful guidance, influence, or both.

No surprise—people with more education often earn higher incomes and are unemployed less than those with less education. Those with higher incomes also tend to accumulate more wealth. Why? Research shows that well-educated people tend to make financial decisions that help build wealth. Their strategies, though, can be used by anyone.

This course introduces the theory and the practice of engineering ethics using a multi-disciplinary and cross-cultural approach. Theory includes ethics and philosophy of engineering. Historical cases are taken primarily from the scholarly literatures on engineering ethics, and hypothetical cases are written by students. Each student will write a story by selecting an ancestor or mythic hero as a substitute for a character in a historical case. Students will compare these cases and recommend action.

What does pleasure have to do with morality? What role, if any, should intuition have in the formation of moral theory? If something is ‘simulated', can it be immoral?

This accessible and wide-ranging textbook explores these questions and many more. Key ideas in the fields of normative ethics, metaethics and applied ethics are explained rigorously and systematically, with a vivid writing style that enlivens the topics with energy and wit. Individual theories are discussed in detail in the first part of the book, before these positions are applied to a wide range of contemporary situations including business ethics, sexual ethics, and the acceptability of eating animals. A wealth of real-life examples, set out with depth and care, illuminate the complexities of different ethical approaches while conveying their modern-day relevance.

This concise and highly engaging resource is tailored to the Ethics components of AQA Philosophy and OCR Religious Studies, with a clear and practical layout that includes end-of-chapter summaries, key terms, and common mistakes to avoid. It should also be of practical use for those teaching Philosophy as part of the International Baccalaureate.

Ethics for A-Level is of particular value to students and teachers, but Fisher and Dimmock's precise and scholarly approach will appeal to anyone seeking a rigorous and lively introduction to the challenging subject of ethics.

15.514 is an intensive introduction to the preparation and interpretation of financial information for investors (external users) and managers (internal users) and to the use of financial instruments to support system and project creation. The course adopts a decision-maker perspective on accounting and finance with the goal of helping students develop a framework for understanding financial, managerial, and tax reports. 15.514 is restricted to System Design and Management students.
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgement is hereby given to Professor G. Peter Wilson for his authorship of the following content in this course:

The Five Challenges (see Syllabus and Lecture 1)
"What Do Intel and Accountants Have in Common?" (see Lecture 1)
A Conceptual Framework for Financial Accounting (see Lecture 1)

Advances in cognitive science have resolved, clarified, and sometimes complicated some of the great questions of Western philosophy: what is the structure of the world and how do we come to know it; does everyone represent the world the same way; what is the best way for us to act in the world. Specific topics include color, objects, number, categories, similarity, inductive inference, space, time, causality, reasoning, decision-making, morality and consciousness. Readings and discussion include a brief philosophical history of each topic and focus on advances in cognitive and developmental psychology, computation, neuroscience, and related fields. At least one subject in cognitive science, psychology, philosophy, linguistics, or artificial intelligence is required. An additional project is required for graduate credit.

This lesson requires two class periods. In the first class period, students are asked to think of a way to decide who gets 100 pennies and how many each person gets. They learn about the concept of allocation and about different resource allocation methods. They evaluate the different methods using a graphic organizer. Next they listen to different scenarios and try to determine which allocation method was used. Then, after listening to the story Four Feet, Two Sandals about two girls who face some resource allocation issues, they identify the methods used in the story. In the second class period, the students are placed into groups to act out skits illustrating a resource allocation method that their classmates then try to guess. Finally, they read a news article about a resource and write letters to a city council outlining the ways the city could allocate the resource.

Game theory enables rational insight into the basic principles of social interaction and has therefore become indispensable for economic and social sciences. Whether in politics, sports or medicine, modelling problems as a strategic game helps in decision-making in a variety of fields. With lecture snippets of Reinhard Selten, Robert Aumann and Alvin Roth, this Mini Lecture introduces to the mathematical beginnings of game theory, its socioscientific development and entrepreneurial integration.

Students listen to the story, Glo Goes Shopping. They learn about saving, spending, decision making and opportunity cost. They learn to use a decision-making grid to make decisions. Mathematics skills include learning about rows and columns in a grid.

Neuroscientist Patricia Churchland explores how the human mind functions in guiding one's decisions. (55 minutes)

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"For scientists and other academics hoping to translate their findings into political change, policy experts offer the following advice: Tell a good story. Unfortunately, the academic literature—researchers’ go-to source for evidence that things actually work the way people claim they do—says little on how to go about crafting a compelling narrative. For that, says media expert Brett Davidson, researchers must delve into a lesser known but no less copious store of useful know-how: the grey literature. In a recent paper, Davidson outlines how this overlooked body of work provides researchers a manual for landing on the political agenda. A catch-all term for any research or materials not controlled by commercial publishers, the grey literature is a compendium of lessons learned through trial and error. Long a survival guide for policy advocates and activists working in the non-profit world, now, Davidson argues, it’s time for researchers to take advantage, too..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

This unit describes the process used by a clinician to make a diagnosis and determine a care plan. This includes gathering information from the patient as well as other objective and subjective sources, managing and organizing the information, comparing the information to known states of disease, and developing a care plan for the patient.

“How Daniel Got What He Wanted” is the fifth video in the Explore Economics animated series. It will help students understand that people have to save to get the things they want. Daniel wants a new bike helmet and must earn income and save to reach his goal.

Offered during MIT's Independent Activites Period (IAP), this short course covers the poker concepts, math concepts, and general concepts needed to play the game of Texas Hold'em on a professional level.
IAP is a special 4-week term in January that provides members of the MIT community including students, faculty, staff, and alums with an opportunity to organize, sponsor and participate in a wide variety of activities and topics that are often outside of the regular MIT curriculum.
Faculty Advisor: Paul Mende

This course is designed to provide both undergraduate and graduate students with a fundamental understanding of human factors that must be taken into account in the design and engineering of complex aviation and space systems. The primary focus is the derivation of human engineering design criteria from sensory, motor, and cognitive sources to include principles of displays, controls and ergonomics, manual control, the nature of human error, basic experimental design, and human-computer interaction in supervisory control settings. Undergraduate students will demonstrate proficiency through aviation accident case presentations, quizzes, homework assignments, and hands-on projects. Graduate students will complete all the undergraduate assignments; however, they are expected to complete a research-oriented project with a final written report and an oral presentation.

Can we really trust our perception? This post outlines some common ways that our brains perceive or interpret information in a way that does not produce accurate knowledge.

This Module, the second in a series on intensive intervention, offers information on making data-based instructional decisions. Specifically, the resource discusses collecting and analyzing progress monitoring and diagnostic assessment data. Developed in collaboration with the National Center on Intensive Intervention at American Institutes for Research and the CEEDAR Center, this resource is designed for individuals who will be implementing intensive interventions (e.g., special education teachers, reading specialists, interventionists) (est. completion time: 3 hours).

This course introduces quantitative approaches to understanding brain and cognitive functions. Topics include mathematical description of neurons, the response of neurons to sensory stimuli, simple neuronal networks, statistical inference and decision making. It also covers foundational quantitative tools of data analysis in neuroscience: correlation, convolution, spectral analysis, principal components analysis, and mathematical concepts including simple differential equations and linear algebra.