Resilient Decisions: Ambiguity, Complexity and Independent Thinking
The opening lesson of the Resilient Decisions series introduces students to decision-making in the context of ambiguity — situations where there is no clearly "right" answer. Through a drawing activity with a surprise marking scheme, personal dilemmas in pairs, and group dilemma discussions, students experience first-hand the discomfort of uncertainty and begin exploring how resilience skills can help them navigate it. The lesson closes with a breathing exercise using Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken" to illustrate that all choices carry uncertainty.
Learning Outcomes
Outcome 1:
Identify personal progress during Healthy Minds lessons
Outcome 2:
Understand the concept of ambiguity in decision-making
Outcome 3:
Know how to approach dilemmas and difficult decisions
What's included
A quick look at the classroom-ready resources that come with this lesson.
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About the Organisation
Bounce Forward is the UK’s psychological-fitness charity.
We help children and young people — and the adults and environments around them — develop the understanding, skills and shared language to regulate, recover and adapt through challenge, change and everyday life.
Our work brings together mental resilience and emotional wellbeing, shifting the focus upstream: building capability before crisis, rather than waiting for something to go wrong. We translate evidence from psychology, resilience research, cognitive behavioural approaches and positive psychology into practical learning that can be taught, modelled and used in real life.
From evidence-informed curricula and staff development to family support and whole-community approaches, our work recognises that young people do not develop in isolation. What happens around a young person shapes what becomes possible within them.
Everything we create is practical, grounded in evidence and designed to build something that lasts — psychologically fit people and communities, better prepared to meet life.