ABSTRACT

The need for adolescents to develop critical thinking and decision making skills suitable for a pluralistic society has been identified for some ten years in a variety of popular and scholarly reports (Boyer, 1983; Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development, 1989; Naisbitt & Aburdene, 1990; National Commission on Secondary Vocational Education, 1984; Toffler, 1980). Likewise, a developmental task of adolescence is the development of independence. The process of reaching independence is gradual and involves the adolescent assuming more responsibility, including the making of decisions that were previously made by adults (Havighurst, 1972; Coleman, 1980).