Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2017 - 33

cision-making skills by helping them identify the available
choices, as well as the benefits and consequences associated
with those choices.
We must empower students to embrace their instincts,
acknowledge them, and find the necessary tools to confirm
or challenge the validity of their options and subsequent
choices. If we do not, we will foster the misconception that
students must be experts before they can make good decisions. We need to foster a spirit of creativity that allows our
students the freedom to try new things and to trust their
instincts within a process that includes time for honest selfassessment. We must model our own critical-thinking and
decision-making processes to reinforce that we are not all
experts all the time. There is no magic moment when you
become good enough to start making choices. These illusions can be crippling for young decision makers. Obviously, the more time we spend developing our skills in an area,
the more expertise we develop. But the question should
not be "Do I know everything about this topic before I can
make a decision?" but rather, "What information do I need
about this situation so that I can move forward?"

of the situation. This anxious feeling is a symptom of the
"autonomic arousal model" (Ogden, Pain, and Fisher, 2006).
When under stress, we enter a state of hyperarousal and our
cortex goes off-line, leaving us without the ability to think
clearly. It is vital that teachers recognize signs of hyperarousal in students so that we are better able to help them
get back into their "window of tolerance." This window of
tolerance is characterized by an ability to think and feel simultaneously, to cultivate tolerable feelings and reactions
that are adaptable to the individual situation.
One way to coax students back to their window of
tolerance is to encourage breathing. When we feel stress
(being chased by a bear, the fear of being indecisive in front
of our peers, facing a deadline), our autonomic system responds automatically, typically by speeding up. Our heart
rates increase, prompting our breathing to increase as well.
This increased breathing rate has the effect of under-oxygenating our systems, leaving us feeling like we are gasping
for air. What is required in these stressful situations is to
breathe more slowly and more deeply so that we re-oxygenate our systems. As we slow down our systems, our prefrontal cortex can regain control of the decision-making
process (Porges, 2016).

WINDOW OF TOLERANCE
Students also need to learn to think effectively in stressful
situations. Most people, when called upon to make decisions under stressful circumstances, have difficulty staying
calm and instead start feeling anxious and less in control

BIASES AND ASSUMPTIONS
Just as stressful situations can influence our thinking, so
can cognitive biases, which represent the subtle, or even

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