Pedagogical judgment as three interrelated components: action, reasoning, and responsibility¶

Theory · All theories
Evidence · 3 claims (3 for) · 2 studies (2 qualitative), q2 · 0 of 2 report an effect size · 3 claims rest on one study

Description¶

Drawing on Horn (2020), the article treats teacher learning as the development of pedagogical judgment, defined as "three interrelated but analytically distinct components": pedagogical action (choices teachers make, intentional or not), pedagogical reasoning (interpretations and rationales supporting actions), and pedagogical responsibility (teachers' sense of ethical or situational obligations). The analysis looks for evidence of teachers' efforts toward aligning these components during collaborative sensemaking.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Conversations must be analyzed for evidence of teachers' efforts toward alignment of the three components

Constraints¶

Target Learners¶

• secondary mathematics teachers

Target Learning Objectives¶

• development of pedagogical judgment about instruction

Claims¶

• External conceptual resources support teachers' pedagogical judgment by affording richer representations and more productive problem frames [+W]
• Contrasting workshop practices (random vs. purposeful grouping) framed the problem of labeling students around local context and teacher agency [+W]
• Teachers actively synthesize professional-development practices with their own context rather than transferring them intact [+W]

Related Theories¶

• External conceptual resources as cross-context frameworks, tools, and concepts in teacher learning ecologies
• Pedagogical judgment as interpretable, responsive instructional decision-making (Horn & Campbell, operationalized via inquiry as stance)

Examples¶

• Design professional development, curricular tools, and analytic frameworks to support productive recruitment of external conceptual resources
• Video-based lesson-debrief cycles with teacher teams in schools

Key Sources¶

• Ehrenfeld, N., McGugan, K. S., Marshall, S. A., & Garner, B. (2020). Reconciling local contexts and external conceptual resources in mathematics teachers' collaborative sensemaking. In Mathematics Education Across Cultures: Proceedings of the 42nd Meeting of the North American Chapter of PME-NA. doi:10.51272/pmena.42.2020-295