King and Kitchener's Reflective Judgment Model: a seven-stage developmental framework of epistemic assumptions and justification¶

Theory · All theories
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

The Reflective Judgment Model (RJM) is a theoretical framework organizing how people make and justify judgments about ill-defined problems, which "cannot be defined with a high degree of completeness and... cannot be solved with a high degree of certainty." It posits seven stages (Table 1) spanning absolute, authority-based knowing (Stage 1) to knowledge "constructed through a process of inquiry" justified "probabilistically" (Stage 7). King and Kitchener's longitudinal and cross-sectional work found development occurs slowly, is facilitated by educational settings, and follows stage-related patterns without lock-step progression. This study used the model's stage definitions as a coding rubric for teacher educators' interview narratives.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Structured interview protocol with scripted questions and standard ill-defined problems, administered per King and Kitchener's original procedures
• Trained raters using the seven-stage definitional matrix as a rubric

Constraints¶

• Development has stage-like properties but does not evolve in a lock-step, one-stage-at-a-time fashion
• The specific components of an educational environment that facilitate development could not be determined

Target Learners¶

• late adolescents and adults
• teacher educators and college faculty

Target Learning Objectives¶

• reflective judgment about ill-defined problems
• epistemic assumptions and justification of beliefs

Claims¶

Related Theories¶

• Reflective Judgment Model (RJM)
• Reflective Judgment Framework: a three-level developmental model of reasoning about ill-defined problems

Examples¶

• Use structured, formal learning beyond the profession (e.g., classical liberal arts content) to grow mid-career faculty reflective capacity
• Teacher educators should recognize preservice teachers' reflective judgment levels and provide guided reflection tailored to their epistemological assumptions

Key Sources¶

• Wlodarsky, R. and Walters, H. (2010). Use of the Reflective Judgment Model as a Reference Tool for Assessing the Reflective Capacity of Teacher Educators in a College Setting. i-manager's Journal of Educational Psychology. https://www.ncate.org/documents/standards/UnitStandardsMay07.pdf