Developing students’ evaluative judgement is key for gaining expertise and lifelong learning. Evaluative judgement is the capability of making decisions about the quality of work of self and others (Tai et al., 2018). In this seminar PhD graduate Dr Abbas Mehrabi Boshrabadi and PhD candidate Juan Fischer will present their PhD research on evaluative judgement in first year academic writing and writing laboratory reports in undergraduate physics.

In the first talk, Abbas will present his research which sought to better understand the “what” and “how” of students’ development of evaluative judgement. Using multiple sequenced interview and document analysis he interviewed 21 first year students about their evaluative judgements of academic writing. He found that evaluative judgement is a capability that encapsulate three interrelated components of understanding quality standards, making judgements, and taking actions. Three key pedagogical activities that promoted judgement making were peer review, group discussion, and reflection on performance in the context of sequenced assessment tasks. Abbas will discuss the significant role of these pedagogical activities on students’ development of evaluative judgement.

In the second talk, Juan will use theory of practice architectures to offer insights into the situated aspects that mediate students’ judgement-making about writing laboratory reports in undergraduate physics. These findings are part of Juan’s doctoral research, in which he used ethnographic approaches to explore the development of evaluative judgement as part of learning in disciplinary everyday practices. Through longitudinal observations and interviews with students of all year-levels of undergraduate physics, this talk will uncover how decisions about quality are mediated by discourses on assessment, the use of material artefacts, and local social arrangements, resulting in judgements that at times are in tension with the expectations of educators. This raises questions about what the aims of supporting students’ evaluative judgement may look like.

These presentations will discuss the importance of designing sequences of activities that support students’ development of their evaluative judgement in a sustainable way and that are sensitive to contextual aspects of students’ learning.

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CRADLE Seminar Series: Developing Students' Evaluative Judgements