This paper argues that Ofsted's initial approach to the use of criteria encouraged a misguided view of how inspection judgements should be made and, at worst, militated against the professional discussion between inspectors and schools that should always have been at the heart of the process.

In this conceptual article, we discuss the idea of students' epistemic agency as an overlooked link between assessment, knowledge and society. We transcend the contemporary discourses around assessment that focus on its authenticity and student-centredness and instead investigate assessment from the viewpoints of knowledge and knowing. This…

This paper critically examines the increasing instance of anti-democratic experiences in institutions which rely on democracy to exist, including public schools, government agencies, and civil society. Arguing that the undefined nature of American democracy threatens to undermine the foundational principles of the nation's sustaining civic…

In this article, we try to understand the phenomenon of pedagogical tact as a particular form of power to judge. For this, we rehearse Immanuel Kant's idea of "Urteilskraft" as it first appears in the "Critique of Pure Reason," where it is also rendered in educational terms. However, the power to apply rules works without any…

Within teacher education, generally, classroom management is understood as presenting dispositional and technical challenges, mostly a matter of gaining and displaying specific skills to establish order. Drawing on an analysis of three prominent texts, the author argues for the need to reconceive classroom management as a philosophical and…

This article explores tentatively how young children develop a sense of beauty and should be guided in doing so. Beauty is partly a matter of personal preference, but it implies a more profound and considered idea than what is pleasing or attractive. Beauty contributes to well-being and a flourishing life. Since ideas of beauty vary over time and…

Effectively learning to evaluate sources, especially when conducting online research, is an essential skill for middle-grade students. This article argues that supporting students in learning to evaluate sources must involve using critical consciousness skills to do so, or the evaluation is incomplete. In the article, the authors expand the…

This article explores the utility of mindfulness in the field of evaluation. Mindfulness is a translation of the ancient Indian word, "Sati," which means awareness, attention, and remembering. While definitions vary, a practical definition of mindfulness is present-moment awareness in an open and nonjudgmental manner. Mindfulness-based…

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly increased capacity for producing textual, visual and auditory outputs, yet there are ongoing concerns regarding the quality of those outputs. There is an urgent need to develop students' evaluative judgement - the capability to judge the quality of work of self and others - in recognition of this…

When studying the reception history of the Bible, should students be asked to suspend judgment on a particular interpretation for the sake of the pedagogical goals of the course? Or is their judgment essential to the process of learning and understanding? This essay explores the pedagogical puzzle of right interpretation and wrong interpretation…

The data sets used in statistics education have changed over time, from mathematically "well-behaved" ones that facilitated computation, to more context-rich sources and now, with the increasing influence of data science practices, to "found" data, often from open data sites. As data sources change, it is important for…

Any form of professional or occupational practice that requires independent agency has to rely heavily on the judgement of its practitioners. Yet the nature of professional judgement, like the nature of judgement more generally, is poorly understood. Almost as little understood is the nature of agential responsibility. The two are closely…

The process of determining whether a source of information is relevant is multidimensional, dynamic, and subjective. This essay puts information science scholarship on relevance, including the process and nature of making relevance judgments, in conversation with models of teaching and learning information literacy. Teaching librarians are…

Comparative judgment is gaining popularity as an assessment tool, including for high-stakes testing purposes, despite relatively little research on the use of the technique. Advocates claim two main rationales for its use: that comparative judgment is valid because humans are better at comparative than absolute judgment, and because it distils the…

Judgments of learning (JOLs) play a fundamental role in helping learners regulate their study strategies but are susceptible to various kinds of illusions and biases. These can potentially impair learning efficiency, and hence understanding the mechanisms underlying the formation of JOLs is important. Many studies have suggested that both…