Professor Paul Hager

Professor of Education, Faculty of Education,
University of Technology, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

The Role of Judgement in Learning

Abstract

This paper argues that judgement is a pivotal notion for understanding learning. However, how we view judgement is crucially shaped by our favoured conception of learning. Though there are many different sorts of learning, education has been dominated by the assumption that the most valuable learning is of one particular kind, centred on acquiring propositional knowledge. On this assumption (Theory I), the effect of the best learning is to change the contents of minds. The influence of Theory I on teaching and assessment practices is well known. On a Theory I understanding of learning, the role of judgement is insignificant.

There is another important view of learning that characterises it as action in the world. On this view (Theory II), learning changes both learners and their environment. Since learners are part of that environment, the basic formulation of Theory II is that the outcome of learning is to change the world in some way. Judgement is central to Theory II. Rather than the two theories being polar opposites, Theory I is best seen as a limited and special instance of Theory II. So judgement is crucial to a proper understanding of learning.

Bionote

Paul Hager is Professor of Education at the University of Technology, Sydney. His main areas of research and publication include philosophy of education, particularly vocational education and training, workplace learning, critical thinking and professional competence. His co-authored (with David Beckett) book Life, Work and Learning: Practice in Postmodernity will be published in 2001 by Routledge.

Presentation Type
30 min. Paper

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Country
Australia