Professional judgment

1. Professional judgment
Dr Gary Jones

2. 2

3. Research literacy 3

4. Research literacy 1- answers 4

5. Research literacy – analysis of answers 5

6. Agenda
Introduction
Explain the term ‘professional judgment’
Identify some common sources of error in professional judgment
Suggest how professional judgment could be developed.
Opportunities for further development
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7. Who am I?
Dr Gary Jones
Former senior leader in a further
education college
Blogger www.garyrjones.com/blog
Speaker
Author
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8. The importance of judgment
A leader’s most important role in any organization is making good
judgments— well-informed, wise decisions that produce the
desired outcomes. When a leader shows consistently good
judgment, little else matters. When he or she shows poor
judgment, nothing else matters. Of course, it isn’t humanly
possible to make the right call every single time. But the most
effective leaders make a high percentage of successful judgment
calls, at the times when it counts the most.
8
Tichy, N. M. and Bennis, W. G. (2007a). Making Judgment Calls. Harvard Business Review. 85.
10. 94

9. A definition of judgement
Judgment is the ability to arrive at and make a choice when faced
with incomplete information, uncertain conditions, and/or
competing goals or values. (p6)
9
Duke, D. L. (2018). Judgment and the Preparation of Educational Leaders. Journal of
Research on Leadership Education. 0. 0. 1942775117752455.

10. Some points of clarification
• Common-sense
• Problem-solving
• Decision-making
• Judgement
• Execution
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11. A judgment that is not successfully executed
is a failed judgment no matter how smart the
strategy.
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13. Professional judgment in evidence-informed
practice
The process of being evidence-informed requires both rigorous
evidence and a rigorous process of professional judgement
(Campbell 2016).
13
Campbell, C. 2016. “Supporting Teachers as a Profession of Knowledge Developers and
Mobilisers.” Education Today.
66 (2): 5–20.

14. Being professional
Profession
Professional
Professionalism
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16. Errors in judgment?
• Groupthink
• Prejudgments
• Confirmation bias
• Affective bias
• Intuition
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17. Problems that biases help us to address
• Too much information
• Not enough meaning
• Need to act
• Deciding what to remember
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https://betterhumans.coach.me/cognitive-bias-cheat-sheet-55a472476b18

18. 18https://betterhumans.coach.me/cognitive-bias-cheat-sheet-55a472476b18

19. Ways to limit but not eliminate cognitive
biases
• Internal environment – HALT
• Relational Impact
• Outsider perspective
• Reflect on the past
• Rational analysis
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https://medium.com/swlh/how-to-overcome-cognitive-biases-and-make-better-decisions-
daeecd38f910

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21. The three main domains of judgment
• People
• Strategy
• Crises
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22. Tichy and Bennis’s model
• Preparation
• Sense and identify
• Frame and name
• Mobilise and align
• Call
• Execution
• Make it happen
• Learn
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23. Activity
• Think of an example where a leader made either good or bad
‘person judgment
• Explain what happened?
• What can be learnt?
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25. Activity
• Think about a recent judgement by senior leaders within your
school
• Using the Tichy and Bennis model how would you describe the
judgement process?
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27. Evidence-based practice is about making decisions
though the conscientious, explicit and judicious use
of the best available evidence from multiple sources
by
Asking: translating a practical issue or problem into an
answerable question
Acquiring: systematically searching for and retrieving the
evidence
Appraising: critically judging the trustworthiness and relevance
of the evidence
Aggregating: weighting and pulling together the evidence
Applying: incorporating the evidence into the decision-making
process
Assessing: evaluating the outcome of the decision taken
to increase the likelihood of a favourable outcome
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28. Research
Practitioner
expertise
School data
Stakeholder
views
Professional judgement
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30. Opportunities for professional learning
• 22 January, 2019 Unity Research School – 3 day programme on
developing professional judgement commences
• Weekly blog www.garyrjones.com
• Contact me @DrGaryJones or jones.gary@gmail.com
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