A Study On Teacher Professional Judgement

There is a growing concern over studies on teachers, and the researchers try to describe and define teachers from different perspectives and with different theories, focusing on teacher quality, teacher behavior, teacher thinking, teacher cognition, teacher knowledge, teacher belief, and teacher development, etc. Early literature of teachers concerns more about teachers’ observable behavior(process) and its effect on students’ learning(product), and turns to teachers’ psychology after 1970s(Freeman, 2002), but leaves out the linking part which connects behavior and psychology.Teaching is complex, and it requires teachers’ various abilities to be qualified and to promote professional and career development as well. Teaching is unpredictable, and the impact of technology, informatization and internet on education brings about more challenges to teachers, thus it requires teachers’ comprehensive capacity to judge in ever-changing situations like teaching, students, classrooms, teachers themselves and surroundings. Meanwhile, teaching is a decision-making profession, and teachers need to make professional judgement any time and make decisions, like doctors and judges. Teacher Professional Judgement(TPJ) is the core to teaching profession, and it represents teacher professional development and teacher professionality, being an important teacher quality.Literature review is first made. Basic conception of profession, judgement and professional judgement is interpreted, taken as a reference for teacher professional judgement. First, interdisciplinary definition of judgement is combed, which is in the field of philosophy, economics, psychology, education, professional education and teacher education. Second, thinking property of judgement is analyzed, and teacher thinking, teacher cognition and teacher belief are differentiated. Then, professional requirement of judgement is stated. Teaching is a profession, and professional judgement is the core to the profession, the core ability and basic quality.A conceptual framework is made, then. Teacher Professional Judgement embodies teacher professionality, represents teacher professional development, and filters teacher thinking and behavior. TPJ model and standards are established. The model shows the connecting position and filtering function of TPJ in teacher’s implicit thinking and explicit behavior. The defination of TPJ is operationalized. Good TPJ is accurate, consistent, automatic, rational, and information-selective.Two research questions are answered, i.e. 1). What is the similarities and differences of TPJ in different teacher career development stages? 2). What factors contribute to good TPJ in teacher development?Research methodology is a mixed model with the combination of qualitative research and quantitative research, and with the strategy of sequential inquiry. The participants are college English teachers. The study has two stages. The first stage is qualitative, data are collected through open questionnaire and thinking aloud. Then, the data are analyzed respectively and are catergorized into three TPJ types, and two factors, and become the dimensions and items of TPJ Scales. The second stage is quantitative. A sample of college English teachers is surveyed with 460 questionnaires, and data are analyzed by SPSS to compare the diffences of different teachers, and to verify the two factors are the best indicators to predict TPJ.The result shows that TPJ has its similarities and differences in different career development stages. The similarities are: 1). three types of professional judgement(situational, refelctive, diagnostic) are professionality diffent from non-professionals; 2). three professional judgements are a continuum, with novice judgement and expert judgement at the two ends; 3). teacher bahavior is the result of filtering of teacher knowledge, experiences and belief through professional judgements. ANOVA tells the statistic differences are shown in age, education, title, and school age.The result also shows that Concern and Belief are two factors that contribute to the shaping of good teacher professional judgement in teacher development. Through thinking aloud, and multiple regression analysis, we can find that concern and belief are best indicators to predict good TPJ. The more the teacher concerns, and the stronger belief the teacher holds, the more likely the teacher has good TPJ.The study on TPJ is of great value in promoting teacher quality, optimizing teacher behavior, and advancing teacher development, and matters a lot in teacher education institutes, teacher educators, and the teachers.