Making Learning Visible: Shaping Teacher Candidates’ Pedagogical Judgment in Clinical Experiences

This study sought to understand how teacher educators can support teacher candidates’ development of pedagogical decision making. Drawing on Horn and Campbell’s (2015) notions of “pedagogical judgment,” and inquiry as stance (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009), we developed a pedagogical judgment rubric (PJR) to assess our candidates’ understanding of student learning and engagement during their clinical experiences. This article describes how three of our candidates’ pedagogical judgment was shaped in response to mediated, design-based interventions informed by the criteria on the PJR. The study revealed how a common, theory-guided framework provided a clear goal for teacher educators and candidates to work towards. The study also demonstrates the significance of using candidates’ previous work to support candidates’ capacity to achieve a more sophisticated analysis. Our findings suggest that structured, iterative support, designed with competencies in mind, can improve candidate’s pedagogical judgment over time, ultimately benefiting teacher education programs in their clinical endeavors.