Analytical Judgment in Chemical Education: Connecting Evidence, Reasoning, and Decisions

Students of analytical chemistry are often able to carry out procedures, perform calculations, and use technical terminology yet still struggle to interpret results and justify analytical decisions. These situations are widely recognized in teaching, but their underlying natures are rarely made explicit. This commentary addresses this difficulty through the concept of analytical judgment, described as the disciplined interpretation of analytical evidence under conditions of uncertainty to support justified decisions. The concept brings together cognitive and epistemic practices already recognized in science education while characterizing the particular configuration that they assume in analytical chemistry, where disciplinary concepts, evidence, uncertainty, and contextual conditions must be coordinated. This work describes the reasoning through which analytical judgment develops as learners move iteratively between abstract disciplinary concepts and context-bound analytical situations. Analytical judgment emerges when this coordination provides sufficient justification for a conclusion or decision in relation to the available evidence and its intended use. This perspective offers a discipline-specific lens for understanding and supporting how students reason about what analytical results warrant in context.