Reflective Judgment Model
Updated 2026-08-11
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
King and Kitchener's model describes epistemic development in three stages: pre-reflective, in which knowledge is certain and answers exist to be found; quasi-reflective, in which certainty gives way to the observation that people disagree; and reflective, in which the person accepts that knowledge is uncertain but that some claims are better supported than others and judgment must be justified with evidence and reasoning. The model's point is that 'everything is relative' is a stage on the road, not the destination.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Locate the stage: identify how the person treats uncertainty and disagreement. - Demand the evidence: ask for the reasoning behind the claim. - Tolerate the pause: let the judgment be provisional but still justified.
Anchor fast decisions
Epistemic development is a series of resolutions of the tension between certainty and disagreement. The pre-reflective stage resolves it by denying that disagreement is real; the quasi-reflective stage resolves it by declaring all views equally valid; and the reflective stage resolves it by introducing evidence as the arbiter, which is the only resolution that survives the observation that experts still disagree.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- eric.ed.govhttps://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ604551verified
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