A cross-disciplinary collaboration focused on the understanding and development of in situ judgments for professionals working in education, medicine, nursing, business, policing, and other fields.

About

The Judgment Project develops and supports a global community of scholars and practitioners doing research and development in the area of professional in situ judgment across a wide range of fields.

While core professional knowledge and skills are essential, leaders also must be able to draw upon their knowledge and skills in situ to read the context, analyze, act, and learn. Such critical events can shape institutions, careers, and the lives of those served. Yet the use of simulated and assessed experiences—through which nascent professionals can learn to make in-the-moment judgments in contextually complex, emotionally charged, and personally unsettling situations—is highly uneven across professions and tends to produce research in silos. The Judgment Project bridges those professional worlds to enhance the work in each.

Events

Inaugural Invitational Global Conference

Dates: November 12, 13, and 14, 2023

Location: University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

The Judgment Project conference, supported by the Spencer Foundation, is invitational. If you are interested in attending or have any questions, please contact thejudgmentproject@gse.upenn.edu

Webinars

There will be three global webinars between March and October 2023 before the invitational conference in November 2023. There will also be three global webinars post-conference between December 2023 and May 2024. People from across the globe are welcome to attend. All webinars will be recorded. English will be the common language in addition to regional languages.

Registration form: Coming soon.

Global Webinar Partners

Judgment Project Initiatives

The Judgment Project's formative work includes:

  • 2021-2022: Project development, research, and conference planning.
  • 2019: Perelman School of Medicine’s Standardized Patient Program was adapted to simulate an urban elementary school principal responding to a racially charged incident.
  • 2018: Penn Graduate School of Education (GSE), Penn Nursing, and Penn Social Policy and Practice brought together their respective students to simulate a high school student scenario involving the school nurse, social worker, and principal.
  • 2010-2020: Developed and used online simulations, both in the U.S. and across Latin America.

Related Projects Around the World

We hope to promote good work being done on this topic around the globe to continue expanding the community of research and practice.

We invite other professional networks and initiatives from across professional fields to join this work. We hope to make this website as comprehensive as possible and serve as a guide to those interested in professional judgment. Please share a brief description of your related project with us by filling out this  form.

Our Team

Michael Johanek
Founding Director

Ángeles Ortega-Luque
Project Coordinator, Penn GSE and Georgetown University

Our Penn Partners

The Spencer Foundation, funder of our inaugural global conference, invests in education research that cultivates learning and transforms everyday lives.

Contact Us

The Judgment Project

Graduate School of Education
University of Pennsylvania
Stiteler Hall, Room 223
208 S. 37th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
thejudgmentproject@gse.upenn.edu