Stages of Reflective Judgment (RJM) Research Paper

Reflective Judgment
Name
Institution
Abstract
The reflective judgment model (RJM) is considered to be an epistemological model that analyses the perception of people towards knowledge and the foundations of the knowledge over time. RJM is classified into three broad categories of thinking; that is, pre-reflective that is composed of Stage 1 to 3; the quasi-reflective consisting of Stage 4 and 5, and lastly the reflective that involves Stage 6 and 7. This essay is providing a description of how to encourage a student who seems to be dismissing the value of education and how such a learner can be motivated to move from the lower level of reflective judgment to the other subsequent levels. The author notes that at the pre-reflective category, more effort is required to encourage the student to progress forward than it is at the quasi-reflective and reflective categories of thinking. The difference emanates from the fact that at the pre-reflective category, the student does not possess any form of reflective thinking; he/she depends on the Authority or direct observations to understand the right and wrong.
Reflective Judgment
Introduction
The reflective judgment model (RJM) is considered to be an epistemological model that analyses the perception of people towards knowledge and the foundations of the knowledge over time. The RJM is classified into three broad categories of thinking; that is, pre-reflective that is composed of Stage 1 to 3; the quasi-reflective consisting of Stage 4 and 5, and lastly the reflective that involves Stage 6 and 7 (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2014). For instance, a student who begins schooling is usually at the dualistic state of pre-reflection; that is, he/she holds that there is a right answer and a wrong answer and that there is a definite answer to each problem or a situation that presents itself before him/her. If a student does not know the right answer, it implies that he/she has not found the answer. Such a student believes that the Authorities have all the correct answers that are being sought and if the perceived authorities cannot have the definite right answer, the learner will not consider them as authorities. The student at this level usually asks questions such as, what is the right answer? Show me the right answer; do not make me look for it. This essay is a description of how to encourage a student who seems to be dismissing the value of education and how such a learner can be motivated to move from the lower level of reflective judgment to the other subsequent levels.
The first category of pre-reflective becomes controversial to students when they are trying to gain knowledge. At this level, learners believe that knowledge is obtained through the authoritative figure or when they make the direct or personal observation (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2014). Such assumptions will drive the students to hold that everything they know is right; therefore, they treat all the problems are all structured; that is, defined to a higher degree of certainty and completeness. A student at high school, junior high or the new entrants in college usually exhibit the pre-reflective level of thinking. Although the early levels of reflective judgment do not reveal the actual reflective thinking; the assu...