ABSTRACT

This chapter explores what evaluative judgement means in the context of newly qualified professional practitioners. We describe narratives as sense-making activities and use workplace-learning narratives to explore evaluative judgement in action. We present previously unpublished narratives from three junior doctors about their preparedness for practice, illustrating the types of evaluative judgements trainee doctors make about their performance (and how they make them) in the context of busy workplace environments. Our chapter concludes by summarising what trainees’ narratives reveal and hide in terms of evaluative judgement, ending with key implications for future educational practice and research.