ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the core notions of expertise that relate to the six key teacher questions, and five evaluative thinking skills. While there are major differences between various researchers and practitioners in this field, this core notion of value is the essence. It is the merging of professional judgment with evidence that is the hallmark of the teaching profession. One of the hallmarks of the many interventions often imposed on schools and teachers is that teachers can become adept at adapting out the essence of the intervention with the result that they can continue to use the methods they have always used. The argument is that the major attributes of evaluative thinking are focused on the major decisions each profession or discipline aims to make. House argued that evaluative thinking can be no more than acts of persuasion because contexts for judgment are dynamic, and more recently outlined the major biases that can interfere with good evaluative thinking.
