From a Behaviour Gaze to an Experience Gaze: Teaching Professional Judgement Through the Third View of the Child

This article explores how professional judgement can be taught as orientation before reaction, by shifting pedagogical analysis from behaviour to experience. The point of departure is that teachers often respond to observable actions (disruption, resistance, withdrawal) at a stage where situations have already escalated, increasing the likelihood of heavy and individualising interventions that may contribute to processes of individualisation and diagnostic categorisation. Drawing on Friedrich Nietzsche’s understanding of human beings as fundamentally interpretive and evaluative (Nietzsche, 1882, 1886, 1887), and in dialogue with pragmatist and phenomenological traditions (Dewey, 1938; Merleau-Ponty, 1945), the article develops the concept of the third view of the child, in which the child is first understood as experiencing and meaning-making, before behaviour is interpreted as competence or problem. The article further introduces aesthetic-professional judgement as the teacher’s professionally grounded sensitivity to tempo, transitions, atmosphere, task invitation, and bodily orientation in classroom situations, enabling early situational adjustments. The analysis is informed by a practice-based, design-oriented approach to initial teacher education, drawing on longitudinal teaching designs involving case work, structured observation, and professional narratives across multiple semesters. By situating the model in relation to current research on teacher education for inclusion, the article argues that an experience-oriented gaze addresses documented challenges in preparing teachers to work beyond behavioural labels and individualising frameworks (Florian, 2014; Florian & Black-Hawkins, 2011; Slee, 2011). A three-layer didactic model summarises the approach by positioning experience as a necessary intermediary between observation and action, and by illustrating how professional judgement can be cultivated as a perceptual and interpretive competence within teacher education, rather than primarily as method selection. The model thus offers both a conceptual and strategic response to contemporary pressures for methods, control, and individualisation in education.