The Logic of Judgment of Practice and Critical Thinking
Maura Striano, Stefano Oliverio
University of Naples Federico II
The paper is grounded on Dewey’s essay The Logic of Judgment of Practice (1915) which takes up a type of judgment - focused on a specific subject matter- which is not static but demands a course of action, leading to the creation of new consequences and goods. 
Within this epistemological framework, in a pedagogical perspective, we came to focus on the necessity to cultivate and develop this kind of judgment.
The cultivation of the judgment of practice is particularly significant as far as it provides reflective guidelines for human actions and behaviors and supports the development of new habits of conduct and thought.
The challenge is to work out specific educational devices and tools which require as well specific educational settings and procedures (Lipman, 1995).
A good example can be the materials (activities, discussion plans, exercises) developed by M.Lipman within the P4C curriculum as far as these materials “operationalize” the structure and the process of Dewey’s “judgment of practice” intended as an essential component of critical thinking.
Lipman highlights how strengthening abilities to formulate practical judgments is a major educational aim because such abilities are a mark of that reasonableness which characterizes a mature person.
Some of the questions addressed in the paper therefore will be: how do the materials developed by Lipman work in cultivating the judgment of practice and which changes, if any, does the Deweyan model undergo whitin an educational context.