Can You Teach Intrinsic Values? Creating a Rubric to Support and Assess Professional Dispositions Development

Abstract

Teacher educators understand the important role of dispositions, defined as beliefs, values, and attitudes educators demonstrate when interacting with others. Without skills in these areas, teacher candidates will likely struggle to develop the necessary knowledge and skills to be effective in the classroom. There is general consensus in the field as to the value of developing these dispositions in teacher candidates. The purpose of the present paper is to describe a process aimed to define and measure professional dispositions aligned to Combs’ perceptual dispositions model. The work had three objectives. Firstly, to understand how students and other members of the faculty viewed the importance of professional dispositions. Secondly, to build on the broad definition of professional dispositions by identifying associated competencies. Finally, to create a tool to authentically assess and support teaching dispositions in teacher candidates. The authors identified six competencies to measure and help develop in teacher candidates: Cultural Competence, Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration, Self-reflection, and Initiative. This paper provides a methodological approach to defining dispositional competencies, a process and tool to measure these in teacher preparation programs.