THE DISPOSITIONS IMPROVEMENT PROCESS

Globally, teacher dispositions along with knowledge and skills continue to be the focal point of teacher education programs. Teachers influence children’s development and therefore dispositions are a universal concern. For the past 20 years in the United States, teacher education programs have assessed dispositions. We, however, must now also use these assessment results to ensure that teacher candidates are graduating with the knowledge, skills and dispositions to be effective teachers. In this paper, the authors use case study examples to discuss teacher candidates with problematic dispositions and the resulting improvement plan and process using the Preparing Reflective and Effective Practitioners (PDQ-PREP), developed by the authors. The goal of this process is to ensure that all teacher candidates have the opportunity to reflect on their actions and develop or refine the dispositions necessary to be effective professionals.