American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance - AAHPERD

 Issue: January 2005

Assessing Dispositions: An Unresolved Challenge in Teacher Education
Valerie Wayda & Jacalyn Lund

Abstract:
The educational reform movement has had a major impact on teacher education in the United States. Institutions of higher learning are being asked to increase the rigor of teacher preparation to meet the needs of a system in flux. Standardized tests and course work can be used to indicate subject matter competence, but little has been done to create a means for assessing a preservice teacher’s attitudes and dispositions. The problem for most teacher education programs is the identification of dispositions and how to assess them. To address this challenge, a teacher education program developed a dispositions rubric. Through the process of creating, validating, and implementing the rubric, several issues have emerged. The purpose of this paper is to share the rubric with teacher education colleagues and briefly discuss several of the issues that programs will need to address as they develop their own assessment instruments.

Article category: Professional Preparation