Beginning teacher disposition: Examining the moral/ethical domain

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Abstract

As the push for high-quality teachers continues, many colleges of education, teacher induction programs, and professional development supervisors are left wondering about the role dispositions play in effective teaching. This study seeks to explore the definition of dispositions as teacher professional judgment and professional action in the moral/ethical domain of adult cognition. By assessing beginning teacher judgment both quantitatively and qualitatively, convergence between predicted and observed patterns was found in addition to congruence between teacher judgment and action. Based on the findings of convergence and congruence, implications for teacher education and development are made.

Introduction

William James once said there “is absolutely no guarantee that we shall be good teachers  we must have an additional endowment altogether, a happy tact and ingenuity to tell us what definite things to say and do when the pupil is before us” (Hamachek, 1968, p. 205). Although spoken almost a 100 years ago, James’ thoughts resonate through the objectives and standards of teacher training and development programs across the United States. Organizations within the education academy agree that students must have teachers with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to assist all students in learning (National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, 1989; National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Educators, 2002; Serafini, 2002). However, knowing that teachers need the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to address the needs of all learners and understanding how to develop and assess such characteristics is significantly different. Where we have defined and catalogued the knowledge and skills of quality teachers, “dispositions” remain an elusive concept with little being done to promote its development (Raths, 2001). In fact, scant research even exists regarding the definition and conceptualization of teacher dispositions.

We look to the past as a starting point for understanding teacher disposition. As more attention is being paid to teachers as moral exemplars, one might consider this a revival of Dewey's early work in defining and developing a moral self. Dewey defined disposition as a disregard for personal fulfillment in a search for what is moral (Bergman, 2005); in essence, putting aside what might best serve the self for what is best for the “common good” (p. 52). Dewey's work serves as a foundation for the current study in examining the moral domain as a key construct in teacher disposition.

This study investigates disposition in the context of beginning teacher judgment and action. It is conducted within a theoretical framework of adult cognitive development, specifically the moral/ethical domain as defined first by Dewey and in more recent years by James Rest and his associates. It is guided by two research questions:

  • 1.

    As constructs of disposition, how does the professional judgment of beginning teachers correspond to their professional action as they address the needs of diverse learners?

  • 2.

    How do these professional judgments and actions influence interactions with diverse learners?

Case study methodology is used to explore the congruence between a beginning teacher's professional judgment and his/her professional action while engaged in a program aimed at developing effective teaching practices. Examining individual cases within the classroom context is a priority considering the importance Dewey placed on the social aspect and the individual nature of developing the moral self. Use of such a theoretical framework and methodology however, also lends itself to certain limitations. External validity is compromised. The results of the study can only be generalized to the participants involved. In actuality, this study does not have a goal of generalizing to all beginning teachers, but seeks to examine the theoretical proposition of disposition being a deep cognitive structure (judgment and action) of the moral ethical domain as outlined in the following section.

Section snippets

Defining dispositions

The lack of a clear understanding of what is meant by “disposition” in the field of teacher education and development can be traced to the lack of a guiding theoretical framework. However, past conceptualizations suggest that an understanding of dispositions must be linked to examining cognitive constructs in the moral and reflective domains including how individuals think about and act upon various experiences (Dewey, 1904; Mentkowski & Associates, 2000; Oser, Dick, & Patry, 1994; Shulman, 1998

Review of literature

Few studies exist that use a theoretical framework of cognition for teacher development. Those that have been done provide positive trends in the use of such theory however, lack specific results regarding congruency between teacher judgment and action. In an extensive review of literature, Blasi (1980) found over half of the 75 studies examined report a correlation between moral/ethical judgment and behavior, although he stressed the need to study such associations contextually. Chang (1994)

Methodology

This study utilized case study methodology to explore the dispositions of three beginning teachers. Yin (2003) describes case study research as “an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context, especially when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident” (p. 13). It is virtually impossible to study professional judgments and professional actions outside the real-life context of teaching. They are embedded within each other.

Results

The moral/ethical domain characterizes how knowledge is constructed around problems of social justice and fairness and is categorized by one of three schemas: postconventional, maintaining norms, or personal interest. Table 2 shows the results for the moral/ethical domain beginning with a report on the distribution of use of the three schemas (DIT-2) followed by an overview of the findings from the coding matrix gathered through interviews, observations of conferences between the teacher and

Discussion

The dispositions of beginning teachers have a significant influence on addressing the needs of diverse learners. This parallels research claiming one of the most important factors for student achievement is teacher quality (Wright, Horn, & Sanders, 1997). Such quality can and should include the amount of tolerance a teacher has, an ability to read and flex to a multitude of perspectives, a tendency to make decisions based on a wide array of evidence, and a capacity to be a model of social

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