Seeing Dispositions: Translating our shared values into observable behavior

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Seeing Dispositions Translating our shared
values into observable behavior

• Presenters
• College of Charleston School of Education
  Assessment Committee
• Diane Cudahy, Ph. D.
• Christine Finnan, Ph. D.
• Candace Jaruszewicz, Ph. D.
• Bonnie McCarty, Ph. D.

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Presentation Agenda

• Audience participation Identifying dispositions
• Background information historical perspective
• CofC disposition development process
• Sharing of CofC products current applications
• Audience participation Dispositions across time
• Reflections on Process

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Audience Task

• Listen Teach Your Children (Crosby, Stills,
  Nash, Young, 1970, Déjà Vu, Memphis, TN
  Atlantic)
• Reflect Identify a disposition that could be
  inferred from the lyrics
• Write it down on index card
• Share with others seated at your table
• What constitutes a disposition?
• How can dispositions be expressed as observable
  behavior?
• As a group, choose or develop via consensus a
  statement to work with later

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Background Information

• College of Charleston receives NCATE
  accreditation in 2000, next site visit scheduled
  Fall 2004
• SOE continues work on Conceptual Framework,
  grounded in prior work
• 2000-2001 SOE develops adopts Unit Assessment
  System with 5 Unit Assessment Points (UAPs)

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Background (cont.)

• 2000-2001 As part of conceptual framework
  development, SOE adopts 7 broad disposition
  statements based on Teaching Learning
  Standards, Mission Statement, and Principles of
  Action
• 2001- Assessment Committee restructured and
  charged with operationalizing Unit Assessment
  System
• 2001-2002 Assessment Committee translates shared
  values into observable dispositions

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Assessment Committee Charge

• Formulate Unit Assessment Plan
• Establish short long-range goals
• Work collaboratively with SOE NCATE to monitor
  process
• Recommend revisions changes as needed
• Serve as primary contacts during NCATE review

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Our Understanding of Dispositions

• The faculty of the School of Education defines
  a disposition to be a value, a commitment, or an
  ethic that is internally held and externally
  demonstrated. Dispositions influence our actions
  and our behavior towards students, families, and
  communities as well as towards professional
  colleagues.

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Our Understanding of Dispositions (cont.)

• There is a set of dispositions that our faculty
  and our candidates must hold in order to make the
  teaching-learning connection a reality for all
  students. In this statement of dispositions, the
  School of Education makes public the values and
  character of its teacher education program
  (9/16/01.)

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Continuous Dialogue is Essential!
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Challenge of operationalizing the dispositions

• How to honor all the standards of practice within
  a School of Education
• How to take the standards developed for initial
  teacher preparation and extend the competencies
  across the career span
• How to operationalize by incorporating
  dispositions into various practical documents
  forms

• Use working copies of all SPA SC documents
  standards
• Develop picture of candidate over time
  develop language for measuring intangible aspects
  of teaching that are embedded in dispositions,
  like wonder
• Apply dispositions to actions products such as
  recommendation forms, alumni surveys, admissions
  self-assessments, ADEPT, etc.)

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Working Plan

• Task orientation We had a deadline for creating
  application and recommendation forms for UAP1
  that incorporate dispositions
• The application form was easy.
• Developing a recommendation form to assess
  evaluate potential candidates dispositions is
  where the real work started

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Questions emerged

• To what extent should we expect an entry-level
  candidate to possess our 7 dispositions?
• How do we expect students to change over time?
  What is reasonable? What is not?
• How can growth in dispositions be attributed to
  our programs?

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Questions Emerged (cont.)

• How can performance assessment be applied to
  dispositions?
• Should our expectations for beginning MAT
  candidates differ from undergraduates? How?
• How will the developmental nature of dispositions
  be communicated so that growth can be seen?
• When do we stop measuring/evaluating
  dispositions?

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Tools Time Were Needed

• Standards
• SOE
• NCATE
• SC (ADEPT)
• INTASC
• NAEYC
• CEC
• ISTE
• NBPTS

• References
• NCATE publications
• Blooms Taxonomy
• ASCD A Framework for Teaching
• AACTE Performance Assessment Working Paper,
  (Ostrander, 2001)
• SC CHE guidelines

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Work Continues

• Develop a matrix starting at the mid-point
• Model the dispositions we intend to assess
• Identify discuss areas of consensus
  difference
• Seek regular input feedback
• Dont re-invent the wheel
• Develop a utility list of verbs

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Major Decisionsas work progresses

• Changed labels and descriptors
• Changed last category from at end of M.Ed.
  Program to beyond the scope of our programs.
• Identified an eighth disposition

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Pilot Products

• Published matrix that describes 8 dispositions
  across all programs over the entire professional
  lifespan. Used to develop program-level
  assessments in courses
• Recommendation form for UAP 1
• Alumni survey self-assessment of continuing
  disposition development at several points beyond
  exiting our programs.

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Next Steps

• Analyze initial data being collected this year
• Continue development of unit-level assessment
  instruments
• NCATE site visit Fall 04 document full
  implementation of system

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Audience Participation Dispositions Across Time

• Using the disposition statement chosen
• by your group and the blank transparency chart
• provided, do the following
• Identify and label (three to five)? points at
  which the disposition could be assessed
• Develop language to describe the disposition at
  each of these points in time
• Brainstorm ideas for how data could be collected
  to measure the disposition at each point
• Be prepared to share your work with the group

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Reflections

• We believe teaching professionals need to be
  actively committed to reflection about
  dispositions in order to develop them
• We believe every opportunity should be used to
  engage teaching professionals in conversations
  about dispositions
• We expect insights gained as a result of analysis
  of the dispositions data we collect will truly
  serve to improve our programs and extend to
  improving our schools.