Copyright © 2002
Posted August 21, 2004
Alexander Makedon, Ph.D.
Professor, Educational Foundations
Department of Educational Leadership, Curriculum and Foundations
Chicago State University
Chicago, Illinois 60628
USA
Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Midwest Philosophy of Education Society [presently known as the Society for the Philosophical Study of Education], Chicago, Illinois, November 14, 2002
I. Introduction
1. Dispositions in NCATE Standards
In its 2002 edition of the NCATE Standards, the National Council for the Advancement of Teacher Education, or NCATE for short, introduces "dispositions" as one of the standards on the basis of which to evaluate teacher education (1). As NCATE put it,
Candidates recognize when their own dispositions may need to be adjusted and are able to develop plans to do so. (Standards, p. 15)
Based on a word-count, the term "dispositions" is mentioned no fewer than 56 times in the Standards document (2). For example, education students are expected to develop right dispositions regarding learning (pp. 1, 9, 10, 12, 16, 19, 25, 26, 28, 29, 55); diversity (pp. 13, 29, 31); technology (p. 13); professionalism (pp. 15, 19, 25, 34, 56); social and personal development (p. 18); graduate study (pp. 19, 20); intellectual development (p. 18); and field experiences (pp. 26, 27, 41). This type of pervasive dispositionalism provides the mortar that glues together a new evaluative edifice built around dispositions.
The paper is divided into eight sections, plus an Appendix. The following topics are discussed in each section: In the first section, this subsection on parts, and the author’s thesis regarding dispositions in educational assessments. In the second , the role NCATE plays in the accreditation process. In the third, the relationship between values and dispositions. In the fourth, university-based dispositional assessments. In the fifth, the relationship between critical thinking and dispositions. In the sixth, a variety of potential problems regarding dispositions-based assessments. In the seventh, the history of dispositional assessments in K-12 institutions. In the eighth and final section, objections against the author’s analysis, including the author’s response to such objections. The Appendix includes a typological analysis of the different categories of dispositional assessment mentioned in the NCATE Standards.
After considerable analysis of the nature of dispositions, their relevance to learning achievement, and their historical role in education, the author submits that an aggressive dispositionalism of the type exhibited in the 2002 Standards risks returning public education to an era of cultural bias, sensationalism, and populist but unscientific beliefs. In its eagerness to impose a seemingly perfect personality on education students, NCATE may have inadvertently overstepped the boundaries of common sense, including contradict its own standard regarding critical thinking. With the same missionary zeal that alchemists in the Middle Ages wished to turn plain bronze to gold, so does NCATE seem to expect education faculty to become "personality alchemists" who can perform miracles on their students' dispositions. What is even more alarming is that NCATE seems to have raised the dispositional bar without so much as either a sound ethical justification for doing so; or empirical research regarding the academic effectiveness of dispositions.
II: NCATE’s Role in the Accreditation Process
1. The Big One: NCATE and Accreditation
NCATE revises its Standards every five years (Standards, p. 7). NCATE's standards have political repercussions on the administration of teacher education in the United States. This is so because NCATE is, as is stated in the Standards,
recognized by the U. S. Department of Education as the accrediting body for colleges and universities that prepare teachers and other professional personnel for work in elementary and secondary schools. (p. 1)
Although apparently sought after by some colleges of education, NCATE accreditation is not legally necessary for them to remain open. Several colleges do not have, nor seek, NCATE accreditation (3). NCATE accreditation may be particularly helpful for colleges that lack national prestige, and therefore may need additional guarantees regarding their educational quality. Thus while a Harvard, Michigan, or Northwestern, none of which seek NCATE accreditation, carry enough prestige to attract the best and brightest students, your local state or private college or university does not, and therefore may be in greater need of third-party recognition.
Beyond recognition at the federal level of NCATE as "the" teacher-education accreditation agency in the United States, there is also an element of representativeness in what NCATE does. This is so because, according to NCATE, its standards are formulated as a result of widespread professional consensus. As NCATE put it in its preamble to the Standards document, NCATE... "is a coalition of more than 30 national associations representing the education profession at large" (Standards, p. 1). Member organizations range from such politically powerful giants as the two teacher unions in the United States, National Education Association (NEA) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT); to mainstream organizations, such as, the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE), and several major specialist educational associations (Standards, p. 2). The author has no insider knowledge of how decisions were or are being reached regarding the writing of Standards, such as, whether decisions are made as a result of compromise, majority vote, or whether only those standards which are commonly acceptable to ALL are included. Nevertheless, no matter how popular or widespread a dispositions-based assessment might be, it should not be considered acceptable for that reason alone. There are several historical examples of widespread acceptance of a certain idea or event, only to be shown later to have been totally wrong or "misplaced," such as, the widely held belief during the Middle Ages that the earth is flat.
NCATE provides an opportunity to the teaching profession for self-policing. The ability of a profession to police itself is one of the characteristics of a full profession. (4) Without developing our own assessment standards within the teaching profession, there may be the perception created of a profession that must be controlled from the outside in order to assess the quality of services offered. The more outsiders control the profession, the less autonomous such profession is, and therefore the more difficult it might for members of such profession, in this case, teachers, to freely apply their knowledge base regarding effective teaching in their classrooms or other learning environments. Thus it behooves on the profession to make sure that standards developed by NCATE, including dispositions, make sense, or else they may be perceived as irrelevant to effective teaching practices, and therefore as an insufficient basis for professional autonomy.
The irony regarding autonomy is that as educators we may be caught between a rock and a hard place, in the sense that if we don’t follow the dictates of the public we may be accused as arrogant or unresponsive, which in the long run can be politically or financially suicidal, particularly in a democracy where presumably major decisions regarding control or public financing can be ultimately traced to the public itself; while on the other hand, if we follow the dictates of the public too closely without paying careful attention to what actually "works" or effectively promotes learning, we may be perceived as undeserving full professional status since we seem to rely on popular beliefs, than independently developed effective paradigms. We may thus be condemned to an eternal recycling of our status as, as sociologists have described the teaching profession, a "semi-profession," meaning, one that lacks a truly effective methodology, and therefore as undeserving full professional autonomy. (5) The author submits that the way out of this morass is to persuade the public that it is to its own advantage to allow educators the autonomy to develop through careful analysis and observation effective educational systems that will help develop students’ knowledge and understanding to the maximum possible extent. If NCATE pays too much heed to what the public wants, then it may be perceived as a weak body that lacks the spine to stand up for what are professionally sound principles in teaching and learning. For example, an emphasis on dispositions may be perceived as politically popular, but, as the author will attempt to show, below, academically questionable, and therefore improper for a body organized mainly to assess the quality of academic training to advocate.
NCATE sees a direct relationship between dispositions and values (Standards, p. 53). Are our dispositions the result of our values? Are the two ever in conflict? Or are our values themselves sometimes influenced by our dispositions, instead of the other way around? In this section we shall examine the relationship between dispositions and values.
Dispositions are defined as follows in the NCATE 2002 Standards document:
The values, commitments, and professional ethics that influence behaviors toward students, families, colleagues, and communities and affect student learning, motivation, and development as well as the educator's own professional growth. Dispositions are guided by beliefs and attitudes related to values such as caring, fairness, honesty, responsibility, and social justice. For example, they might include a belief that all students can learn, a vision of high and challenging standards, or a commitment to a safe and supportive learning environment. (p. 53)
According to NCATE, dispositions include values and commitments. The question may be raised, what if someone is committed to teaching effectively but exhibits the wrong values? If by "commitment" NCATE meant having certain values, then why mention both terms in the definition? Finally, are "ethics" in the definition the same as either values or commitments? If they are different, how so, and how should one resolve a possible conflict between commitments and values, as when a certain commitment may be in conflict with one's values; or between ethics and values, as when one's philosophy of right and wrong, which is what is usually associated with the term "ethics," dictates that one does not hold certain values, possibly even not those which NCATE considers desirable?
2. Are Dispositions Inherently Valuable?
According to NCATE, "Dispositions are guided by beliefs and attitudes related to values" (Standards, p. 53). Unfortunately, NCATE did not present the reader with the exact nature of such guidance. The author submits that dispositions are neither inherently valuable, nor identical to values. One of these, dispositions, is mainly an emotional state; the other, values, cognitive. Regarding their relationship, it may be said that although certain dispositions may be held by people because of their values, others may not be. In fact, one may be better predisposed toward certain values because they agree with one‘s dispositions. The relationship between the two is like a double edged sword that one does not know which way it may cut, either to change one’s dispositions to conform to one‘s values, or one’s values to make them fit one’s dispositions.
3. Thoughtless Dispositions and Dissecting Thoughts: Thinking and Dispositions
Anyone can have dispositions. There is hardly a human who does not. All humans are born with dispositions, such as, certain instincts, merely to survive. For example, babies are disposed to grabbing their mothers' breast to drink milk to maintain themselves. Thus dispositions can be blind, self-centered inclinations developed over evolutionary time to help humans survive, and therefore become, as Sigmund Freud proposed, the basis not only of our neuroses, but also our values. (6)
On a more limited basis, dispositions may also be the result of a well disciplined self that has learned with practice to control his or her dispositions, as is the case with ascetic types who reach somatic nirvana after many years of struggle, such as, Indian yogi; or more commonly with well educated people who have become better accustomed, although not perfectly able, to conform to the dictates of their education.
One could have a disposition about something or someone without having thought carefully of her values, including her values about such dispositions. In other words, aside from having them, one may examine dispositions from a distance, trying first to understand or even discover what they are, and then analyze their ethical desirability using any number of arguments for and against her own, or other people's dispositions. Dispositions by themselves are blind, and require analysis to be able to even recognize them as such. Without philosophizing about one's own dispositions, one is living, to paraphrase Socrates, an unexamined life full of "dispositions," but rarely with any values.
Dispositions reside mainly in the realm of the heart, than of the mind. They are usually expressions of like or dislike. In their extreme form, dispositions become, as mentioned earlier, instinctive, as when one has an almost instinctive disposition for sex, food, or survival, as do all the other animals. This is why one may be said to have wrong dispositions without even knowing it. Dispositions come naturally, meaning, as part of who we are as human beings, and thus may be formed without giving them much thought. Unlike values, which are usually associated with a thought process the end result of which is the formation of an abstract set of ethical principles or beliefs, dispositions are inclinations that are mainly, although by no means exclusively, the result of an evolutionary process for survival. This is why young children, even babies, may be thought of as having "dispositions," but not values. For example, a baby may be predisposed to suck his thumb; or a child has the disposition for play. It could hardly be argued that such a baby or child have thought carefully of their respective dispositions, compared different value systems in order to select those dispositions which seemed the most valuable to them, or analyzed the legitimacy of arguments for and against their dispositional states. It would be a miracle baby, indeed, who managed to do all of that thinking regarding his dispositions, and yet dispositions he has, but barely any values.
The same may be said of other animals which may be full of dispositions, as is my dog Adonis when he welcomes me home, but could hardly be described as also having values. With all due respect to my dog, or his undeniably friendly disposition, he has probably spent no time at all thinking about the ethical desirability, or more broadly "value," of his disposition. This is why we can say that animals, too, have dispositions, but hardly any "values."
We may conclude that dispositions refer mainly to emotional states, inclinations, or personal attitudes; values, on the other hand, refer mainly to abstract principles of right and wrong to which people have given at least some thought.
4. Value Changes and Dispositions
When discussing values and dispositions with our students, how do we know whether the values students seem to espouse will be in harmony with their dispositions? For example, what if learning something new dictates changes in "dispositions," such as, new research findings regarding effective teaching that entail changing one‘s attitude toward certain teaching practices? If dispositions are attitudes or beliefs based mainly on emotion, rather than logic, then how capable will teacher-candidates be simultaneously with learning something new, to also change their dispositions? The author submits that a dispositional approach is precisely what teacher educators should stay away from in order to instill in students the idea that no matter how they feel about certain issues, as professionals they ought to do what is right even if it means contradicting their own dispositions.
There are many levels of value-awareness, with some people being more aware of their values than others. It may be said that people who are unaware of their values may have readily verifiable likes or dislikes, but not really "values," in the sense of being able to philosophically discuss their dispositions. The minute they are asked what their values might be, and begin to think introspectively about their dispositions, or the ethical desirability of their dispositions, they begin to think of them philosophically in the context of what is or is not valuable. Whether they end up believing their dispositions to be valuable will depend largely on which value-theory or argument they use as a basis for evaluating their dispositions. For example, they may consider certain of their competitive dispositions to be wrong on the basis of a value theory that condemns that type of competitive behavior. Thus it is likely that people will consider one of their dispositions wrong if in their view it is in conflict with their adopted ethical principles. In such cases, such people may experience inner conflict between their values and dispositions. To resolve such conflict, they may either attempt to change their disposition to conform to their newly discovered "value;" or change their value to conform to their long-held dispositions. In either case, whether they change their value or dispositions, they may achieve a sense of inner peace which, in turn, they may value more than their older conflicting values and dispositions. As we can see, far from being one and the same, values and dispositions may often be at odds, in the sense that one may find his own dispositions to hold little, or for that matter, great "value;" or that he is better disposed toward only certain, but not all, of his values.
Values are usually associated with abstract rules, or "principles," of what counts as right or wrong. Upon application of such principles to their personally held dispositions (say, the disposition to kill), people may see their dispositions as ethically desirable or undesirable. This may explain why people who do "wrong" things, often come to regret what they did, and blame their strong inclination, or "disposition" for what they did. Implied in their expressions of remorse is that if they had been able to control their disposition, they might have acted more in accordance with their values. Once again, we see reflected in the conflict between values and dispositions the dual nature of humans as beings endowed with both thoughts and dispositions that are not always in harmony with each other. Dispositions by themselves are neutral. They are neither good nor bad until one begins to apply some type of value system, meaning, abstract principles of right and wrong, to one's own, or other people's dispositions. Thus NCATE’s view of dispositions as inherently thoughtful or value-ridden does not seem to hold water.
One may act contrary to his dispositions, depending on his ability to act, to paraphrase Immanuel Kant, "in accordance with" his values. (7) For example, a soldier may have the disposition to kill civilians, whom he may have come to hate, but his better judgment may take hold of him, and manage to hold himself back and not act according to his murderous disposition. Or a teacher may be ill-disposed toward a student, or type of students, but her understanding of educational research, such as, the learning effectiveness of high teacher expectations, may help her overcome her disposition to either patronize or "discriminate against" such type of group or individual.
The contrary may also be true: one's dispositions may hold more power over someone, than his values. This may explain why so many a well educated person who can articulate his values, nevertheless often ends up doing things which he "knows" he shouldn‘t, meaning, thinks are evil or wrong acts. Such people are so strongly disposed to doing certain things, that they may feel powerless at the time they do them to stop themselves from doing them.
Well educated people may be less likely, on average, to act contrary to their values because by desiring, or in fact obtaining an education they may have shown a willingness to control their original dispositions through education. This is also shown from opinion research studies that show that college graduates experience a slight shift in their political dispositions as a result of new values gained in college. (8)
Having discussions in the classroom about dispositions may have the effect of some of our students possibly, but not necessarily, changing their own dispositions. Such changes as may occur may not only be impossible for faculty to control, but also not always in a direction desirable by NCATE. In addition to their values, which may or may not be in harmony with their dispositions, there may be a variety of influences outside what students learn in the classroom, from their own personal experiences in the past, to peer and social influences, which in combination with what students learn in the classroom may or may not have an effect on their dispositions.
When one’s values are in conflict with one’s dispositions, then such person may experience "personality conflict." For example, one may believe that doing x is wrong, but is strongly disposed to doing it, and may end up following through with his disposition. Whether he does x or not in the end will depend on which of the two, his values or disposition, hold stronger sway on his personality. One could argue that acting according to one's values is itself a "disposition" to do so, which means that his value-based disposition may be in conflict with his non-value based ones. Yet having a value-based disposition assumes that, first, one has already thought of his values, or else there would be nothing valuable (in the sense defined earlier as something thought about) to be disposed about. Hence the importance of thinking about one's values, which in a democratic society, or, for that matter, university classroom, are thought to be held freely on the basis of discussion, as opposed to the dishonest manipulation of the facts. Again, this is why it seems self-defeating to try to impose on students a set of dispositions, as apparently does NCATE through the imposition of its assessment standards on colleges of education, since doing so would not have been done either democratically or in a manner that allows students themselves to come to see the reasons why they should "value" certain dispositions.
Perhaps the most salient value being conveyed in a free exchange of ideas about values is through one's method or example of teaching, namely the value of ... discussing values in a free and unfettered manner. Some such values students may come to hold, and perhaps eventually develop a disposition to act upon.
Some personality conflicts may lead to so-called "irrational acts," meaning, acts that are based on strong dispositions that do not seem to make sense. The potential for such conflict has led humans to invent any number of ideologies and institutions for controlling their "dispositions," depending on the value-system or culture at the time. In the field of literature alone, people write in epic poems or dramas about the tragic state of human affairs where no matter how strong one's thinking abilities may be, in the end there is only so much humans can do to overcome themselves or their limitations, including their innate dispositions. Thus it seems unreasonable to expect faculty to alter their students’ dispositions, as does NCATE, but at best only engage them in discussions, and therefore public acknowledgement of alternative ways with which to think about, evaluate, or "assess" their dispositions.
There is a whole array of dispositions which humans in several cultures have historically considered to be wrong, such as, unbridled sensuality, inclination to steal, or desire to commit murder. Such dispositions may be neither bad nor good in themselves, but become so only when one begins to think about their ethical desirability. Sigmund Freud expressed this distinction between values and dispositions perhaps better than any one else in his book Civilization and its Discontents. According to Freud, humans built civilization to, among other things, control their strong sexual "dispositions." For example, they set up laws and taboos that proscribed certain dispositions from being openly expressed, such as, incest. Such "suppression" of presumably native dispositions may lead, according to Freud, to a number of neuroses. This is so because what people gain in social approval by suppressing their socially unacceptable dispositions, they may lose in personal happiness as a result of leaving their dispositions unfulfilled.
7. Ethics
One could have all the right dispositions, which may or may not be in harmony with his values, but still act unethically. For example one may believe that rewarding friends is a desirable disposition, but act unethically by distributing rewards on the basis of friendship, as opposed to job-related skills. The point here is not whether any one ethical theory supports or not a particular disposition, but that, as we discussed in the first part of the paper, dispositions are distinct from ethics. A blindly dispositional approach risks becoming unethical, particularly in an educational context, where we presumably teach students to think, than have mere "dispositions." This is so because dispositions lack the intellectual basis for distinguishing right from wrong acts.
Some people may adhere to the popular saying that "ignorance is bliss." They may even cover their ears so as not to hear any criticisms of their dispositions. They would rather lead a simple life full of dispositions, which in their view makes them happy, than have to learn something new. Elaborate critiques of their dispositions may represent a threat to their sense of identity, and therefore painful to have to listen to. Such people may be vaguely aware of the existence of alternative value systems, as is seen from the fact that they try to shield their own by covering up their ears, but are ill-disposed toward finding out about them. They have apparently found a comfortable lifestyle to which they are well disposed, and prefer to keep it that way by applying a sort of self-censorship on what their minds can find out. They would rather live the rest of their lives inside their self-preferred cocoon of dispositions, than as mindful humans who can see even their own dispositions from a distance. Thus expecting students, as does NCATE, to develop appropriate dispositions, may be putting the cart before the horse, since it is precisely this type of dispositional living that education, particularly critical thinking, attempts to change.
Another example of the potential conflict between values and dispositions may be seen in cases of addictive behavior. It may be said that "addicts" are strongly disposed to certain behaviors even in spite of their values to the contrary. Examples of such addictive acts are compulsive gambling, drug addiction, chain-smoking, or compulsive shopping. Many addicts may tell you their values are opposed to their dispositions, which may also explain why when they teach their own children, or give advice to friends, they often ask them not to do as they do, but only as they say. Again, this is yet another example of the potential conflict between dispositions and values, and therefore, NCATE’s claim to the contrary notwithstanding, of the difference between the two.
One may be unable to predict how one will act on the basis of knowing what his or her dispositions are, or for that matter, even if one knows one's values. At best, one might have a better understanding of how one might act if she knew not only one's dispositions, itself a difficult if oftentimes impossible task, but also one's values. But even such knowledge, namely, knowing one’s values, holds little predictive value, since how one acts also depends, as mentioned earlier, on how well one is "disposed" in following one's values. Finally, given the subjective nature of both values and dispositions, it may be very difficult to uncover either. Oftentimes what people say their values are may be more a reflection of what their society or peers expect them to say they are, than what they really are. Hence the almost impossible task of being able to predict the effect on student dispositions of a particular class, such as, philosophy of education, and therefore of expecting education faculty to guarantee certain dispositional changes in their students.
1. Historical Role of Universities
Universities were intended since their beginning in the Middle Ages as centers for academic excellence, including understanding of the variety of arts and sciences, than as therapeutic centers that manage dispositions.(9) University students are evaluated mainly on the basis of their cognitive achievements. Given their historically intellectual role, it is not surprising that universities should distribute rewards mainly on the basis of what students know even spite of their "dispositions" toward such knowledge. The question may be raised, if colleges of education begin assessing whether students internalized the right dispositions, as NCATE expects them to, then do they risk losing their proper place in the university?
2. Dispositions and Academic Freedom
Related to universities' intellectual aspirations is their long standing respect for academic freedom. A dispositional approach to assessment risks encroaching on such freedom. Academic freedom requires that one is free to engage in detached inquiry without fear of abrogating the dispositions of a teacher, supervisor, or other person in authority.
The author submits that societies allow universities to engage in the free flow of ideas mainly because (a) in other areas such freedom is less prevalent, and therefore less likely to lead to innovation, improvement, or progress; and (b) without such freedom students are less likely to receive an intellectually unfettered, and therefore excellent education.
In the past, universities fought hard to earn, and then defend their academic freedom. Witness the centuries of "town versus gown" conflicts between intellectual and local communities that did not understand them, envied them, or did not care for mind-development.(10) In the Middle Ages, faculty were persecuted for teaching presumably non-Christian dispositions.(11) Significantly for education colleges, it took more than a hundred years for public schools in the United States to become secularized. For example, teachers are no longer punished for not holding the right religious dispositions.(12) Education itself became increasingly "professionalized," meaning, evaluated on the basis of learning outcomes, as opposed to merely "dispositions" held by the community.
Eventually universities were able over the centuries to become well entrenched within the colorful spectrum of human institutions. A dispositional approach seems to undermine the traditional role that universities have come to play. As paragons of the transmission of culture, educators, including their affiliated colleges of education, role model the development of the mind for the rest of society to follow. When a dispositional approach is forced down the throats of university "mind-workers," it may make their work more difficult. Specifically regarding teacher training colleges, such approach may project a mixed image of a semi-rational institution where "dispositional" correctness could be as politically rewarding, as cognitive excellence.
Dispositional assessments risk becoming pseudo- or even anti-intellectual processes that sap at their core new but controversial theories, starve useful but dispositionally questionable research, or breed larger than life some of the least desirable weeds of "political correctness." In a garden where intellectual flowers need academic freedom to survive, let alone thrive, as is presumably the college campus, dispositions-based assessments may cause the mind to slow down, stumble, or even stagnate. It is one thing to expect that students and faculty keep a reasonably civilized decorum of intellectual debate, during which dispositions may or may not be discussed; and altogether another to expect them to hold on to officially sanctioned "dispositions." The author submits that NCATE's dispositional expectations may actually harm the educational process by opening up all types of opportunities for anti-intellectual attacks on education. Speaking rhetorically, should we sacrifice freedom of inquiry at the altar of, to paraphrase from George Orwell's Animal Farm, "correct dispositional response?"
3. College Teaching, Tenure, and Dispositions
Universities honed their practice of academic freedom through the granting of tenure to faculty. Tenure reassures faculty they need not be afraid of censorship, job loss, or other forms of punishment merely for teaching well. Without such freedom to think, read, or debate as tenure provides, faculty might feel pressure by political or other authorities to exercise contorting pressure on the mind to make it fit the expectations of the status quo. A dispositional assessment, on the other hand, chips away on the freedom faculty should have to discuss even controversial issues. Given the political associations of dispositions to established norms or practices, not all of which may be conducive to intellectual growth, a dispositions-based assessment may be seen as a thinly veiled attempt to control what education faculty teach.
Like almost everything else subjectively defined, a dispositional approach may be a double edged sword that could cost NCATE its reputation. In the end, NCATE must come to terms with such historically powerful privileges as academic tenure. Professors are all too adept in using tenure to ameliorate the hard effects of politically motivated dispositions, some of which may be totally blind, and none academic enough to merit so much attention. In theory, only a politically totalitarian regime could begin to control the dispositions of its citizenry. Even then, dispositions may be very difficult to control, given their intimately private nature.
The author submits that students and faculty should be entitled to their own "dispositions" assuming that (a) they do not disrupt the educational process as a result; and (b) when dispositions are discussed, then academic rewards, such as, grades, should be based on whether students can justify such dispositions with well reasoned "arguments," or are cognizant of scholarly theories or research regarding dispositions, instead of whether they also internalized them, or personally realigned their likes or dislikes to conform to a certain set of presumably desirable dispositions. By "arguments" the author here has in mind logical or "philosophical" ones, such as, ideas or syllogisms supported by reasons that make sense, including presenting statistically "valid" or relevant evidence. What we should be interested in is not whether students end up believing as we do, or having the same dispositions, but that they learn how to learn. Instead of, metaphorically speaking, handing down to the mere mortals that occupy college campuses the "Ten Commandments of Appropriate Dispositions," as NCATE seems to imply we should, students and faculty should be able to develop those critical skills that will enable them to both formulate and subsequently justify their own. Such grassroots process should be based on, among other things, a multiplicity of relevant readings, free debate, and what makes sense, even if that means they end up having altogether different dispositions than NCATE‘s.
4. Lack of Faculty Qualifications
A serious problem associated with dispositions-based assessments may be inadequate faculty qualifications. Are education faculty qualified to assess dispositions? Most education faculty are trained in non-psychological fields, and therefore ill-equipped to assess dispositions, let alone guarantee, as NCATE seems to require, that students attain the "right" ones. At best, such faculty may be able to guarantee through subject-oriented tests or similar diagnostic tools that students attain a certain level of cognitive understanding, such as, learn about historical, philosophical, or sociological theories of education, or empirical studies in education. They may be able to teach about known psychological or personality theories, but not also assess student dispositions, or, as NCATE suggests, alter their students' dispositional states.
V. Critical Thinking and Dispositions
1. Critical Cinderella and Domineering Dispositions: Critical Thinking versus Dispositions
According to NCATE, education students should develop critical thinking skills which later they transfer in their own classrooms. As NCATE put it,
[t]heir teaching encourages candidates' development of reflection, critical thinking, problem solving, and professional dispositions. (Standards, p. 34).
Unfortunately, by comparison to NCATE’s strong emphasis on dispositions, critical thinking is barely mentioned: Dispositions are mentioned 56 times in the Standards (see Appendix), while critical thinking only twice (pp. 18, 34). In other words, there are 23 references made in the Standards to dispositions for each one for critical thinking! Like Cinderella, so is critical thinking but a poor sister to Dispositions. One wonders whether NCATE, given its overwhelming support for dispositions over critical thinking in the Standards, is more interested in attitudes or personality traits, than it is in cognitive development! If thinking critically is an important litmus test of academic excellence, and possibly one which is much more aligned with academics than dispositions, then given the relatively puny place critical thinking occupies in the Standards, one may question NCATE’s own commitment to academic excellence. Is NCATE turning the clock back to a time when our public schools were more interested in evaluating dispositions, including discipline and personalities, than academic excellence?(13) Has our Puritanical past in the United States, with all of its philosophical excesses regarding the centrality of dispositions in shaping our lives, returned to haunt us in the form of presumably standardized assessments?
In his book Anti-Intellectualism in American Life historian Richard Hofstadter described American culture as anti-intellectual.(14) Given the relative unimportance of critical thinking in the NCATE Standards, one wonders whether NCATE has fallen victim to our alleged anti-intellectualism. Another historian, Robert L. Church, advanced the thesis that from the beginning our public schools were designed as much to build character, or moralize, as they were to teach the basics.(15) Using that analysis, it may be suggested that NCATE has thrown its considerable weight on the side of school-as-moralistic, instead of strictly academic institution. A dispositional approach tips the proverbial gown-versus-town conflict on the side of town, including public beliefs regarding morality, than scholarly beliefs regarding learning.(16)
To add spikes to its dispositional phalanx, NCATE dressed dispositions in the objective language of standards: Dispositions were raised to the status of measurable criteria, not because they are necessarily so measurable, but because in the minds of those who raised them to that level have become so. Like the tribesman who is raised to believe in spirits which he is convinced he sees all around him, so are the advocates of dispositionalistic assessments convinced of the true and measurable existence of dispositions. Such a process may be seen as a metaphor for a larger problem regarding our difficulty as humans to divest ourselves from ourselves, meaning, our traditional ways of thinking or doing things, such as, our long held view of education as mainly moralistic, students as mainly dispositionalistic, or education colleges as mainly psychologistic.(17)
The author submits that the most effective way to change students' dispositions is by engaging them in non-dispositionalistic processes that at first have none of the obviously moralistic overtones of dispositional assessments. This may be accomplished, for example, through a process of critical thinking during which students come to internalize the value of thinking critically. To paraphrase from the Hegelian dialectic of a synthetic progress toward rationality,(18) thinking critically may generate a new synthesis of reasonable dispositions in which the thesis of thinking critically is eventually integrated with the antithesis of thinking dispositionally to bring about an educational utopia without blind dispositionalism.
Few will doubt that critical discussions and analysis help develop intellectual habits. Learning takes place not only through the content of what is being taught, but also the method used to teach it, or what has come to be known as the "hidden curriculum." Through the hidden curriculum of critical discussions in the classroom, education students may develop "intellectual dispositions," meaning, the inclination to act on the basis of abstract principles, instead of dispositions alone. Their intellectual dispositions may or may not be in harmony with NCATE’s. Nevertheless, no matter which values they may come to hold, and therefore disposed "intellectually" to follow, the very fact that they have developed this ability to act in accordance with abstract principles, as when they must justify their beliefs or actions with reasons that make sense, is an indication that they can act ethically, instead of merely dispositionally. Instead of shooting from the hip on the basis of unprincipled "dispositions," they learn to control their actions until they have thoroughly thought of the ideological basis of their dispositions, and thus often act even in spite of them. Instead of making dispositions the basis of their actions, as NCATE assumes they should when it recommends that they acquire proper dispositions, they fence them inside a well controlled deliberative process guarded by reason.
We may conclude that in order to acquire rightful dispositions, such as, being well disposed toward critical thinking, we cannot hope to do so through a top down requirement to develop certain dispositions, but indirectly by allowing our students to engage in open ended discussion and analysis. Such analysis is by and large quite prevalent in the university classroom, and therefore conducive to precisely such type of indirect internalization of "intellectual dispositions." Unfortunately, a dispositional approach, such as, NCATE’s, may actually undermine the internalization of academic dispositions, such as, the inclination to think critically. Through the institutionalization of critical thinking, as is the case when knowledge is systematically pursued for its own sake in the classroom, students may develop an anti-disposition "disposition" to never act merely on the basis of their… dispositions alone. It is in that sense that through their education they may develop critical dispositions, including dispositions that are born out of in-depth examination and understanding, as opposed to an anemic mimicking of a pre-defined dispositional list.
Humans are not furniture that you can sculpt any which way you wish, but beings endowed with intelligence who are not always in harmony with their emotions. By sticking to an intellectual education, as universities have historically done, students eventually provide ammunition to their intelligence to play a bigger role in their lives; or, to paraphrase Aristotle, to live the life of reason, instead of mere disposition.
2. Dispositional Commitment versus Thinking Independently
If NCATE in its infinite wisdom had suggested that dispositions refer mainly to professional ethics, but said nothing about commitment, then perhaps NCATE could justify demanding that education colleges offer courses in ethics where students are asked to discuss a variety of ethical theories. But to also ask, as does NCATE, that education students, develop a commitment to certain dispositional states, may make some students feel as though they are being asked to conform "emotionally" to NCATE’s views, which has a totalitarian tinge about it. They may feel that if their emotions are being monitored, how much more so their ideas, and therefore their freedom to engage in open-ended discussions. A dispositional approach to assessment may lead some students to impose a form of cognitive self-censorship on themselves to make sure they are not perceived as having undesirable "dispositions." Should educators be in the business of promulgating the pre-established dispositions of the status quo, as contrasted to developing their students' ability to think?
There is a plethora of research that shows a strong correlation between independent thinking and high levels of academic attainment.(19) This may indicate the need for the development of independent thinkers, which is primarily a cognitive process, not a dispositional one. For example, one may have the right disposition toward "independence training," but neither have learned how to learn independently, nor how to teach others how to do so.
3. Dr. Strangelove through the Looking Glass of Dispositions: Cognitive versus Dispositional Processes
As mentioned earlier, it is not inconceivable that one possesses the "wrong" dispositions even in spite of being well aware of arguments regarding their undesirability. Witness, for instance, how often "criminals" in criminal court cases know the law, but break it nevertheless (i.e., have the "wrong" disposition). This shows that, as Plato argued in his book Meno over 2,300 years ago, knowledge is not identical with correct dispositional states, since one may be aware of right ethical principles, but nevertheless feel ill disposed toward them, disinclined to follow them, or unconcerned about them.
Alternatively, one may possess the right disposition even if he is not only unaware of any arguments with which to justify it, but even illiterate or formally uneducated. Witness, for instance, the abundance of "nice" people who may have never had a formal education, or exposure to sophisticated theories of right and wrong, yet hold the "right" dispositions. It is not uncommon to find the generous fisherman or helpful farmer who to all accounts exhibit the right dispositions of generosity and helpfulness, but are themselves illiterate, unable to explain at the drop of a hat why they are "nice," or, more generally speaking, "un-philosophical" about their own dispositions. Thus although occasionally a link could be established between a cognitive process and dispositional states, such link is neither necessary nor always guaranteed. This means that no matter how well intended NCATE's dispositional approach might be, such dispositions are not necessarily the best indicators of a high level of intellectual or educational attainment. It also means that no matter how sincere or analytical our discussions in the classroom regarding dispositions might be, in the end we cannot control whether our students will in fact be well disposed toward any number of issues discussed in the classroom. Faculty can "control" student knowledge of dispositions, in the sense of testing whether students are cognitively aware of which dispositions may be desirable and which not, or, as the author indicated earlier, of the arguments for and against certain dispositions, but not also manage whether such students have emotionally internalized only the "right" dispositions.
How does one test to see whether education students have attained the right dispositions? Unless faculty reduce the educational process in the classroom to an emotional caricature of Dr. Strangelove, they have little control over actual dispositional states.
VI. Problems associated with Dispositional Assessments
1. Webster's Definition of "Disposition"
Webster’s definition of "disposition" is presumably based on what Webster's lexicographers considered to be the meaning of such term at the time. According to Webster's dictionary, the term "disposition" refers to a
prevailing tendency, mood or inclination; temperamental makeup; tendency of something to act in a certain manner under given circumstances.
Terms such as "mood," "temperament," "tendency" and "inclination" refer to subjective states. They are collectively the nuts and bolts of inner attitudes. Along with the long elaborated upon "subconscious" of psychoanalytic theory, such attitudes are probably some of the most private and difficult to uncover, let alone assess, aspects of human personality. They can be hidden, camouflaged, or even lied about.
Webster's defines fairness as an impartial process that is based on objectively verifiable criteria. According to Webster's, fairness is synonymous with such terms as just, equitable, impartial, unbiased, dispassionate, objective, all of which are, according to Webster's, "free from favor toward either or any side."(20) More precisely, according to Webster's
fair implies an elimination of one's own feelings, prejudices, and desires so as to achieve a proper balance of conflicting interests.(21)
The question may be raised, if we raise candidate dispositions to the level of a standard, then to what extent does an evaluation of so subjective or private a personality attribute allows evaluator..."feelings, prejudices, and desires" to overcome impartiality?
Given the implied impartiality of fair evaluations, an evaluation may be seen as "fair" when the same standards are impartially used across the board irrespective of how the assessors themselves feel about the personalities, private lives, or "dispositions" of those being evaluated. For example, if one of the standards is punctuality, then if those being assessed are not punctual in their work they should be so evaluated without any qualifications regarding their "dispositions." A fair assessment requires that if someone is being assessed, and is late for work, then even if the assessor likes the dispositions of the "evaluatee," or is well disposed toward his private dispositions, such assessor should not be allowed to apply a different standard merely because he "likes" the evaluatee, but must apply the same standard regarding punctuality across the board. If one is tardy he should be evaluated according to his tardiness even if it could be determined that he is well disposed toward punctuality; alternatively, if one is punctual he should be "rewarded" for his punctuality even if it could be determined that he is ill disposed toward being on time.
The author submits that, the disadvantages of "calculating" reason aside, assessors may be perceived as "unfair" when using dispositions as an assessment standard, than reason or common sense. This is so because reason is by definition more mathematical, meaning, more fairly distributive, and therefore less biased in its assessments, than temperamental states, such as, dispositions. Because of its subjectivism, a dispositional approach to assessment risks sacrificing fairness at the altar of personally biased, culturally myopic, ethically unjustifiable, or intellectually sterile beliefs.
Students who are academically successful may perceive a dispositional assessment as unfair: they may see it as a way for less successful students to get around having to demonstrate their academic skills. For example, some C or D-grade students may publicly confess allegiance to all of what NCATE may consider are desirable dispositions, and therefore receive additional bonus points or better grades. Is it fair, one may ask, that we dilute our academic reward system with dispositional rewards? How can we justify promoting academic excellence, on the one hand, while on the other rewarding "dispositions?" Ironically, then, no matter how well intended the emphasis on dispositions may have started out to be, including instilling in students the "right" attitudes, it may end up having the opposite effect, including in certain cases learning how to deceive others regarding one' own dispositions merely to receive higher grades.
What if a dispositionally correct teacher who professes, for instance, respect for fairness and diversity, ends up in his or her teaching being in fact quite unfair or disrespectful? If one were to follow the recommendations of NCATE, then should one evaluate dispositions more heavily than performance, in this case, such teacher's intent to act fairly? Should such "unfair" teacher be absolved for teaching "unfairly" if it can be determined that he or she had the right dispositions? If so, then are we rewarding "right" intent more highly than right actions? Given the difficulty of assessing dispositions correctly, might such intent-based reward system result in misplaced assessments, false confessions of intent, or inarticulate education candidates?
4. Problems of Relevance and Retribution
Of the other alleged synonyms, such as, temperament, character, and personality, Webster’s defines temperament as something which ...
implies a pattern of innate characteristics associated with one's specific physical and nervous organization.
Webster's uses the term "innate," above, to describe the meaning of this alleged synonym to "dispositional." Such innate characteristics as a candidate's dispositions are usually excluded from professional interviews during hiring of new faculty.(22) This is so because ideally a candidate should be evaluated on the basis of his demonstrable or well-documented job-related skills, such as, academic degrees, past job performance, and prior evaluations of his work, than his dispositions. Although overall attitude during an interview obviously plays a role, since hardly anyone prefers hiring someone who demonstrates belligerence, lack of courtesy, or ill temper, nevertheless not only are attitudes secondary to demonstrable skills, but can be easily manipulated by the interviewees to make a good impression. Furthermore, if interviewers decide to "dig" below the usual surface of polite exchanges, and inquire about the interviewee's dispositions, then not only can the interviewee easily mislead the interviewers by hiding his true intentions, but also draw a line to how far such delving into his personality can go, beyond which it may become intrusive, irrelevant, or inappropriate. Finally, and perhaps just as importantly, a dispositional interview may be used as cover for far more pernicious types of hiring and evaluation practices, such as, hiring on the basis of the hiring committee's cultural biases regarding "right" dispositions.
5. Problem of Faculty Socialization in Universalistic Expectations
A dispositional assessment seems to send contradictory messages to education faculty who may have been socialized along "universalistic" criteria, meaning, criteria applied across the board irrespective of one’s ethnic or tribal memberships, family associations, personal lifestyle, or inner "dispositions." Faculty are socialized since their undergraduate days, if not sooner since their elementary and high school years,(23) and later as members of hiring committees, to evaluate one's academic worth on the basis mainly of demonstrable achievements. Such achievements may be referred to as "universalistic," as did Robert Dreeben in his classic sociological analysis of what is learned in school. Asking education faculty to change their students' dispositions to fit NCATE's may be asking them to suddenly break loose from years of socialization in, and possible internalization of, universalistic assessment criteria.
6. Problem of Social Class Stratification
In a study of social class and school culture, it was found that working class schools emphasize dispositions, including discipline; middle class schools offer limited choices to their students, with less emphasis on dispositions; and upper middle class schools emphasize learning and independence, such as engaging in the design and management of self-generated projects.(24) If dispositional processes aim mainly to alter personalities, than develop independence, then it may be argued that a dispositional assessment risks bringing about a two-tier stratification of students into followers and leaders. More perniciously, there is the danger of an elite writing down what the most appropriate dispositions might be for the masses to follow not so much out of thinking critically or philosophically about right and wrong, or to benefit the masses, but more self-centeredly to protect its own economic, political, or ideological interests. Thus if dispositions x, y, and z require unquestionable obedience to authority, such dispositions may be cultivated merely for political and economic, than strictly educational reasons.
A dispositional approach may create conformist individuals that are tracked to working in low-wage "service industry" jobs. This is so because in their broader, routine interpretation, dispositions are usually associated within the K-12 classroom with being nice or obedient, as opposed to creative, independent, or well educated. An emphasis on possessing the right dispositions may intensify social class divisions between those who learned in school to conform to all the right dispositions, no matter how uncritically; and those who were trained to think critically even about dispositions, and therefore destined to lead. The latter may end up making important organizational decisions, including what the most appropriate dispositions should be within their respective organizations. Thus ironically those with the least amount of "dispositional indoctrination" in their formative years may end up making most of the rules regarding dispositions in the future. This doesn’t mean that youth should not develop desirable dispositions, but that such development should take place in a critical and open-ended fashion, instead of being written down as a predefined set that educators must unquestionably adopt, colleges of education inevitably abide by, or education students irrefutably develop.
There are historical examples of societies using education to bolster the power of political elites by indoctrinating the masses into certain "desirable" dispositions. Witness, for instance, the use of Confucian principles in education by the Manchu conquerors of mainland China to maintain their grip on power.(25) The conquered Han Chinese were allowed to advance socially only if they demonstrated through excruciatingly long and difficult examinations mastery of the Confucian texts, several of which underlined the importance of appropriate dispositions, including obedience to the ruling class.(26)
The idea that political elites should instill in the masses desirable dispositions is a very old one, and may traced at least as far back as Plato’s Republic. According to Plato, the rulers should mould the dispositions of the masses so that everyone self-perpetuates their appropriate niche in society on the basis of their in-born skills. Plato even advocated a Machiavellian system of lies to manipulate public dispositions, such as, the "Noble Lie" regarding one’s choice of mate so that people are not ill-disposed toward the mate the State found for them presumably through a blind lottery.(27) During the centuries that followed the writing of Plato’s Republic humans experimented with Platonic and other types of political systems, including Marxism ('communism). Marxist societies invest heavily on shaping dispositions, mainly to alter the personalities of their followers.(28) The question may be raised, is a dispositional assessment essentially a political, than strictly educational process? If so, then are the standards established by NCATE academically justifiable, particularly regarding dispositions?
7. The New "Dispositions Police:" Problem of Democratic Education
Expecting students to develop a set of pre-imposed dispositions risks undermining democratic participation. This is so because our students may internalize through the example of their teachers the presumed superiority of a top-down approach to learning, including imposing a teacher-centered, rather than child-centered learning environment. In such an environment, students are not only told what to learn, but even how to feel, including what dispositions they should possess.
Several philosophers, including John Dewey, linked the development of democratic attitude to teaching practice in the classroom.(29) We have become all too aware in education of the risk of contradicting our principles through our classroom practices. A top-down approach risks undermining student initiative and independent thinking, both of which are essential democratic skills.
One may ask, rhetorically, is NCATE becoming our new "dispositions police?" No matter how intrusive a dispositional approach may be, or a threat to academic freedom and privacy issues, in the end it must contend with the democratic values of our society.
8. Problem of Lack of Standardization
When people talk of "standards," they usually mean objectively verifiable criteria. Standards are used in professions to allow for both, commonly verifiable yardsticks of professional behavior, and the avoidance of subjective evaluations. Between the two, objectively verifiable standards and subjective evaluations, the former seems to lend itself much less to personal bias, and therefore is less likely, although by no means impossible, to lead to unfair assessments. This is so because objectively verifiable standards, such as those written down in clearly interpretable ways, leave less room for the creation ad hoc of standards that are personally determined by the evaluator.
Dispositions do not easily lend themselves to impartially verifiable criteria. For all practical purposes, standardizing a disposition sounds like an oxymoron analogous to "standardizing" religious feeling or love: in all such cases, our private feelings or attitudes require protracted periods of intense introspection and honest articulation to even begin to uncover, let alone use as a yardstick for professional assessments done within a matter of a few days, as during NCATE’s short campus visits.
We may compare educational assessments to judicial interpretations. According to some legal scholars, judges' interpretation of pre-established laws is often so subjective as to have the effect of making new laws.(30) Nevertheless, even assuming such is the case, judges' interpretation of pre-established laws is by definition limited by such laws, or else their interpretations would not be "interpretative," meaning, they would have nothing legal to interpret. Consequently, no matter how "subjective" some judges may try to be, there are at least certain externally constraining criteria their interpretations must abide by, namely, the laws themselves which judges cannot totally ignore without flagrantly abrogating such laws. For example, if a law makes reference to a speeding limit, or any other of numerous legal issues laws usually cover, from the very mundane to the most abstract, then a judge cannot all of a sudden decide, say, a speeding case on the basis of the driver's record as a... basketball player. Such judge must limit his argument to whether the driver broke a speeding law, such as, first, whether the defendant was actually speeding; and second, whether she broke the law regarding speeding. Likewise with the application of professional standards, no matter how subjective an evaluator may try to be, she is limited in her interpretation of a standard by what such standard requires, or else hers would not be an interpretation of the existing standard, but the creation of a totally new one. The degree to which a judge is free to insert her own interpretation of a law, or an assessor of a standard, depends partly on whether the criteria established in such law or standard lend themselves to subjective interpretation, as do, in the author’s view, dispositions.
In a poem about the conquest of a civilized city by the barbarians, the Greek-Egyptian poet Cavafy talks of the perversely happy anticipation of the barbarians coming to destroy civilization.(31) Assessment standards are equivalent to laws that under grid civilized living. The alternative to such laws are "dispositions," including those which conceivably could destroy civilization, such as, the disposition to take revenge, conquer, or control other people’s destiny.
A dispositions-based assessment may give rise to concerns regarding privacy. As adults, college students may feel their privacy is being invaded when they are asked to profess allegiance to a certain set of dispositions. Some may even resent being treated as half-baked brains who must be told, instead of having to discover for themselves, what dispositions to hold. Our society may tolerate preaching the "right" dispositions to younger children and adolescents, even if such approach risks sounding paternalistic or uncritical. This is so because until they reach a certain age, children are not given the same rights a adults, including the right to privacy. Yet when high school graduates become college students they seem to expect to be treated as adults, than as elementary or high school "children." Whether we like it or not, in the United States they have socially and usually also legally crossed the threshold from childhood to adulthood. They may be expecting to leave behind the often paternalistic indoctrination of K-12 classrooms, and enter, instead, the adult world of individual responsibility, accountability, and privacy. By institutionalizing at the level of higher education a seemingly childish or at best adolescent educational custom, such as, intrusions into some of our most intimately held dispositions, we may be invading our college students’ right to privacy regarding their personal beliefs and attitudes. Does NCATE have so little faith in our future teachers' good judgment that it attempts to alter their personalities during teacher training to make sure they possess, in addition to effective teaching skills and content knowledge, also the... right dispositions?
10. Problem of Lack of Research
Assuming that learning is the main goal of the teaching profession, then in order to justify the inclusion of dispositions in the curriculum one must show through statistically valid empirical research findings, philosophically convincing arguments, or historically well known examples, the extent to which such dispositions can improve learning. The question may be asked, what type of research did NCATE use to justify the inclusion of dispositions as a useful assessment standard in its Standards document? Where are the research studies that link dispositions to learning? Historical examples? Philosophical arguments? Unfortunately, there are no such studies, examples, or arguments mentioned in the NCATE Standards. It is ironic that NCATE would expect education colleges to engage in research (Standards, pp. 4, 7, 12, 15, 19, 20, 34-5, 37, 50, 55-7), but has seemingly failed to meet its own expectations by presenting the reader with no empirical research studies regarding the relevance of dispositions to learning.
VII: Historical Analysis
1. The Middle Ages, Reason and Dispositions
The alleged coldness of reason notwithstanding, a society built around reason is less likely to engage in irrational behavior, than one based on emotions, moods or dispositions. Given the lessons of the past, it is surprising that our irrational past in the west, particularly during the Middle Ages, has yet to be re-evaluated as possibly our educational nemesis in the future. According to the philosophers of the Enlightenment, political institutions and the Church conspired during the European Middle Ages to keep the masses ignorant and oppressed.(32) People in the Middle Ages were expected to develop right dispositions even as they remained illiterate, and to all accounts probably superstitious.(33) This serves as historical evidence that having presumably appropriate dispositions is not necessarily correlated with high academic achievement.
2. Dispositions in American Education
NCATE's personality-based approach may turn the clock back to an earlier era in education when teachers were evaluated on the basis mainly of dispositions. Witness, for instance, the extent to which during the colonial period in the U.S. teachers were hired in "district schools" (one-room schoolhouses) not so much because of their academic skills, but their dispositions, particularly toward discipline.(34) This discipline orientation was, as is usually the case with almost anything else in education, the result of larger social beliefs regarding human nature, such as, in colonial America, the puritanical belief in the inherent sinfulness of mankind. Hence the emergence of such expressions as "beat the devil out of the child," or "spare the rod and spoil the child," neither one of which were intended as a joke, but as sincere attempts at changing children’s dispositions. Corporal punishment was heavily used at the time to discipline children, in the view at the time of those who administered it mainly to help children overcome their inherently sinful dispositions.(35) In spite of what today may seem as cruel or insensitive, if not educationally harmful, was at the time seen as beneficial. Seen from that angle, it may be argued that people at the time were as well intended, or "well disposed," regarding child rearing as we are today, except their philosophies, and therefore methods, were different from ours. This shows the importance of studying different philosophies of education, if for no other reason to show students the importance of philosophy in shaping our educational practices; but also the relativity of our values, including our values about dispositions, and therefore the possibility of some of our dispositions today being possibly wrong or inappropriate, as were, from a modern perspective, the dispositions toward discipline of the Puritans.
VIII. Objections against Author’s Interpretation
1. Objection regarding Academics
It may objected to the author’s line of reasoning that NCATE never stated that dispositions should replace prerequisite academic skills, but merely supplement them. In other words, our education students should develop both, right dispositions and necessary academic skills. For example, dispositions are linked to learning, rather than pursued strictly for their own sake (Standards, pp. 1, 9, 10, 12, 16, 19, 25, 26, 28, 29, 55). Unfortunately, it may not be so easy to do both equally well because of the possibility, as mentioned earlier, of conflict between the two, namely, the dispositional and cognitive aspects of teacher education. For example, if we wish our education students to have both, right dispositions and academic skills, then what if after thinking critically about dispositions some students find some of NCATE's recommended dispositions to be misplaced, undesirable, or inappropriate? For example, what if some students object to NCATE's view of what the right dispositions should be regarding social justice issues (Standards, p. 53); or, for that matter, the very idea that NCATE accreditation should hinge on a set of predefined dispositions? Should they then give more weight to dispositions at the expense of thinking critically? This might be difficult to do, given that NCATE also recommends the development of critical thinking skills (Standards, pp. 18, 34).
2. Objection regarding Behavior
NCATE might respond to the author’s criticism regarding the difficulty of assessing dispositions by stating that in addition to requiring the right types of dispositional commitment, it also requires changes in overt behavior. As NCATE put it in the Standards students should develop values and commitments that "influence behaviors." (p. 53) But then if behavior becomes the litmus test of right dispositions, why even bother with assessing dispositions, when in fact what counts are observable behavioral patterns? Thus the argument-from-behavior seems actually to undermine, than support, the idea of assessing dispositions.
NCATE may argue that even when taking into account behavioral changes, we still want to know candidates' dispositions, and therefore should assess them. This is so, it may be argued, because without knowing students’ background dispositional states, behavior is not necessarily a genuine reflection of good character. Yet such argument brings us back to our original problems regarding (a) the difficulty we may encounter in trying to uncover inner personality characteristics; (b) the possible lack of objectivity regarding character-based assessments; and ( c) the possibly tenuous connection between dispositions and teaching effectiveness.
| Appendix |
DISPOSITIONS IN NCATE STANDARDS, 2002 EDITION: ORIGINAL PASSAGES
Compiled by author, May 12, 2002
METHODOLOGY: All passages re: "dispositions" in the NCATE Standards, 2002 edition, have been included. To make such passages readable, the compiler divided them into categories according to the topic or concept which they address. For example, passages that refer to "dispositions" in the context of learning, such as, "dispositions" required of teacher candidates to help students learn, have been included in the category "DISPOSITIONS LINKED TO LEARNING."
AMPLIFICATION OF METHOD: To convey the full range of the passages on "dispositions," the compiler included all of them here (did not exclude any). Several passages are repetitive, but at least the reader can rest assured that, firstly, all such passages have been included, thus eliminating or "minimizing" the criticism that the compiler exercised some type of "censorship," or exclusion, of certain passages in order to promote one interpretation of the NCATE document over another. Since the reader has all of available passages in front of him or her, he or she is free to arrive at his or her own interpretation regarding what such passages mean regarding "dispositions." Secondly, although all passages regarding "dispositions" from the NCATE Standards document are reiterated below, the compiler saved the reader at least some of the frustration usually associated with reading identical or similar statements over and over again by dividing such statements into logically identifiable categories based on the type of topic or concept such statements seem to address.
PASSAGES ON DISPOSITIONS
SOURCE: NCATE STANDARDS, 2002 EDITION
Table of Contents
1. Dispositions Defined (Number of quotes: 1) |
1. DISPOSITIONS DEFINED
"Dispositions. The values, commitments, and professional ethics that influence behaviors toward students, families, colleagues, and communities and affect student learning, motivation, and development as well as the educator's own professional growth. Dispositions are guided by beliefs and attitudes related to values such as caring, fairness, honesty, responsibility, and social justice. For example, they might include a belief that all students can learn, a vision of high and challenging standards, or a commitment to a safe and supportive learning environment." p. 53
2. SPECIFIC DISPOSITIONS
"They [candidates] demonstrate dispositions that value fairness and learning by all students." p. 29
"Dispositions. The values, commitments, and professional ethics that influence behaviors toward students, families, colleagues, and communities and affect student learning, motivation, and development as well as the educator's own professional growth. Dispositions are guided by beliefs and attitudes related to values such as caring, fairness, honesty, responsibility, and social justice. For example, they might include a belief that all students can learn, a vision of high and challenging standards, or a commitment to a safe and supportive learning environment." p. 53
3. ASSESSING DISPOSITIONS
" Field experiences and clinical practice provide opportunities for candidates to develop and demonstrate knowledge, skills, and dispositions for helping all students learn." p. 26
"Accountability for clinical practice includes...(4) candidates' application of the skills, knowledge, and dispositions defined by the unit, including the capacity to have a positive effect on student learning" p. 28
"Assessments of candidate proficiencies provide data on the ability to help all students learn. Candidates' assessment data are used to provide feedback to candidates for improving their knowledge, skills, and dispositions." p. 29
"Curriculum, field experiences, and clinical practice help candidates to demonstrate knowledge, skills, and dispositions related to diversity." p. 29
"Regardless of whether they live in areas with great diversity, candidates must develop knowledge of diversity in the United States and the world, dispositions that respect and value differences, and skills for working in diverse settings." p. 31
"Proficiencies, including those related to dispositions and diversity, are drawn from the standards of the profession, state, and institution; they are clear to candidates and are assessed as part of the unit's performance assessment system." p. 32
"Candidate Performance Data. Information derived from assessments of candidate proficiencies, in areas of teaching and effects on student learning, candidate knowledge, and dispositions. Candidate performance data may be derived from a wide variety of sources, such as projects, essays, or tests demonstrating subject content mastery; employer evaluations; state licensure tests; and mentoring year "portfolios" as well as assessments, projects, reflections, clinical observations, and other evidence of pedagogical and professional teaching proficiencies." p. 52
"Performance Assessment. A comprehensive assessment through which candidates demonstrate their proficiencies in subject, professional, and pedagogical knowledge, skills, and dispositions, including their abilities to have positive effects on student learning." p. 55
4. CANDIDATES EXPECTED TO ADJUST THEIR DISPOSITIONS
"Candidates recognize when their own dispositions may need to be adjusted and are able to develop plans to do so." p. 15
5. DISPOSITIONS LINKED TO...
A. DISPOSITIONS LINKED TO ETHICS:
[Footnote 14 on p. 19, repeated here under category "Ethics:"] "Codes of ethics may be helpful in thinking about dispositions and are available from a number of professional associations, including the National Education Association (NEA)." p. 19
"Dispositions. The values, commitments, and professional ethics that influence behaviors toward students, families, colleagues, and communities and affect student learning, motivation, and development as well as the educator's own professional growth. Dispositions are guided by beliefs and attitudes related to values such as caring, fairness, honesty, responsibility, and social justice. For example, they might include a belief that all students can learn, a vision of high and challenging standards, or a commitment to a safe and supportive learning environment." p. 53
B. DISPOSITIONS LINKED TO LEARNING
"Through this process, NCATE provides assurance to the public that the graduates of accredited institutions have acquired the knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to help all students learn." p. 1
"They require units to use evidence to demonstrate that teacher candidates are gaining the knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to have a positive impact on student learning." p. 9
Candidates(2) preparing to work in schools as teachers or other professional school personnel know and demonstrate the content, pedagogical, and professional knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to help all students(3) learn." p. 10
[Footnotes associated with above passage:] A2-Candidates include persons preparing to teach, teachers who are continuing their professional development, and persons preparing for other professional roles in schools such as principals, school psychologists, and school library media specialists. A3-All students" includes students with exceptionalities and of different ethnic, racial, gender, language, religious, socioeconomic, and regional/ geographic origins."p. 10
"The unit and its school partners design, implement, and evaluate field experiences and clinical practice so that teacher candidates and other school personnel develop and demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to help all students learn." p. 10
"The conceptual framework(s) provides the basis for coherence among curriculum, instruction, field experiences, clinical practice, assessment, and evaluation. It makes explicit the professional commitments and dispositions that support it, including the commitment to acquire and use knowledge on behalf of students." p. 12
"Teacher licensure standards adopted by most states require that teachers demonstrate knowledge, skills, and dispositions that enable them to address the needs of all learners." P. 16
"Dispositions are not usually assessed directly; instead they are assessed along with other performances in candidates' work with students, families, and communities. Candidates for all professional education roles are expected to demonstrate positive effects on student learning. Teachers and teacher candidates have student learning as the focus of their work. Other professional school personnel are able to create and maintain positive environments, as appropriate to their professional responsibilities, that support student learning in educational settings." p. 19
"The unit and its school partners design, implement, and evaluate field experiences and clinical practice so that teacher candidates and other school personnel develop and demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to help all students learn." p. 25
" Field experiences and clinical practice provide opportunities for candidates to develop and demonstrate knowledge, skills, and dispositions for helping all students learn." p. 26
"Accountability for clinical practice includes...(4) candidates' application of the skills, knowledge, and dispositions defined by the unit, including the capacity to have a positive effect on student learning" p. 28
"The unit designs, implements, and evaluates curriculum and experiences for candidates to acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to help all students learn." p. 29
"They [candidates] demonstrate dispositions that value fairness and learning by all students." p. 29
"Assessments of candidate proficiencies provide data on the ability to help all students learn. Candidates' assessment data are used to provide feedback to candidates for improving their knowledge, skills, and dispositions." p. 29
"Performance Assessment. A comprehensive assessment through which candidates demonstrate their proficiencies in subject, professional, and pedagogical knowledge, skills, and dispositions, including their abilities to have positive effects on student learning." p. 55
"Performance-based Licensing. Licensing based on a system of multiple assessments that measure a teacher candidate's knowledge, skills, and dispositions to determine whether he/she can perform effectively as a teacher or in another school specialty." p. 55
C. DISPOSITIONS LINKED TO CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
"The unit's conceptual framework(s) clearly articulates its professional commitments to knowledge, teaching competence, and student learning. It has outlined the dispositions that the faculty value in teachers and other professional school personnel." p. 13
"Both field experiences and clinical practice reflect the unit's conceptual framework(s) and help candidates continue to develop the content, professional, and pedagogical knowledge, skills, and dispositions delineated in standards." p. 26
"Institutional Standards. Candidate knowledge, skills, and dispositions identified by the institution to reflect its mission and the unit's conceptual framework." p. 54
D. DISPOSITIONS LINKED TO DIVERSITY
"The unit's conceptual framework(s) reflects the unit's commitment to preparing candidates to support learning for all students and provides a conceptual understanding of how knowledge, dispositions, and skills related to diversity are integrated across the curriculum, instruction, field experiences, clinical practice, assessments, and evaluations." p. 13
"Curriculum, field experiences, and clinical practice help candidates to demonstrate knowledge, skills, and dispositions related to diversity." p. 29
"Field experiences or clinical practice in settings with exceptional populations and students from different ethnic, racial, gender, and socioeconomic groups are designed for candidates to develop and practice their knowledge, skills, and dispositions for working with all students." p. 31
"Regardless of whether they live in areas with great diversity, candidates must develop knowledge of diversity in the United States and the world, dispositions that respect and value differences, and skills for working in diverse settings." p. 31
E. DISPOSITIONS LINKED TO TECHNOLOGY
"The unit's conceptual framework(s) reflects the unit's commitment to preparing candidates who are able to use educational technology to help all students learn; it also provides a conceptual understanding of how knowledge, skills, and dispositions related to educational and information technology are integrated throughout the curriculum, instruction, field experiences, clinical practice, assessments, and evaluations." p. 13
F. DISPOSITIONS LINKED TO PROFESSIONALISM
"Candidates are familiar with the dispositions expected of professionals. Their work with students, families, and communities reflects the dispositions delineated in professional, state, and institutional standards." p. 15
"Candidates work with students, families, and communities in ways that reflect the dispositions expected of professional educators as delineated in professional, state, and institutional standards." p. 15
"Candidates for all professional education roles develop and model dispositions that are expected of educators. The unit articulates candidate dispositions as part of its conceptual framework(s). The unit systematically assesses the development of appropriate professional dispositions by candidates (14)." p. 19
[Footnote associated with above passage:] "14- Codes of ethics may be helpful in thinking about dispositions and are available from a number of professional associations, including the National Education Association (NEA)." p. 19
"The unit, its school partners, and other members of the professional community design, deliver, and evaluate field experiences and clinical practice to help candidates develop their knowledge, skills, and dispositions." P. 25
" Faculty value candidates' learning and assess candidate performance. Their teaching encourages candidates' development of reflection, critical thinking, problem solving, and professional dispositions." p. 34
"Professional Standards. Candidate knowledge, skills, and dispositions set by the specialized professional associations (SPA program standards) and adopted by NCATE for use in its accreditation review. Professional standards also refer to standards set by other recognized national organizations/accrediting agencies that evaluate professional education programs (e.g., the National Association of Schools of Music)." p. 56
G. DISPOSITIONS LINKED TO SOCIAL, PERSONAL AND INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT
"In addition, NCATE and INTASC expect teacher candidates to demonstrate knowledge, skills, and dispositions (11) to provide learning opportunities supporting students' intellectual, social, and personal development." p. 18
H. DISPOSITIONS LINKED TO GRADUATE STUDY
"Experienced teachers in graduate programs build upon and extend their knowledge and experiences to improve their own teaching and student learning in classrooms. They further develop their knowledge, skills, and dispositions to meet the propositions of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) for the advanced certification of teachers." pp. 19-20
"Candidates preparing to work in schools as other school personnel demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to meet professional (16), state, and institutional standards. These roles include the positions of educational technology specialists, instructional technology specialists, reading specialists and supervisors, school administrators, including principals and curriculum and instruction specialists, school counselors, school library media specialists, school psychologists, school superintendents, other professional school roles." P. 20
[Footnote mentioned in the above quote:] "16-NCATE's program standards for these fields and the directions for preparing documentation can be downloaded from its web-site, www.ncate.org. A list of programs with professional standards is appended to these unit standards." p. 20
I. DISPOSITIONS LINKED TO FIELD EXPERIENCES
"Field experiences allow candidates to apply and reflect on their content, professional, and pedagogical knowledge, skills, and dispositions in a variety of settings with students and adults." P. 26
"Field experiences and clinical practice facilitate candidates' exploration of their knowledge, skills, and dispositions related to all students." p. 27
"Clinical work in education, like other professional fields, requires adequate resources. It involves school, as well as college or university faculty in teaching, providing feedback, and coaching to ensure that candidates are able to demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and dispositions expected in professional, state, and institutional standards." P. 41
J. DISPOSITIONS LINKED TO FACULTY
" Faculty value candidates' learning and assess candidate performance. Their teaching encourages candidates' development of reflection, critical thinking, problem solving, and professional dispositions." p. 34
| ENDNOTES |
1. The 2002 NCATE Standards may be found on line at http://www.ncate.org Back to text
2. See Appendix for a complete list of all original paragraphs in the NCATE 2002 Standards regarding dispositions. Back to text
3. See NCATE's web site at http://www.ncate.org for a list of colleges and universities in the United States with NCATE accreditation. All others do not have such accreditation. Back to text
4. Allan C. Ornstein and D. U. Levine, Foundations of Education, 7th edition, Houghton Mifflin, 2000, p. 39. Back to text
5. Amitai Etzioni, The Semiprofessions and their Organization: Teachers, Nurses, and Social Workers, Free Press, 1969 Back to text
6. Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents, W.W. Norton & Company, 1989. Back to text
7. Immanuel Kant, The Metaphysics of Morals, Cambridge University Press, 1996. Back to text
8. Daniel Katz, "The Functional Approach to the Study of Attitudes," Public Opinion Quarterly 24 (Summer 1960): 163-76. Back to text
9. Hastings Rashdall, The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages , 2 vols, Oxford University Press, 1936; Nathan Schachner, The Medieval Universities, London, George Allen and Unwin Ltd, 1938; see also A. Makedon, "Universe and the University: What They Have in Common." Paper presented at the 2003 lecture series, College of Arts and Sciences, Chicago State University, Chicago, Illinois. Published on the Internet at: http://AlexanderMakedon.com/RadicalPerspectivism/UniverseandUniversity.html Back to text
10. Makedon, "Universe and University." Back to text
11. Rashdall, Universities Middle Ages. Back to text
12. Ornstein & Levine, Foundations, pp. 261-64. Back to text
13. Robert L. Church, Education in the United States: An Interpretive History, Free Press, 1976. Back to text
14. Richard Hofstadter, Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, Vintage Press, 1966. Back to text
15. Church, Education in the United States. Back to text
16. By "moralistic" the author means popular beliefs or "values," however unexamined or unjustifiable they may be, as contrasted to philosophical or in-depth analyses of right and wrong. Back to text
17. By "psychologistic," as opposed to "psychological," the author means assumptions made about human personality that are based on hearsay, tradition, or folk culture, than well controlled experimental studies, careful case analysis, or historically accurate inferences regarding human behavior. Back to text
18. Georg Hegel, The Phenomenology of Mind, Dover Publications, 2nd ed., 2003. Back to text
19. J. L. Epstein and J. M. McPartland, "Family and School Interactions and Main Effects on Affective Outcomes," John Hopkins University, Center for Social Organization of Schools, Report No. 235; S. S. Boocock, Sociology of Education, University Press of America, 1980. Back to text
20. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 2001, Electronic Edition, Franklin Electronic Publishers, "Bookman" Pocket Computer SCD-770. Back to text
21. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. Back to text
22. In his capacity as member and chair of his department's personnel committee for over 15 years, the author was informed by his university's affirmative action officer that the personnel committee should not ask faculty candidates questions of personal nature, as are arguably "dispositions," but instead focus on the candidates' academic skills and record of job-related achievements. Back to text
23. Regarding the socialization of students into universalistic values as early as elementary school, see Robert Dreeben, On What Is Leaned in School, Percheron Press, 2002. Back to text
24. Jean Anyon, "Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work," Journal of Education 162: 1 (Winter 1980): 67-92. Back to text
25. John K. Fairbank, The United States and China, Harvard University Press, 1971. Back to text
26. Confucius, The Analects of Confucius: A Philosophical Translation, tr. R. T. Ames, Ballantine Books, 1999. Back to text
27. Plato, Republic, pp. 234, 263-4, 315-6; see also Laws, pp. 229-30. In The Dialogues of Plato, Tr. B. Jowett, 4th ed., 4 vols, Clarendon Press, 1953. Back to text
28. Marx and Engels: Basic Writings on Politics and Philosophy, ed. L. S. Feuer, Doubleday, 1959. Back to text
29. John Dewey, Democracy and Education, Free Press, 1997. Back to text
30. O. W. Holmes, "The Law as Predictions of what Courts will Do," in The Nature of Law, ed. M. P. Golding, Random House, 1966. Back to text
31. C. P. Cavafy, "Waiting for the Barbarians," Collected Poems, Princeton University Press, 1992. Back to text
32. Gabriel Compayre, The History of Pedagogy, University Press of the Pacific, 2002. Back to text
33. G. R. Evans, Philosophy and Theology in the Middle Ages, Routledge, March 1993. Back to text
34. Robert L. Church, Education in the United States, Ch. 1, "District School." Back to text
35. K. James, "Corporal Punishment in the Public Schools of the United States." Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 1958; Times Educational Supplement, 13 October, 1961; A. Makedon, "School Discipline: Social and Ethical Implications of School Corporal Punishment," presented in November 1980 at the annual conference of the Michigan Academy of Arts and Sciences, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Back to text
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