Introduction to Dispositions

Across the Department of Teacher Education, we employ a developmental approach towards professional dispositions that provides both maximized support for our candidates and ethical gatekeeping for the profession through a series of activities and interactions that occur at specific points in our candidates’ progress through the credential program.   The dispositions that emerged from ten years of ongoing research are arranged along three attributes that have been shown to correlate to exemplars, or observable behaviors exhibited by effective, productive teachers and thus are desired characteristics for candidates working to achieve their teaching credentials and become the next generation of successful educators.  

The three critical attributes that are evaluated by the DTE are Relationships with Others, Professionalism, and Teaching Outlook.  These attributes are aligned with the Teacher Performance Expectations from the State of California; nationally recognized social emotional learning and culturally responsive teaching attributes, as well as input from teaching professionals at the university and public educational settings. 

The exemplars are provided here for clarification purposes only and are used by faculty in the use of the assessments. Note that there are some attributes and exemplars that have greater significance and impact during particular parts of a candidate’s program and so there are separate assessments available for those uses. 

Dispositions will be formally assessed three times during each candidates’ program; during TESP 501, TESP 512, and at least once during clinical practice.  Faculty may choose to assess at additional times as needed but only the three formal scores will be collected for program improvement uses.

Any area that receives less than a rubric score “3” at the evaluation points, requires a written explanation of issues or challenges.  Also when remediation is indicated or has been attempted through the use of the Remediation Form (available to all faculty), faculty are required to make notation of this in the comments. 

Dispositions Assessment Form Sample

The Dispositions Assessment for Clinical Practice is housed in InPlace and must be completed by each Teacher Candidate in Clinical Practice by their University Coach.