Quality of teaching requires more than knowledge or skills. It is also about feelings, attitudes, values and social behaviors in teaching (Rink, 2006). Recently, the educational reform movement has put more emphasis on affective learning in teacher education, which lead disposition to become a critical area to be addressed and assessed during teacher education programs (Darling-Hammond, 2006; Imig & Imig, 2006). NCATE defines professional dispositions as professional attitudes, values, and beliefs demonstrated through both verbal and non-verbal behaviors as educators interact with students, families, colleagues, and communities (2007). These positive behaviors support student learning and development. There have been few studies on the topic of teacher candidate disposition, but those that have been explored the nature of disposition (Johnson & Reiman, 2007) or the validation of disposition measurement instruments (Wayda & Lund, 2005). Little is known about the major impacts of a Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) program on a teacher candidate's disposition. The purpose of this study was to examine (a) the trends and levels of teacher candidates' dispositions across a PETE program and (b) the similarities and differences between student and teacher disposition ratings across courses.
Method
Data was collected on pre-service teachers (n=153) across four developmental level in a PETE program (i.e., an entry level course, an initial teacher education course, field based methods courses, & student teaching) using both student self assessment and teacher assessment to determine candidates dispositions. The disposition assessment instrument used for this project was modified from Wanda and Lund (2005) and includes three major behavioral domains: (a) educator as a person, (b) educator as a mediator of learning, (c) educator as an ethical practitioner with a total of 10 sub-items.
Analysis/Results
Descriptive statistics revealed the higher the course level completed the higher the overall student disposition scores, especially related to two domains: (a) educator as a person and (b) educator as a mediator of learning. In comparing student to teacher disposition assessment a Pearson's correlation reported that both students and teachers had a higher correlation in the field based method course (r=.596, p=.019) than in the entry level (r=.362, p=.003) or general method course (r=.323, p=.088).
Conclusions
While these are preliminary data for a larger four year longitudinal study, data suggest that a PETE program has a positive impact on teacher candidates' disposition.