According to the standards outlined by the National Council for Accreditation of Teachers (NCATE), candidates preparing to work in schools as teachers must demonstrate, among other things, knowledge of dispositions. Teacher candidates' perception of their own levels of competence (beginning to expert) in five dimensions: “Positive Outlook,” “Self-Awareness,” “Intellectual Integrity,” “Respect,” and “Dedication” were recorded. These were matched with the same assessment created independently for each student by faculty teaching health education methods courses.
A qualitative comparison of student and faculty generated dispositions revealed that students had a reasonably accurate self-perception of their competence with regard to the dispositions.
The importance of such a project was apparent in two areas: 1) it provided teacher candidates the opportunity to introspect and self-assess their levels of competence with regards to the dispositions, 2) faculty were able to provide feedback to the students and timely guidance for improvement.