ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the assessment of candidate dispositions using a growth-model approach. The field of education has moved toward a standards and performance framework for preparing future teachers. The conceptualization of the professional preparation of future teachers shifted from the development of knowledge, skills, and attitudes to knowledge, skills, and dispositions. Professional organizations have defined dispositions as the “link between teachers’ knowledge and beliefs and their behaviors and actions”. For the beginning phase, focused on gaining awareness of the disposition, we determined that this would be evidenced in candidates’ communication related to the specific disposition. Affective categories of receiving and responding shaped the language utilized in the rubric. Continuing rubric development at the Acceptable level of performance along the growth model, the mastering phase was conceptualized as embodying the disposition and encouraging others to take action. Building the dispositions using a growth model inherently created the opportunity for longitudinal analysis of candidate dispositional growth.
