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1 – 10 of over 10000Heather D. Kindall, Tracey Crowe and Angela Elsass
Professional dispositions must be cultivated through focused self-reflection and targeted, authentic, internship experiences prior to entering the teaching profession. Continued…
Abstract
Purpose
Professional dispositions must be cultivated through focused self-reflection and targeted, authentic, internship experiences prior to entering the teaching profession. Continued development through mentoring during the clinical internship can enhance the effectiveness of pre-service teacher candidates as instructional leaders. The purpose of this paper is to explore the unique experiences found to be successful in mentoring pre-service teachers from student to professional during an authentic, yearlong internship experience.
Design/methodology/approach
Intern participants in this pilot study completed an inventory that measured professional dispositions five times during an internship experience. Data were analyzed using a mixed methods study design.
Findings
Results of the study determined that intern participants held unrealistic views of teaching and did not recognize the importance of dispositional development prior to focused mentoring throughout the year of clinical internship. One central finding in this study is that change and growth about perceptions of professional dispositions can be developed through focused mentoring.
Originality/value
Mentoring within the teacher preparation program can help in the transition of understanding professional growth and development, attitudes, and the view of complex behaviors. The dispositions necessary for effective teaching can be honed through cultural and clinical experiences, continual self-reflection, constructive feedback on evaluations of teaching, and targeted mentoring before beginning the clinical student internship and throughout the experience.
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Julie Jackson Albee and Joyce A. Piveral
This study describes one university’s effective management process for identifying dispositions of pre‐service teacher candidates. Identification of specific dispositions was…
Abstract
This study describes one university’s effective management process for identifying dispositions of pre‐service teacher candidates. Identification of specific dispositions was solicited from university professors, pre‐service teachers, practicing teachers, professors, and administrators through 221 surveys, and was analyzed through the Delphi method. To evaluate if the teachers at differing levels similarly valued identified dispositions (i.e. professors, pre‐service, practicing, elementary, high school) a Pearson chi‐square analysis was conducted. Findings from this analysis showed that there was not a significant difference between the dispositions valued by various groups. This led to the development of an instrument to measure and monitor the dispositions of pre‐service teachers. A monitoring system to provide managers with a process to assist pre‐service teachers in improving areas of weakness was then developed.
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Qiaoping Zhang, Jing Guo and Yicheng Wei
This study explored the mathematical dispositions of Hong Kong mathematics pre-service teachers (PSTs). It also constructed a mathematical disposition framework comprising their…
Abstract
Purpose
This study explored the mathematical dispositions of Hong Kong mathematics pre-service teachers (PSTs). It also constructed a mathematical disposition framework comprising their affective, cognitive and functional dispositions towards the subject.
Design/methodology/approach
Thirty-one participants completed three structured metaphor tasks and one open-ended metaphor task in which they shared their views on mathematics. Responses were examined qualitatively and quantitatively. Coding based on thematic analysis was utilized to summarize the specific contents of the mathematical dispositions expressed by the PSTs, and a 5-level scoring scale was employed to evaluate the strength of the dispositions as represented by different metaphor types.
Findings
The findings suggest that the mathematical dispositions of pre-service mathematics teachers were generally positive. However, the overall level was not high. The most prevalent metaphors used to describe mathematics were “rice”, “blue” and “dog”.
Research limitations/implications
Hong Kong mathematics PSTs' mathematical dispositions are examined by using metaphorical tasks. Three categories are identified: affective, cognitive and functional dispositions towards mathematics.
Originality/value
This study has proposed an original framework for describing mathematical disposition.
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Leslie Hazle Bussey and Jennie Welch
A vast array of leadership dispositions associated with school and student success is well-documented in extant leadership development literature. However, persistent challenges…
Abstract
A vast array of leadership dispositions associated with school and student success is well-documented in extant leadership development literature. However, persistent challenges face practitioners as they attempt to measure leader dispositions and apply what is known about dispositions to hiring, selection, development, and retention of school leaders. We begin this chapter with an exploration of the essential leader dispositions which surfaced through an exhaustive cross-disciplinary review of literature, in concert with a review of disposition tools and frameworks in use in a variety of practical settings. Next, we illuminate significant challenges associated with reliably measuring school leader dispositions and explore promising emergent innovative strategies for assessing disposition development. Though difficult to measure, we argue that dispositions are too important to ignore and conclude with practical recommendations for using research on leader dispositions to cultivate outstanding school leaders.
Richard D. Osguthorpe and Jennifer L. Snow-Gerono
The report from our recent accreditation visit indicated that the unit has an emerging framework for an assessment system that collects data at necessary transition points…
Abstract
The report from our recent accreditation visit indicated that the unit has an emerging framework for an assessment system that collects data at necessary transition points. However, the report also suggests that the unit does not analyze that data in an effective way to conduct meaningful program change. The events that led to this discovery (and the actions that have been taken since) have provided important lessons learned for our institution that relate to continuous program improvement and the accreditation process itself. This chapter details those events and lessons learned.
Hazel Kershaw-Solomon, Nick Beech, Jeff Gold, Julia Claxton, Tricia Auty and Susan Beech
The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact competency frameworks as standardisation can have on the employee engagement of academic staff within higher education (HE…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact competency frameworks as standardisation can have on the employee engagement of academic staff within higher education (HE) through their employment as managerial tools.
Design/methodology/approach
A literature review is conducted from which the conditions for effective competency frameworks are evaluated and the influence of changes in the HE environment in the form of political agendas and tight resources are explored.
Findings
This paper provides insights into the dynamics of public service modernisation and the tensions between the dominant discourse of managerialism and the degree of agency afforded to professional academics. It highlights the relevance of informal peer relationships in setting the climate to generate collegial bonding and professional engagement that underpin successful teacher fellowship accreditations. It further highlights the key role managers play in this process and provides a conceptual framework highlighting the dynamics and combined effect of employee engagement and competency frameworks set within complex HE environment.
Practical implications
This paper brings together the prerequisites for effective implementation of competency frameworks to implement successful employee engagement strategies set within the complexities of the HE context, which has not been studied to date. Armed with such insights, Human Resource Development (HRD) departments and universities can implement competency assessments that generate greater staff engagement.
Originality/value
The paper provides a critical approach in reviewing the impact of Continued Professional Development and its link to professional status and thus helps British Universities and others to understand how the mechanisms at work affect engagement levels of academic staff. Armed with this depth of understanding of how the change initiative works, with whom and under what circumstances, universities will be better able to meet target UK Professional Standards Framework membership levels required by the higher education academy (HEA) and, subsequently, the HEA to meet their targets for the government.
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The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework for conceptualizing three dispositional‐related stages that educators may experience in their professional careers and address…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework for conceptualizing three dispositional‐related stages that educators may experience in their professional careers and address the implications of these stages for integrating moral literacy perspectives into initial and advanced teacher and leader certification programs.
Design/methodology/approach
The dispositional conceptual framework is presented and discussed from the author's viewpoint. The contention is that there is at least some general consistency that teacher and leader program candidates, at various stages of their professional careers, may experience and reflect in the attitudes – a component of dispositions – that they bring to the university classroom learning environment.
Findings
Observations and insights about the consistency of dispositions within each of three program candidate groups are discussed. The dispositions emerged as: attitude formation; attitude adjustment; and attitude alignment. Within the context of course development and through that process of course delivery, the author describes how an understanding of candidates' attitudinal stages informed decisions about course content and instructional strategies to facilitate an ethos of values inquiry and reflection.
Originality/value
The framework may be useful to professors of education interested in integrating values inquiry and moral agency into their teaching.
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Z.W. Taylor and Victoria G. Black
The purpose of this paper is to explore how postsecondary mentoring programs address mentee dispositions prior to the mentee entering the reciprocal relationship, particularly…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how postsecondary mentoring programs address mentee dispositions prior to the mentee entering the reciprocal relationship, particularly which mentee dispositions are valued across mentoring program types, including peer, community-to-student, faculty-to-student and faculty-to-faculty programs.
Design/methodology/approach
This study employed quantitative content analysis to examine 280 institutional US postsecondary mentoring websites across four different institution types (public, four-year; private, four-year, non-profit; private, four-year, for-profit; public, two-year) and four different mentoring program types (peer or student-to-student, community-to-student, faculty-to-student and faculty-to-faculty programs). Grounded coding strategies were employed to generate these four mentoring program types, supported by extant research (Crisp et al., 2017).
Findings
Of 280 mentoring programs, 18.6 percent articulated mentee dispositions prior to entering the reciprocal relationship. When mentoring programs did address mentees, most programs articulated mentor duties aligned with mentee expectations (47.5 percent of programs) and program outcomes for mentees (65.7 percent of programs) rather than what the mentee can and should bring into a reciprocal relationship.
Research limitations/implications
This study is delimited by its sample size and its focus on institutional website content. Future studies should explore how mentoring programs recruit and retain mentees, as well as how website communications address the predispositions and fit of mentees within different types of mentoring programs.
Practical implications
This study provided evidence that many postsecondary mentoring programs in the USA may not be articulating programmatic expectations of mentees prior to the mentoring relationship. By failing to address mentee predispositions, mentoring programs may not be accurately assessing their mentor’s compatibility with their mentees, potentially leading to unproductive mentoring relationships.
Originality/value
This study affirms extant research (Black and Taylor, 2017) while connecting mentor- and coaching-focused literature to the discussion of a mentee dispositions scale or measurement akin to Crisp’s (2009) College Student Mentoring Scale and Searby’s (2014) mentoring mindset framework. This study also forwards an exploratory model of mentoring program inputs and outputs, envisioning both mentor and mentee characteristics as fundamental inputs for a mentoring program rather than traditional models that view mentors as inputs and mentee achievements as outputs (Crisp, 2009; Searby, 2014).
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M. Bruce King and Fred M. Newmann
Situates current research on professional development within an organizational perspective. Offers a framework for the study of professional development, and proposes that key…
Abstract
Situates current research on professional development within an organizational perspective. Offers a framework for the study of professional development, and proposes that key factors that affect student achievement be conceptualized as school capacity. Argues that increases in school capacity will lead to gains in student achievement, and that professional development should, therefore, be designed to enhance the following three dimensions of capacity. First, school capacity includes the knowledge, skills, and dispositions of individual staff members. Second, the diverse human and technical resources of a school need to be put to use in an organized, collective enterprise termed school professional community. Finally, a school’s capacity is enhanced when its programs for student and staff learning are coherent, focused, and sustained. To illustrate comprehensive professional development that addresses all aspects of school capacity, describes one school from a current study.
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