Abstract:

Teacher education programmes across the globe are trying to find ways to meet the multi-layered impact of a world in pandemic. Brick and mortar classrooms turned into online environments overnight. Teacher educators and school teachers alike embarked on a quest for the best online tutorials to make teaching and learning meaningful; some others also joined forces and quickly form online communities to share successful practices. A fair approach indeed. However, what has driven teachers on this quest? Beyond mandatory guidelines from local authorities, the call comes from within, it is their disposition to do their best.

Teacher disposition is at the core of professional knowledge and skills and these three elements together conform essential qualities of effective teachers.

Teacher dispositions, sometimes also referred to as non-cognitive attributes, are broadly defined as traits that shape judicious actions. Literature research informs that there seems to be a set of universal or core dispositions, such as empathy, extraversion, agreeableness, resilience, self-regulation, to mention a few. However, the identification, development and assessment of dispositions in teacher education programmes should always be context-driven and context-relevant. In this presentation, we will first assert the relevance of dispositions alongside professional knowledge and skills; secondly, we will put emphasis on the relevance of context when promoting and fostering dispositions; and thirdly, we will argue for the suitability of mixed-method studies to both identifying key dispositions and to creating an assessment instrument in the form of a Situational Judgment Test -SJT.

Keywords:

Teacher dispositions, non-cognitive attributes, effective teachers.