Introduction and Research Focus

 The aim of this research is to make salient and make more explicit the key characteristics and tacit understandings that build a repertoire of practice for the effective orchestration of classroom instruction in the UAE. In the coming year, the UAE will begin licensing teachers in K-12 public and private schools for the first time. As educational reforms in the UAE continue to evolve, awareness of the professional teaching dispositions of future teachers will be a valuable tool in the assessment of the readiness of the teachers for classrooms throughout the UAE. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a multidimensional instrument to assess the professional teaching dispositions of pre-service teachers that align with the Professional Standards for Teachers of the Abu Dhabi Education Council and the Ministry of Education in the UAE. During the presentation, we will discuss the instrument design, translation, and validation process.

Research Questions

1. What are the professional teaching dispositions of the pre-service teachers at ECAE?
2. Can these dispositions be measured with an acceptable degree of reliability and validity?

Conceptual Framework

Dispositions are similar to professional beliefs or values systems, but they are more than that. One’s dispositions are manifested in one’s behavior. That behavior is how we quantify the disposition. The disposition is therefore an indicator of future action based upon that disposition.

Dottin (2009) describes dispositions as both definitional and philosophical in nature. The discourse pertaining to teacher dispositions occurs primarily in the K-12 realm, where Carroll (2012) defines dispositions as a teacher’s ability to act effectively “…on the behalf of the learning and well-being of his or her students” (p. 38). Professional teaching dispositions are the attitudes, values, and beliefs demonstrated through both verbal and non-verbal behaviors as educators interact with students, families, colleagues, and communities and are related to values such as caring, fairness, and honesty (NCATE, 2013). Dispositions extend to professional modes of conduct and the ways in which beliefs and attitudes are displayed by teachers’ actions in and out of the classroom. Ros-Voseles and Moss (2007) showed that when teachers possessed positive professional dispositions the profession of teaching was elevated in the eyes of others.

Two threads of discourse can be identified when looking into definitions for dispositions (Thorton, 2006). The first relates to the terms used when assessing teacher dispositions, such as values, beliefs, attitudes, characteristics, professional behaviors, ethics, and perceptions (Ritchhart, 2001). A person’s pattern of thinking, and how one is predisposed to act, informs an educator’s practice, which are then manifested through particular kinds of action in the learning environment. The second view addresses the professional characteristics and identifiable behaviors, such as work attendance, preparation, work ethic, punctuality, sense of humor, and appropriate dress (Tichenor & Tichenor, 2004/2005). These behaviors are more clearly definable and measureable, especially in a conventional teaching environment, but they fall short in capturing a professional’s educational practice.

The idea that dispositions are changeable is a commonly held theory (e.g., Judge & Bretz, 1993; Mumford, 2001). Dewey (1916, 1922) suggests that dispositions are human qualities, which can be altered because of educational experiences. Wasicsko (2007) categorized dispositional attributes by their level of difficulty to change. He identified those that were difficult to change as related to warmth, enthusiasm, commitment, optimism, and humor. On the other hand, he found that attributes such as knowledge, punctuality, and appearance could be altered because of experience and professional development.

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