Supporting Middle Grades Pre-Service Teachers in Building Professional Dispositions

Abstract

Promoting pre-service teachers' development of professional dispositions through purposefully designed learning experiences may be middle level teacher education's most important contribution to a novice's development from student to teacher. The 2022 Revised Middle Level Teacher Preparation Standards explicitly address this expectation in Standard 5, with Component 5.d noting that middle grades pre-service teachers should become "continuous, collaborative learners who demonstrate knowledgeable, reflective, critical perspectives on their teaching." This article offers detailed illustrations of the approaches one middle grades teacher education program used to intentionally select professional dispositions to target in early coursework and teach those dispositions to candidates. Approaches included: anticipating administrator expectations for inservice teacher behaviors; developing course norms based on those expectations; viewing interviews with local administrators about the importance of professional dispositions; analyzing job application reference forms for teaching positions in local districts; self-assessing on numerous behaviors that operationalized targeted dispositions; and setting goals for future dispositional growth. Recommendations for middle level teacher educators seeking to strengthen their program's work to support candidates in building professional dispositions are discussed.

Keywords

• professional dispositions
• middle level teacher preparation
• pre-service teachers
• teacher candidates