Abstract:

Dispositions-oriented teacher education regards dispositions as a teacher quality as important as knowledge and skills,and makes the development of teacher dispositions the core goal of teacher education. The so-called teacher dispositions is the stable behavioral tendencies inherent in or cultivated by teachers,which originate from their internal beliefs,attitudes and values. There are four main reasons for making teacher dispositions a focus of teacher education:teacher dispositions affect teacher effectiveness as well as student academic achievement;teacher dispositions influence teachers’instructional performance;teacher dispositions activate teachers’knowledge and competence;and teacher dispositions is the capital for teachers’ethical modeling. Teacher education institutions can determine what constitutes the target dispositions through the following methods:generalization and analysis of existing data,questionnaire survey and the Delphi method. Teacher education institutions can cultivate dispositions through the following strategies:individual and group reflection;cultural enrichment;the use of “dispositions self-assessment scales”;teacher educators’demonstration,and the use of innovative pedagogical methods.

Key words: teacher dispositions, teacher education orientation, teacher literacy, teacher development