How to Strengthen Student Dispositions in Your School

In my earlier post about the book, Dispositions: Reframing Teaching and Learning, by Costa and Kallick, I introduced the three essential questions upon which the book is based:

  1. How do we make dispositions come alive in the minds of students?
  2. How do we produce a paradigm shift in the thinking of education leaders, parents, the public, and our political decision-makers?
  3. How to we reclaim the role that education must play in protecting our democracy.

The authors point to seven dispositions they believe to be necessary for students to be well-rounded and well-prepared for college or career:

  • Open-mindedness
  • Inquisitiveness
  • Analyzing the credibility and relevance of sources
  • Reasoning, argumentation, and explaining proof and point of view
  • Comparing, contrasting ideas, analyzing, and interpreting competing or conflicting evidence
  • Knowing how to arrive at an accurate answer
  • Finding many ways to solve problems (Costa & Kallick, p. 7)

This is a really valuable book for faculty and leaders and in any building working on whole-school improvement because it addresses needs that, in one way or another, affect every student.

Other highlights from the book

Chapter 6 suggests specific strategies to guide curriculum and instructional design so that students are exposed regularly to these dispositions:

  • The curriculum is designed to intrigue—to raise consciousness about new ideas.
  • There are challenging problems to be solved with much guidance available.
  • There is an opportunity to practice.
  • Collaboration is encouraged.
  • Technology is integrated into the learning—it is seen as a tool for learning.
  • There is an intentional design to foster dispositions such as curiosity, flexible thinking, listening with understanding and empathy, and persisting.” (pp. 73-74)

Chapter 8 features a description of what a school embracing “dispositional teaching” would look like:

  1. Regular use of dispositional vocabulary: “You’d hear staff and students spontaneously employing dispositional language in the classroom, on the playground, and in the cafeteria.”
  2. Intentional teaching of the dispositions: “…you’d see and hear teachers teaching the dispositions by alerting, experiencing, illuminating, practicing, valuing, reflecting on, and evaluating the use of selected dispositions. Students would be engaged in lessons deliberately structured and planned to include the infusion of the dispositions.”
  3. Dispositions infused in the school culture: “School staff would model, monitor, manage, and modify their use of dispositions, both individually and in group settings. The dispositions would become the norms of the school.”
  4. Parents as partners: Parents would receive updates on their child’s progress in their dispositions and would “become partners in modeling, acknowledging, and supporting the dispositions at home as well as schools.” (pp. 133-134)

A worthwhile investment of time & focus

Operationalizing dispositions takes time and practice. And, it begins with the faculty and staff who commit to intentionally work on their dispositions. For example, Costa and Kallick suggest that when faculties meet to discuss a critical issue that might result in conflict, the meeting should begin with a discussion of which dispositions could best be used during the discussion. Here’s a short excerpt:

“The group might choose listening with understanding and empathy and questioning and problem posing. They then describe what that might look like or sound like and develop a checklist to help them determine the behaviors they will attend to.” (p. 138)

The authors continue this thread by describing possible outcomes from the discussion, including checklists to track the identified behaviors. But, it doesn’t end there. To build in a reflection/continuous improvement opportunity, time is reserved at the end of the meeting to discuss the process, the group’s success, or lack thereof, in the use of the identified dispositions. The meeting concludes with the group identifying dispositions to be “worked on,” both individually and as a group.

Just as developing knowledge and skills requires work and ongoing practice, so does mastering these seven dispositions. As you think about strengthening student dispositions in this new year, where do you think might be the best place to start?

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