Examining elementary science education teachers disposition after reform

Teaching is one of the most important jobs in society. Good teachers will create better people for the future because teachers shape many ideas that students hold about the world and their own future. Large numbers of new teachers enter our schools every year. With the implications of recent technology and science education reform. politicians and educators have been planning to make improvement in schools since the 1990’s. The recent Turkish science education reform declared that students should become scientifically literate. From primary school through university, students need not only develop a basic understanding of the concepts underlying science, but must also gain a sophisticated understanding of the assumptions and values inherent in the development of those ideas (Yilmaz. Turkmen. & Pedersen. 2008). To execute this, teachers are the most important factor in improving schools. Teacher preparation programs have a significant effect on teacher quality. Briefly we can say that teacher quality depends on the areas of content knowledge. pedagogical skills and disposition (Collinson, Killeavy & Stephenson, 1999; Darling-Hammond, 1997). We, as educators, have had experience in effectively assessing a person’s knowledge and behavior. Disposition, on the other hand, is more difficult to measure. Numerous studies have grappled with the definition of disposition and have searched for a venue where an effective assessment of a teacher’s dispositions could be best evaluated.

Teacher disposition effective teaching

Teaching is not just passing knowledge to students, there is so much more involved. Teachers need to not only know the material very well but also be aware of effective ways to transfer knowledge. When we recall our own school days, we remember the best and worst of our teachers and the impact these teachers had on our lives. Teachers whose ability to motivate, encourage, understand and care inspired students and provided a positive school experience which in turn contributed to students’ success in their later lives. Other teachers who were unable to do these things made school a negative and unproductive experience for their students.

According to the Thorndike-Barnhart Dictionary dispositions are defined as qualities that characterize a person as an individual; the controlling perceptual (mental, emotional, spiritual) qualities that determine the person’s natural or usual ways of thinking and acting. Meanwhile, there are many definitions of disposition in the literature. Katz (1993) defined a disposition as “a pattern of behavior exhibited frequently and in the absence of coercion, and constituting a habit of mind under some conscious and voluntary control. and that is intentional and oriented to broad goals” (p. 10). The National Council for Accreditation in Teacher Education (NCATE. 2000) defined dispositions as referring to the values, commitments and professional ethics that influence behaviors toward students, families, colleagues and communities and affect student learning, motivation and development, as well as the educators’ own professional growth. In the NCATE Professional Standards document states, “dispositions are not usually assessed directly: instead they are assessed along with other performances in candidates’ work with students, families and communities” (NCATE, 2001, p.19). Ritchhart defines dispositions in his book Intellectual Character (2002) as:

"Acquired patterns of behavior that are under one's control and will as opposed to being automatically activated. Dispositions are overarching sets of behaviors, not just single behaviors. They are dynamic and idiosyncratic in their contextualized deployment rather than prescribed actions to be carried out. More than desire and will, dispositions must be coupled with requisite ability. Dispositions motivate, activate, and direct our abilities" (p. 31).

Dispositions are guided by beliefs and attitudes related to values such as caring, fairness, honesty, responsibility, and social justice. Combs (1999) listed the five areas of belief that discriminated clearly between good and poor helpers were (1) beliefs about the significant data: Good helpers are people oriented; they are sensitive or empathic; (2) beliefs about people: Good helpers hold more positive beliefs about the people with whom they work; (3) beliefs about self: Good helpers hold positive beliefs about themselves; (4) beliefs about purposes or priorities: Good helpers hold beliefs about purposes that are more people oriented. broader and deeper, and concerned with freeing rather than controlling; (5) beliefs about personal openness: Good helpers hold beliefs that allow them to be more self-revealing than self-concealing. They are characterized by authenticity in their beliefs.

Many researchers have defined how effective a teacher should be. The recent focus on disposition draws heavily from research on the characteristics of effective teachers (Good & Brophy, 1997; Leithwood, 1990; Stanford, 2001). However, there is a shift away from emphasizing content and pedagogical knowledge toward inter- and intra-personal knowledge and skills of effective teachers (Collinson. 1996). While the shift seems intimidating, “it is important for teacher educators to know and understand the dispositions of effective teachers. so as to design experiences that will help to develop these characteristics in students and to help students discover if they have the dispositions to teach” (Taylor & Wasicsko, 2000, p. 2). To identify dispositions of effective teachers there has been an examination of research on effective teaching.

Good and Brophy (1997) identified 10 teacher behaviors that show a positive relationship to student performance. The first five, referred to as key behaviors, are lesson clarity, instructional variety, teacher task orientation, engagement in the learning process, and student success rate, which are all regularly supported by research studies. The second five are, identified as helping behaviors, which serve as catalysts for implementing the following five key behaviors: student ideas and contributions, structuring, questioning, probing and teacher affect. These behaviors have some support and are logically related to effective teaching, although additional studies are necessary to identify clearly how these behaviors should be used. Similarly, Cotton (1995) described effective teachers as those who have clear standards for classroom behavior and clear and focused instruction, effective questioning techniques, providing feedback, using a variety of assessment strategies, and having positive interactions with their students and a caring disposition.

In 1996, Collinson asked outstanding teachers to identify characteristics of effective teachers. Three types of knowledge, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and professional, were identified from the outstanding teachers’ responses. With regard to intrapersonal knowledge, outstanding teachers consistently mentioned that effective teachers displayed care and compassion and respect to themselves and others. Specific to interpersonal knowledge, exemplary teachers were reflective, showed respect to themselves and others and displayed courage. In the professional knowledge category, teachers indicated a disposition toward continuous learning, curiosity, creativity, flexibility and pride in their efforts.

Ushers identified five important characteristics of effective teachers. The first one is empathy; seeing and accepting the other person’s point of view and respecting and accepting each person’s own unique perceptions. The second is a positive view of others; believing in the worth. ability and potential of others and seeing other people in essentially positive ways. This approach gives others the feeling that they can and will rather than that they can’t or won’t. Third, disposition is positive view of self; believing in the worth, ability and potential of oneself, and seeing oneself as essentially dependable and capable, thus making one accepting of inadequacies. Fourth, disposition is authenticity; feeling a sense of freedom and openness that enables one to be a unique person in honesty and genuineness, and seeing the importance of openness, self-disclosure and being real as a person and teacher. Finally, a meaningful purpose and vision are important; committing to purposes that are primarily person-centered, broad, deep, freeing and long range in nature and seeing the importance of being visionary and reflective as a teacher contribute to this disposition (Usher, Usher & Usher, 2003).

Partington et al. (1997) stated that typical students’ comments on successful teachers included: teachers who encourage us, teachers who understand us better, teachers who help us, teachers who are nice, teachers who are fair and teachers who brighten up their lessons. Parker (1999) claimed that good teachers have some sort of connective capacity; they connect themselves to their students. their students to each other,. and everyone to the subject being studied.

One of the important characteristics of effective teachers is taking time to build relationships with students. Malin stated that (1998), “before teachers can be effective they must get to know each student as an individual, as a cultural being, and as a learner” (p. 242). Munns (1998) agreed, "teachers need to recognize that trust and respect are not automatically given" and good teachers "build positive personal and productive pedagogical relationships with students" (p. 173). Malin (1998) indicated that good teachers "contextualize in a way that relates to past and present experiences and knowledge" (p. 244). Taylor, Pearson, Clark and Walpole (2000) found that the most accomplished teachers, in contrast to the least accomplished teachers, had higher pupil engagement, provided smaller group instruction, had a preferred teaching style of coaching as opposed to telling, provided more coaching during reading to help children improve in word recognition and asked more high-level comprehension questions.

Much research strongly supports that successful teachers are thoughtful teachers (Glickman, Gordon & Ross-Gordon, 2001). Hunter (1984) defines teaching as, “the constant stream of professional decisions that affects the probability of learning: decisions that are made and implemented before, during, and after interaction with the student” (pp. 169-170). Other researchers, Burden and Byrd (2003) focused on decision-making as the basic teaching skill. Decision-making involves giving consideration to a matter and then selecting the identity, character, scope, or direction of something, making choices, and arriving at a solution that ends uncertainty.

In many universities, teacher preparation programs are now required to specify how teacher candidates are prepared to teach effectively. The U.S. Department of Education and NCATE have encouraged continuing improvement in teacher education based on measured performance (NCATE, 2001). Teacher preparation programs should use assessments of disposition as part of admission procedures (Taylor & Wasicsko, 2000).

Standards and quality of teachers

Many modern countries define their teacher education standards in the light of their culture and future perspectives. The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC) in the US promote this idea. The standards generally provide an operation framework for accredited departments of education in schools around the country. Their mission statements and theoretical framework provide a foundation upon which they build their teacher education programs. The standards for teacher candidates focus on learning outcomes that reflect the knowledge, skills and dispositions of an effective teacher. Teacher candidates are expected to demonstrate knowledge, skills, and dispositions to provide learning opportunities that “support students’ intellectual, social and personal development” (NCARE, 2002).

Although many modern countries have educational standards, their student performance clearly suffers. According to results of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) (2003) and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) showed some modern countries, like US and UK and developing countries, like Turkey, Greece, New Zealand, and Mexico are below the average score or around the average score. Thus modern countries have to revise and modify their education system. If we ask why is it that in some countries students could not get good score from PISA and TIMSS, one of the possible reasons should be related to teachers’ quality. Turkey has taken into consideration the results of these international studies. Turkey ranked 31st among 38 countries in terms of student achievement in math and 33rd in science achievement of eighth graders according to TIMMS results for 1999. The 2003 results of PISA for 15-year-olds showed that, among 38 other countries, thirty-four countries scored above Turkey in mathematics, thirty-three in reading, and thirty-five in science (OECD PISA Country Profiles, 2003). Thus, the Turkish government, as a developing country, concerned about poor students’ performance on science topics accompanied by the increasing need for scientific and technological knowledge and skills in order to catch modern countries. The science educators, philosophers and the Ministry of National Education (MoNE) realized that hands-on activities did not apply in schools, and therefore, students had deficiencies in properly understanding the nature of science through an active learning environment and using science concepts that are relevant to their lives, needs and interests. The big educational reform effort was undertaken in 2000 and then it was revised in 2004. According to the MoNE, the purpose of new science curriculum as a part of educational reform is to prepare students to be scientifically literate citizens who are able to use scientific facts in their daily life and gain knowledge about the nature of science and technology, the nature of scientific thinking processes. Additionally, science-technology-society interactions in student-centered teaching approaches should be integrated as alternative measurement and assessment methods (Erdogan, 2005; Yilmaz, Turkmen, & Pedersen, 2008). Firstly, the pilot program was implemented in 9 provinces and 120 primary schools in Turkey during the 2004-05 school year. Then MoNE evaluated the pilot program, so to be ready for complete implementation for next school year. Then, all science teacher educators who had a science education degree were trained by MoNE and then they were offered a brief in-service workshop that lasted 3 days and targeted educational reform for in-service teachers. Even the name of the science course was changed to science and technology in primary education. Meanwhile, university science education programs were changed for pre-service teachers in 2005. Following these changes, an expanded educational reform was initiated in 2005-2006 academic year. According to evaluations of expanded science education reform by Bozyılmaz and Bagcı-Kılıç (2005), and Çakır (2005) scientific knowledge was reduced, while science process skills and science-technology-society connections were emphasized. It can easily be concluded that the main purpose of the current reform is to prepare students to be scientifically literate citizens, who are able to use scientific facts in their daily life, to prepare Turkish teachers to educate accordingly and to encourage the use of other teaching approaches based on constructivist theory and inquiry approaches. There is a need to investigate whether or not elementary science teachers are ready to adopt this reform and its ideologies in their lessons (Yilmaz & Turkmen, 2007). The purposes of this study is to measure the characteristic of effective Turkish elementary science teachers and to help them determine if teaching is an appropriate professional fit as specified by the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium.