Dispositions as Educational Goals

A disposition is a tendency to exhibit frequently, consciously, and voluntarily a pattern of behavior that is directed to a broad goal. However, not all dispositions are desirable. Therefore, teaching practices must strive to strengthen the desirable ones and weaken undesirable ones.

Dispositions should be included among educational goals for many reasons:

First, the acquisition of knowledge and skills does not guarantee that they will be used and applied. For example, most children have listening skills, but they may not have the disposition to be listeners. Consequently, teaching practices should strive to strengthen dispositions associated with skills.

Second, dispositional considerations are important because the instructional processes by which some knowledge and skills are acquired may themselves damage or undermine the disposition to use them. For example, the amount of drill and practice required for successful reading of the English language at an early age may undermine the children’s dispositions to be readers.

Third, dispositions relevant to education, such as the disposition to investigate, may be considered inborn. Though knowledge and skills not acquired early in life might be acquired later, dispositions are less.

Fourth, the curriculum should include considerations of how desirable dispositions can be strengthened and undesirable dispositions weakened. For example, if the disposition to accept peers of diverse backgrounds is to be strengthened, then that opportunity must be provided.

Fifth, an optimum amount of positive feedback for young children may cause them to become preoccupied with their performance and the judgments of others rather than involved in the task. The cost of such an achievement would be their disposition to learn.

Sixth, dispositions are less likely to be acquired through didactic processes than to be modeled by young children as they are around people who exhibit them. If teachers desire their children to have robust dispositions to investigate, hypothesize, experiment, etc., they should consider making their intellectual dispositions more visible to the children.

For the moment, one of the most important dispositions to be listed in educational goals is the disposition to go on learning. Any educational approach that undermines that disposition is miseducation.

(Adapted from Dispositions: Definitions and Implications for Early Childhood Practices, by Lilian G. Katz.)