Building Professional Dispositions in Pre-Service Special Educators: Assessment and Instructional Tactics

Abstract

Teacher preparation programs, in part due to national accreditation mandates, are beginning to examine assessment and instruction of teacher trainees’ professional behavior and dispositions more carefully than in the past. The faculty at University of South Florida St. Petersburg developed the Professional Behavior Assessment tool (PBA) for rating levels of competence within six professional behavior domains; punctuality, reaction to supervision, collaboration with colleagues, effort, enthusiasm, and ethical professionalism. Four pre-service teachers (PST) were taught the characteristics of the six domains employing written scenarios and rubrics of the PBA. Initially, the pre-service teachers held very different perceptions than faculty regarding behavior expected within each domain. After instruction the PST’s were able to use the PBA to rate scenarios similarly to faculty. Following training, PST’s reported better understanding regarding the level of expected professional behavior in the schools. As the semester progressed, faculty noted improvement in pre-service professional behavior in field settings.