Assessment of Teacher Candidate Dispositions: Evidence of Reliability and Validity

Since the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), now known as the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP), adopted its Standards 2000 that required "professional knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to help all students learn" for teacher candidates, literature has been replete with debates concerning the definition and assessment of professional dispositions (e.g., Burant, Chubbuck, & Whipp, 2007; Duplass & Cruz, 2010; Ruitenberg, 2011; Welch, Pitts, Tenini, Kuenlen, & Wood, 2010). According to NCATE (2008), we can understand dispositions as those "professional attitudes, values, and beliefs demonstrated through both verbal and nonverbal behaviors as educators interact with students, families, colleagues, and communities" (p. 89).