Dispositions in education: Nonentities worth talking about

The concept of dispositions has commanded considerable attention in both philosophy and education. In this essay, Laurance Splitter draws on philosophy to take a fresh look at dispositions in education, specifically teacher education. Bypassing the pitfalls of both subjectivity and crude behaviorism, he proposes a conceptual framework in which dispositions figure as drivers or triggers of our intentional behavior, one that gives prominence to language in general and to dialogue in particular. Splitter draws on an emerging school of thought that treats classrooms as inquiring communities to argue that students at all levels—including teacher education—should engage in dialogue about what does or does not, and should or should not, move them to behave in certain ways. Finally, Splitter offers a way through the sociopolitical battleground on which the topic of dispositions in teacher education has recently found itself. Copyright © 2010 Board of Trustees, University of Illinois.