Assessing Applicant Dispositions

1. Assessing Applicant Dispositions After today, you will be able to answer: What are dispositions? Why are they important to me? To students? How do I measure dispositions while interviewing?

2. Your Favorite Teacher • What is the first thing that comes to mind?

3. Your Favorite Teacher

4. Your Favorite Teacher • He really enjoyed teaching and cared about students. • She looked for the good in each of us. • He could teach something and make it fun. • She held our interest with her lively, humorous manner and her thorough knowledge of the subject. • He believed in me. • She challenged us. • He saw us as unique and treated us with respect. • She really knew her subject and had a passion for it.

5. Your Worst Teacher • What is the first thing that comes to mind?

6. Your Worst Teacher

7. Thought of the Day • Which would I prefer to hire: A teacher that is good or a teacher that is getting better? Why?

8. Good to Great by Jim Collins • “Good is the enemy of great” • “In a good-to-great transformation, people are not your most important asset. The right people are. • Why try for greatness? • Doing something you love and care about • Doing something related to your interests and beliefs • Making a positive impact on others • Impossible to imagine not trying to make it great

9. Favorite Teacher Characteristics? • Knowledge • Teaching Skills • Dispositions Findings from “Great Teachers, Great Memories” National Survey on Favorite Teachers

10. Dispositions: Just What Are We Talking About? Dispositions are often defined as one’s natural mental and emotional outlook or mood, including: • attitudes, • beliefs, • interests, • appreciations, • values, and • modes of adjustment.

11. Perceptual Theory of Arthur W. Combs • People behave in terms of how the world appears to them • Behavior is the “symptom” of perceptions • Perceptions are cumulative and change slowly • Research-based Assessment Rubrics • Reading Behavior Backwards (perceptual inference)

12. Understanding Dispositions • Dispositions toward one self: upbeat, non self-centered, identified • Dispositions toward others: people are able, worthy and dependable • Dispositions about purpose: see the big picture, keeps perspective, priorities • General frame of reference: put people first, builds relationships

13. PERCEPTUAL RATING RUBRICS 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 PERCEPTIONS OF OTHERS: 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 PERCEPTIONS OF PURPOSE: 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 FRAME OF REFERENCE: 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 PERCEPTIONS OF SELF:

14. Using Perceptual Rubrics • Human Relations Incident (HRI) • Classroom Observation • Interview • Self-Assessment

15. The Dispositions Interview • Begin the interview with usual questions • Treat answers as self-reported information • Get beyond rehearsed remarks and engage in conversation on topics that interest them • Use reflective listening • Allow candidates to ask questions • There are no absolute right or wrong answers

16. Dispositions About Self • Describe your “perfect day?” • What kind of problems do people bring you?

17. Dispositions Toward Others • How would your colleagues describe you? • Tell about a situation in which you helped a person or taught a significant lesson.

18. Dispositions Regarding Frame of Reference • If your life works out the best you can imagine, what will you be doing in 5 years? • How do you maintain a balance in your life between work and play?

19. Human Relations Incident (HRI) I would like you to think of a significant past event, which involved yourself in a teaching role with one or more other persons. That is, from a human relations standpoint, this event had special meaning for you. In writing about this event, please use the following format: FIRST: Describe the situation as it occurred at the time. SECOND: What did you do in the particular situation? THIRD: How did you feel about the situation at the time you were experiencing it? FOURTH: How do you feel about the situation now? Would you wish to change any part of it?

20. PRACTICE MATERIALS • HRIs were written by undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in college courses. • Open Assessing Educator Dispositions:A Perceptual Psychological Approach to page 22

21. Using the Perceptual RubricsPractice Materials , pg. 22PERCEPTIONS OF SELF AS “Identified” IDENTIFIED The educator feels a oneness with all mankind. He/she perceives him/herself as deeply and meaningfully related to persons of every description. UNIDENTIFIED The educator feels generally apart from others. His/her feelings of oneness are restricted to those of similar beliefs.

22. Using the Perceptual RubricsPractice Materials , pg. 27PERCEPTIONS OF Others as “Able” ABLE The educator sees others as having capacities to deal with their problems. He/she believes others are basically able to find adequate solutions to events in their own lives. UNABLE The educator sees others as lacking the necessary capacities to deal effectively with their problems. He/she doubts their ability to make their own decisions and run their own lives.

23. Using the Perceptual RubricsPractice Materials, pg. 31PERCEPTION OF PURPOSE AS “LARGER” LARGER The educator views events in a broad perspective. His/her goals extend beyond the immediate to larger implications and contexts. SMALLER The educator views events in a narrow perspective. His/her purposes focus on immediate and specific goals.

24. Using the Perceptual RubricsPractice Materials HRI, pg. 36A “PEOPLE” FRAME OF REFERENCE PEOPLE The educator is concerned with the human aspects of affairs. The attitudes, feelings, beliefs, and welfare of persons are prime considerations in his/her thinking. THINGS The educator is concerned with the impersonal aspects of affairs. Questions of order, management, mechanics, and details of things and events are prime considerations in his/her thinking.

25. Scoring for all four dispositions • The scores on each factor are added together for a total score. In general: • Maximum possible total is 28 • Scores between18 and 28 indicates perceptions that have been demonstrated to be characteristic of effective teachers. • Minimum possible is 4. • A score between 4 and 14 indicates perceptions which have been demonstrated to be characteristic of ineffective teachers.

26. Scoring for all four dispositions • The scores on each factor are added together for a total score. In general: • A total score between 14 and 18 could indicate one of several things: • A) The person’s perceptions are between the two definitions. • B) Neither of the definitions would fit the available information. • C) The incident may not have supplied you with enough information on which to infer.

27. Using the Perceptual Rubrics • Rate the HRI on a scale of 1 (perceptions associated with ineffective educators) to 7 (perceptions of effective educators) on each of the four rubrics using the PERCEPTUAL RATING RUBRICS at the end of thePractice Materials. • Compare your score with the professional raters.

28. More Practice Small Group Practice: Score the eight HRIs from pages 43-66 Score all four questions per HRI Six - Seven minutes per HRI

29. Next Steps? • Earn Professional Perceptual Rater Status • Complete the post-test • Dr. Mark Wasicsko from NKU will e-mail you your results/certificate • Make dispositional inferences with confidence to hire great candidates! Earn Professional Perceptual Rater Status

30. Assessing Applicant Dispositions After today, you will be able to answer: What are dispositions? Why are they important to me? To students? How do I measure dispositions while interviewing?

31. References Collins. J. (2001). Good to great: Why some companies make the leap and others don’t. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. Combs, A.W., Soper, D.W., Gooding, C.T., Benton, J.A., Dickman, J.F., & Usher, R.H. (1969). Florida Studies in the Helping Professions. (University of Florida Social Sciences Monograph #37). Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press. Disposition. (n.d.). In Dictionary.com online. Retrieved from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/disposition?s=t. Snygg, D., & Combs, A. (1949). Individual Behavior. New York: Harper & Row Publishers. Wasicsko, M. (n.d.). Assessing Educator Dispositions: A Perceptual Psychology Approach. Highland Heights, KY: Northern Kentucky University. Wasicsko, M.M. (1977a). A research‑based teacher selection instrument. Columbus College. (Eric Document No. ED 193 193). Retrieved from http://coehs.nku.edu/content/dam/coehs/docs/dispositions/resources/Manual103.pdf. Wasicsko, M. (1977b). The effect of training and perceptual orientation on the reliability of perceptual inferences for selecting effective teachers (Doctoral Dissertation). Available from Dissertations & Theses database. (UMI No. AAT 7729293) Resource National Network for the Study of Educator Dispositions http://coehs.nku.edu/educatordispositions/