Assessment in Schools - Dispositions

The notion of dispositions as educational outcomes has emerged as an important but contested area in educational theory and practice in the last 10 years. In the changing world of the twenty-first century, it is widely recognized that the Acquisition of knowledge, skills, and understanding is not enough. On the one hand, proliferation and accessibility of information render simple accumulation impractical, even if there were agreement as to what was important; on the other hand, a sustainable social world requires a range of competences on the part of individuals and communities which enable successful functioning in real situations: such competences include values, attitudes, and dispositions as well as cognitive resources. This article deals first with contemporary psychological definitions of the term dispositions and second with how dispositions are located and operate in social contexts, drawing on the work of Bourdieu in particular. It then identifies two widely accepted candidates for dispositions as educational outcomes and goes on to explore the professional and theoretical issues encountered in their assessment in classrooms. Finally, it summarizes a range of assessment practices drawn from the literature.