Established in 1996, the TEAMC task force examines issues in the moral and ethical dimensions of teaching and teacher education. Through meetings, electronic discussions, and open forums at AACTE Annual Meetings, the group has identified a wide range of issues to be addressed, proposed methods for conducting the work, involved AACTE membership, other organizations and individuals in the dialogue, and considered resources for both project funding and organizational alliances and networks.

TEAMC?s vision to establish sophisticated moral and ethical research and discourse as a predominant and pervasive source of institutional and individual rationales, decision-making and actions in American universities and colleges of education and the K-12 schools, is supported by three goals: (1) to develop a shared understanding of the nature of dispositions for teacher education; (2) to engage the field to identify areas of consensus about specific dispositions central to the purposes of teaching; and (3) to develop and disseminate products to help teacher educators envision ways to identify, nurture, and assess dispositions.

TEAMC has a promising contact with a major university publisher for a book in which the task force will provide a framework for identifying, nurturing and assessing dispositions. Included in the book will be a set of cases about how dispositions are enacted by programs. To that end, TEAMC seeks institutions that have developed thoughtfully the foundation and framing of dispositions and have connected dispositions in meaningful ways as part of the expectations for teacher professional performance.

In no more than five double-spaced pages, respond to the following questions:

• What kind of teachers or teaching are you trying to foster?
• What dispositions help animate that kind of teaching?
• Give examples of how you go about developing at least some of those dispositions across programs
  • Describe the artifacts that you could assemble that would provide evidence of the trajectory of development across the program.
• In an appendix, provide one example of an assessment tool with sample candidate responses. Briefly, set the context for this example in the required five pages (the appendix does not count as part of the five pages)

• Serious grounding for ideas and practices;
• Coherence between the vision of teaching and the ways of developing and assessing dispositions; and
• Quality of thinking and writing

• Identification of robust dispositions and goals in developing candidates? dispositions throughout the program;
• Demonstration of evidence that dispositions were arrived at through a responsible process, e.g., how/why those dispositions were identified; standards to which those dispositions are linked; and
• Explanation of how dispositions (1) enact values; and (2) relate to knowledge and skills.

1. Submit electronic application.
2. Include with your application a maximum five pages, double spaced, 12 font, Times New Roman, responding to three questions above.
3. Include appendix (not included in the five pages) of one example of an assessment tool with candidate responses.
4. Include CV of the person submitting the application, who will serve as the lead writer if your institution is selected to participate.
5. Application due March 5, 2008, 5:00pm EST.

TEAMC will host two presentations at the annual meeting, both of which will be framed by TEAMC?s position paper on dispositions in teacher education. To learn more about TEAMC and the annual meeting sessions visit http://www.aacte.org/Programs/TEAMC/default.aspx.

For more information about AACTE?s annual meeting see http://www.aacte.org/Events/meeting_exhibits.aspx.

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