Revealing Jesus in the learning environment: A look through the lens of teacher dispositions

Abstract

Teachers have a significant impact on student learning and the lives of the children in their care. Considerable scholarly attention has been paid to what teachers know about teaching and learning, their understanding of content, and how effectively they employ appropriate strategies to ensure quality student learning. Less attention, however, has been given to who the teacher is as an individual. This chapter argues that the issue of teacher dispositions is an important consideration that needs to be included in studies of teacher impact on student learning, and proposes the Dispositional Cluster Model (DCM) (Faull, 2008) as a suitable instrument for exploring this often-neglected aspect of teacher impact. One of the defining features of Christian education and the Christian school is the influence and presence of Christ in the learning environment. In this chapter, the DCM is employed as a lens to consider how teacher dispositions and associated behaviour can serve to reveal Jesus in the learning environment. To this end, the DCM is applied to the teaching dispositions evident in the example of Jesus as the Master Teacher, and how His example is activated by the contemporary Christian teacher in the context of the Christian school.