Our Learning Dispositions
Our Learning Dispositions are our habits of thinking and doing.
For example, Curiosity is a disposition – it is not a skill or knowledge but a tendency to respond to an experience in a certain way (Carr, 1997).
These are attitudes and habits of mind that shape students’ engagement with learning and underpin knowledge and the learning of skills. How we learn matters just as much as what we learn.
Our community has identified four Learning Dispositions: Curious, Collaborative, Critical Thinker and Creative.
Students learn most effectively when they understand what they are learning, why they are learning it, and how they will be able to use their new learning. Effective teachers stimulate the curiosity of their students, require them to search for relevant information and ideas, and challenge them to use or apply what they discover in new contexts or in new ways. They look for opportunities to involve students directly in decisions relating to their own learning. This encourages them to see what they are doing as relevant and to take greater ownership of their own learning.
