A Reconsideration of Thinking Dispositions in the Education of Thinking

With Reference to John Dewey’s Disposition and its Development by Ron Ritchhart

Abstract

 This article aims to clarify the nature of thinking dispositions.  To this end, John Dewey’s concept of disposition/habits and the development of the argument by Ron Ritchhart were examined.  Dewey depicted dispositions as acquired, persistent and action-linked qualities that are formed in the community.  According to him, dispositions can be found in interactions with people and the environment.  He stressed the importance of cultivating dispositions as they have the primary force of motivating and directing thinking.  Dewey also respected children’s natural dispositions and illustrated their dynamic expression.  Dewey’s concept of disposition/habits was linked to the recognition of the importance of the affective domain and its role in orienting thinking in educational research on thinking since 1980.  Among others, Ritchhart, while relying heavily on Dewey’s ideas, saw in dispositions an overt and active nature, learnability, persistence and the quality of controlling the whole action.  Furthermore, in continuation of Dewey’s ideas, he proposed the inclusion of ability as a component of disposition.  In his claim that the entire learning environment influences the development of dispositions, we found similarities between Dewey and Ritchhart.  For the formation of dispositions, Dewey envisioned a community, while Ritchhart envisioned creating a culture of thinking.  Ritchhart proposes approaches such as making thinking visible, creating a culture of thinking and thinking routines.  He also develops Dewey’s ideas into concrete educational methods.  From these arguments emerges the nature of thinking dispositions, which are learnable but have a persistent character, take time to transform, are formed by the environment and are found in actions.  These findings indicate a different theoretical basis from previous studies, where thinking dispositions were developed through the implementation of specific educational