Good dispositions make better teachers

If you were to ask Erskine Dottin, a professor in the College of Education, what it takes a university to produce a quality teacher he probably would say the task requires collaboration.

Eleven-year-olds Jonathan (right) and Ashton are two of the 20 Charles Wyche Elementary 5th-graders who worked with FIU Education students like Cecile Perez on a workshop that taught students at both the school and the university how to become better thinkers. The semester-long workshop was part of a class taught by FIU professor Erskine Dottin.

This fall, Dottin embarked on a partnership with Charles Wyche Elementary to match FIU students from his Introduction to the Teaching Profession class with a group of 5^th-graders from Wyche so that together, they could work on developing good Habits of Mind (HOMs). The 16 HOMs on which the class focused are dispositions that contribute to making better educators out of the FIU students and better human beings out of their young partners.

The fruits of their labor were shared during an early-morning class Dec. 8 when 20 students from Wyche arrived at Modesto A. Maidique Campus with their teachers and their school principal, ready to demonstrate that there is no problem they could not solve with the proper disposition.

During the session, Dottin played a video in which two people are going up an escalator that breaks down. The people didn’t know what to do – they were unable to move forward or backward. They yelled out for help. Dottin asked how they could have troubleshooted the situation to get out of the jam .

“What Habits of Mind could they have called upon?” he asked.

“Reducing impulsivity,” one girl said.

“Thinking about thinking,” said a boy a few seats away.

Basically, HOMs are tools that encourage more effective and intelligent thinking.

“I learned that Habits of Mind are about giving, being mature,” said 11-year-old Ashton, a Wyche 5^th-grader. “That’s what makes you better.”

Ashton said he had a lot of fun working with his FIU partners, which included Cecile Perez, an education sophomore.

“We had two kids working with us and they were enthusiastic and interested,” Perez said. “The whole experience was so enriching.”

Jordan Acosta, an education senior, echoed Perez’s sentiment and said the entire, semester-long exercise was very cool.

“This is an intro class and from the first moment we got to dive right in,” he said. “I think that our kid got the point of the Habits of Mind and, as you heard earlier, we came in as novice problem-solvers and are leaving the class as experts.”

Acosta said he was particularly impressed by the way Dottin taught his class, making it not only interactive experience – they students were encouraged to communicate online throughout the fall, ensuring a constant rapport – but unique.

“Professor Dottin definitely sparked something in me,” Acosta said. “He made this about shaping the kids and ourselves instead of about our grades.”

Community engagement as its best

Dottin’s class, said Deborah Hasson, assistant dean for Community Engagement at the College of Education, is an excellent example of reaching out into the community to learn from it and improve it.

Barbara Johnson, the principal at Wyche Elementary, said FIU students are already better teachers because they now know about the Habits of Mind.

“My colleagues and I are not going to do this forever,” she said. “ I feel confident knowing you guys are coming.”

Maria V. Clark ’89 has taught at Wyche for 12 years. She said Dottin’s class was a great tool of learning.

“I would have taken this course had it been offered when I went to FIU,” she said,” and I’m thinking about taking it because the learning process is ongoing. I feel so proud and honored to have a part of this partnership between my schools. What these kids have learned is something that one can use in all fields.”