Cultivating faculty readiness to reflect: reconstructing Dewey’s attitudes for reflection as character strengths

ABSTRACT

This article presents a reconstruction of John Dewey’s attitudes for reflection as character strengths for the purpose of assessing faculty readiness to reflect. As the editor of an academic journal that uses the Guide for Reflective Practice (GRP), I determined the need to assess faculty readiness to write reflectively. In Deweyan terms, readiness involves having certain attitudes that position the reflective practitioner to be effective in reflection. These attitudes are open-minded, wholeheartedness, and responsibility. We reconstruct these attitudes as character strengths, and we show how the specific Deweyan attitudes align with a modern character strengths classification. We then outline steps to use the prominent character strengths assessment tool (VIA-IS) to assess faculty character strengths and provide small-dose strategies to enhance existing character strengths for the purpose of engaging in effective reflection. This inquiry is preliminary. As such, we recommend future empirical research into the efficacy of the VIA-IS and small-dose strategies to assess and enhance faculty readiness for reflection from a Deweyan perspective.

KEYWORDS:

• Character strengths
• higher education
• John Dewey
• reflective thinking
• reflective practice
• faculty

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Scott W. Greenberger

Scott W. Greenberger, EdD, is the Director of Institutional Research at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, AZ. He is an assistant professor, and he serves as the Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Scholarly Engagement. He founded the Reflective Practice Lab. His research focuses on reflective practice and faculty motivation.

Justina Or

Justina Or, PhD, is an educator and human services professional. She earned her doctorate in psychology from Grand Canyon University. She also holds a master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Edinburgh, a master’s degree in administration from Central Michigan University, and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Dr. Or started her career as a teacher for children and youth. Later, she managed public developmental disabilities programs to support the inclusion of individuals who have developmental disabilities. She now teaches undergraduate and graduate psychology and philosophy. She is interested in leveraging positive psychology to improve higher education practices.