Cultivating an Intellectual and Moral Sensibility as Teacher

This paper discusses the importance of teachers' intellectual and moral sensibility in informing their presence in the classroom, examining the dimensions of an intellectual and moral sensibility and noting how to bring together the terms sense and sensibility. The notion of an intellectual and moral sensibility brings reason and emotion together. The idea of sensibility underlines the importance of the way in which teachers think and act, rather than solely what they say or do. The paper discusses the impact of teacher sensibility, explaining that a teacher's classroom presence, shaped by his or her sensibility, can influence students' own evolving sensibilities. Teacher candidates can deepen their intellectual and moral sensibilities by learning how to read the world carefully and sympathetically. A moral and intellectual sensibility comes to life as candidates open themselves to the voice of the practice as embodied in the readings and experiences making up the teacher preparation program. The paper concludes that teachers ' moral and intellectual sensibility, which must be cultivated, plays a dynamic role in whatever influence they have on students. A teacher education program can fund candidates ' moral and intellectual sensibilities by expanding their horizons of understanding and feeling. (Contains 12 references.) (SM) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document