Jeff Burgess
EAD 6053 School Supervision
Instructor DR. Kelvin Pamerien
Reflective Paper
July 12, 2002

Glickman defines developmental supervision as leadership for the improvement of instruction viewed as a function and a process rather than a role or position. Supervisors may include anyone involved with supervision – school principals, assistant principals, instructional lead teachers, department heads, master teachers, teachers, program directors, central office coordinators, and superintendents.  Supervision should benefit students by bringing a together a faculty that works as knowledgeable professionals.  Supervision should promote the school as community engaged in common schoolwide instruction – a cause beyond oneself.  
Prerequisites are necessary to facilitate collective instructional improvement.  Supervisors require a knowledge base and should be able to distinguish between what teachers and schools are and what they can be (ISLLC I).  Supervisors need an interpersonal skills base that promotes positive and change-oriented relationships (ISLLC I, II).  Technical skills necessary for developmental supervision include observing, planning, assessing, and evaluating instructional improvement (ISLLC II ).  
Supervisors have educational tasks that allow them to plan ways to empower teachers to evaluate, modify, and improve instruction (ISLLC II).  Direct assistance is observing and assisting individual teachers through personal ongoing contact Group development is the process of teachers conferring on mutual instructional concerns.  Professional development is the provision of learning opportunities for school staff .  Curriculum development is the revision and modification of the content and material of classroom instruction.  Action research is the systematic study of classroom and school behaviors with goal of improving instruction .
Prerequisites:
Knowledge:
Today’s schools have been characterized as groups of one-room schoolhouses characterized by isolation, psychological dilemma and frustration, and routine.  Beginning teachers are inadequately prepared and are often given the most difficult assignments in a system that has no staged transitions into the profession.    Successful schools display positive characteristics in the areas of academic achievement, student attitudes, social behavior, attendance, creativity, and critical thinking.  Supervision is the force that shapes successful schools into a productive unit.  Education must be a collective rather than an individual enterprise.  Supervisors need to be aware factors affecting adult development including multiple intelligences, theories of adult learning, and motivation.  Effective teaching and instructional improvement may be influenced by educational philosophies and supervisory beliefs.  
Interpersonal skills:
The initial approach a supervisor uses depends on the teacher’s levels of development, expertise, commitment, and the educational nature of the situation.  Directive control behaviors are used when the teacher is functioning at very low developmental levels, little knowledge, low involvement or commitment, or the situation is an emergency.  Directive informational behaviors should be used when the teacher is functioning at a fairly low developmental level, possesses less knowledge than the supervisor, the teacher is uncertain, or quick resolution is necessary.  Collaborative behaviors should be used when the teacher is functioning at a moderate or mixed level, the teacher has approximately as much knowledge on the issue as the supervisor, both will be involved and/or accountable concerning the decision, and both are committed to resolving the situation.  Nondirective behaviors are used when the teacher is functioning at a high level, possesses more knowledge or expertise, has full responsibility for the decision, or the teacher is committed to solving the problem while the supervisor is neutral.   After a level of functioning is determined, an approach is selected and implemented.  As the teacher improves skills and knowledge, the approach moves toward nondirective behavior.  
Technical skills:
Supervisor planning must include allocations for paperwork, private conferences, group meetings, and classroom visits.  Several ways to assess needs include eyes and ears, official records, third party review, written open-ended survey, check and ranking list, Delphi technique, or nominal group technique.  Observation includes describing what has been seen and interpreting what it means.  Formative observations, intended to be used for the teacher’s benefit, are used to describe, provide information, and promote growth and improvement.  Summative evaluation are an administrative function used to summarize and judge teacher worthiness, merit, competence, and accountability.  Research and skills involve the selection of a quantitative approach - reported numerically, a qualitative approach - reported through narrative, or a combination of both.  Statistical significance is a mathematical analysis, while educational significance is the overall benefit that might occur in a situation. 
Tasks of supervision:
Direct assistance:
Clinical supervision includes a preconference, observation, observation interpretation, postconference, and a critique or review of the previous four steps.  Peer coaching involves reciprocal interaction of equals through observations and feedback.  Other forms of direct assistance include demonstration teaching, co-teaching, assisting with resources and materials, assistance with student assistance, and problem-solving.  
Group development:
Dimensions of an effective group include the task dimension –  the content and purpose, and the person dimension – the internal process and satisfaction participants derive from working with one another.  Group leaders will occasionally facilitate conflict resolution.  Pre-meeting plans might include establishing a need for a group meeting, deciding who should attend, and the setting, agenda, and preparation for the meeting.  Meetings should be facilitated by an agenda, established ground rules, and guided discussion.  
Professional development:
Effective professional development programs are characterized by participant involvement in planning, implementation, and evaluation, school wide goals, long range planning and development, incorporation of research, administrative support, adult learning principles, follow-up and support, ongoing assessment and feedback, and assimilation into the culture of the school.  Formats for professional development may include individual teacher-based, mentoring, skill development, teacher centers, teacher institutes, collegial support groups, networks, teacher leadership, teaching writing, individually planned, and partnerships.  
Curriculum development:
It is essential that teachers are involved in curriculum development, and for schools to be successful five issues must be resolved.  The purpose of curriculum is transmission, transaction, or transformation.  The elements of the content of a curriculum include the sequence or order of learning, continuity, scope, and balance, the continuity, or length and duration, the scope, or range of learning, and the balance, or degree and amount of topics.  Curriculum can be organized into discipline-based, interdisciplinary, or transdisciplinary arrangements or levels of integration.  The curriculum may be written in the formats of behavioral-objective, webbing, conceptual mapping, or results only.  Levels of teacher involvement include imitative, mediative, or creative-generative.  Overall, curriculum should be focused on the most important topics and skills and should have an emphasis on learned curriculum.  
Action research:
Action research phases include problem identification, planning, organization, evaluation, and action, and it can integrate the other supervisory tasks of direct assistance, group development, and curriculum development.  Needs assessments to determine common instructional goals can be conducted by gathering information using the techniques of eyes and ears, official records, and third-party review.  Next, the team decides on supervisory tack activities.  A plan relating activities to goals is the formed.  Observation is used to monitor progress of the action as it is implemented in the classroom.  Finally, the team chooses a design that will allow them to determine whether objectives have been met and decide what further actions are necessary.  
	Unification and product:  
The role of supervision is to meet the organizational goals of the school community and to meet the needs of the teacher, resulting in improved student learning (ISLLC II).  Supervisors should use a variety of practices that draw from various philosophies and beliefs structures with purpose of developing teachers directionally to increase self-control.  As teacher choice and control increase gradually, they become more reflective and committed to improvement.  Supervision should benefit students by bringing a together a faculty that works as knowledgeable professionals.  Supervision should promote the school as community engaged in common schoolwide instruction – a cause beyond oneself (ISLLC I).