The Adult Learning model of Supervision is cyclic.
It begins with the supervisee's professional experiences and ends with
their new professional experiences, which form the basis of the supervisee's
next learning process. The path from professional experiences to new professional
experiences involves a three-stage process through what Van Kessel and
Haan(1993:31) call :
"1) THE WAY OF KNOWING.
2) THE WAY OF CHOOSING.
3) THE WAY OF ACTING. "
The central concern in this stage is to assist the supervisee
gain a more complete understanding of the professional experience(s) they
bring to supervision.
The processes used by the supervisor to enable this
to occur involve assisting the supervisee to :
*make the professional experience explicit –
The supervisor assists the supervisee make explicit what they consider implicit through helping them to present the content of their professional experience to both themself and the supervisor.
*make the professional experience specific -
The supervisor assists the supervisee personalise and focus upon
their experience.
Some questions that might be used seem to be:
What exactly did you experience? What was your role in it? What were your feelings?
*reflect upon the experience-
Having assisted the supervisee to make their experience specific,
the supervisor then aids the supervisee to reflect upon the experience
through the use of objective frames of reference such as the ideal professional
response or the use of the language of the spectator. Some questions might
be:
The aim here is to assist the supervisee to engage in an inner
dialogue with themself and to become their own critic and sounding board.
*Problematize-
Problematization is a concept devised by Freire(1974) which involves the asking of questions rather than the giving of answers. Problematization is a specific phase of reflection in which the supervisor assists the supervisee to reframe problems and look at them from other perspectives. Key questions here are:
This phase is essentially where the supervisee begins to conceptualise (make sense of their reflection and find a way forward). In gaining of insight the supervisee brings together the fruit of the reflective process and is able to articulate a new understanding of the experience. In naming this new understanding the nature of the experience is clearly defined.
*generalize-
In the generalization phase the supervisee surmises about how their new understandings maybe applied in general terms in other situations.
The Way of Choosing
is the bridge between the analysis of The Way of Knowing and the
action of The Way of Acting.
Essentially The Way of Choosing focuses on assisting the supervisee
explore their basis for action.There are three processes in the way of
choosing, which the supervisor leads the supervisee through. They are to:
*investigate the desired action of the Supervisee -
The supervisor investigates with the supervisee their desired action.
This investigation involves looking at the rationale and theory that the
desired action is based on; it's practicality and plausibility; how it
will be undertaken; and the benefits and costs of this action.
*examine what is possible -
Here the supervisor and supervisee look at what actions are possible using strategies such as brainstorming and examine the suitability of each option.
*To choose a course of action -
Having investigated and examined both the desired action of the supervisee
and the other possible actions the supervisor assists the supervisee decide
on the course of action that best fits the situation
In the way of action there are two phases in which the supervisor assists the supervisee to :
*develop a plan of action -
Here the supervisor assists the supervisee by getting them to be both explicit and specific in what they intend to do, and how and when they will do it.
*review the performance of the action -
The supervisor and the supervisee review the performance of the action in terms of:
This review takes the supervisor and the supervisee back
to the beginning of this model.
I strongly recommend this model and have referred to it both
in my practice and teaching. I have developed the following questions over
the past six years as a self-supervision aid and as a tool to assist supervisees
in their integration of theory and practice.
| Stage | Key Questions |
| Knowing | What happened?
What do you know about the client, their social environment, their…? How do you know this? What theoretical concepts have you used to make sense of what you know? What other concepts could apply? How come you chose the concepts that you used? How would X’s concept of … apply here? What else would you want to know about this client…? How would this assist you? How comfortable are you with your knowledge of this client and their situation? |
| Choosing | What have you chosen to do?
What other options have you considered? What other options are there? What model will inform your choice of intervention? What other models have you considered? What other model could you use? How would the Y model apply here? How come, you chose this model/ option? How comfortable are you with your choice? |
| Acting | What action will you take?
What other actions have you considered? What else could you do? How could you do things differently? What skills will you use? What other skills could you use? What result do you think you action will have? How will you know if it has had this result? What will you do if it does not achieve the result you intended? What will you do if it does? How comfortable are you with this action? |
Munson, C. (1993) Clinical
Social Work Supervision, New York, Haworth Press pp 175-202.
Van Kessel, L., and Haan, D. (1993)
The Intended Way of Learning in Supervision Seen as a Model, The Clinical
Supervisor, Vol 11(1), pp 29-43.