REPUBLIC COLLEGES OF GUINOBATAN, INC

School of Gradute Studies and Research

G. Alban Street, Guinobatan , Albay

Activity 4 – EDUCATIONAL SUPERVISION

I. DEFINITION

“Supervision is a creative and dynamic process giving friendly guidance and

direction to teachers and pupils for improving themselves and the teaching-learning

situation for the accomplishment of the desired goals of education.” (R.P. Bhatnagar &

I.B. Verma).

“Supervision is an expert technical service primarily concerned with studying and

improving the conditions that surround learning and pupil growth”( A.S. Barr)

“Supervision is the procedure of giving direction to, and providing critical

evaluations of the instructional process. The end result of all supervision should be to

provide students at all levels with better educational services ” (Chester T. Mc Nerney)

“Good supervision is always concerned with the development of the teachers,

the growth of the pupil and the improvement of the teaching-learning process.” (John A.

Bartky)

“Supervision is the effort to stimulate, coordinate and guide the continued

growth of teachers, both individually and collectively, in better understanding and more

effective performance of all the functions of instruction, so that they will be better able to

stimulate and direct each student’s continued growth towards a rich and intelligent

participation in society ” (H.R. Douglass & others)

 “Supervision is that phase of school administration which deals primarily with the

achievement of the appropriates selected instructional expectations of educational

service” (Glen G Eye & A.L. Netzer)

In the school context, supervision is viewed as the process of observation,

discussion and decision-making by principals and inspectors of education to improve

teaching/learning process (Ogunsaju, 1983)

‘‘In general Supervision means to coordinate, stimulate and direct the growth of
the teachers in the power to stimulate and direct the growth of every individual pupil

through the exercise of his talents towards the richest and the most intelligent

participation in the civilization in which he lives” (T.H. Briggs & Joseph Justman)

II. REFELECTION

Educational supervision is not a uni-dimensional concept. It is not the concerns

of superiors, principals or ministry officials alone. It arises from collaborative activities

between a designated leader and the led. Indeed, there would be no supervision if there

is no people to be supervised. Therefore, it appears, that there are four important

elements associated with the concept of supervision. They are: supervisor (a

designated leader), set tasks and objectives, resources (human/material) and

cooperative action. While it is clear that the concept of supervision embraces the first

three elements, the element of cooperation is often neglected. This makes the

supervisor to become an autocrat with the perception that his main role is to prescribe

procedures to subordinates

rather than cooperate to fashion out alternative approaches to solving crucial problems.
Supervision is a control mechanism that reduces variance between standard policies

and procedures and the interpretation and implementation of educational programs.

Supervision in schools is very necessary to inform and discuss with teachers new and

alternative methods of teaching. It is to make available for teacher’s instructional

materials which are useful for effective teaching and learning in education. Supervision

as a process of inventory and stock-taking is required to draw attention to the

personnel, equipment, finance and general needs of a school. This is for the fact that it

is believed that certain minimum requirements are essential for schools to maintain

government prescribed standard and the objectives of education.

Educational supervision is based on principles, of which consideration shall

guaranty purposefulness and dynamism in an educational system. In order to

accomplish a certain task, either simple or specialized, it is required that doer must start

his activity, continues and accomplish the same by fully observing respective principles

of the said activity. Realization of views and theories of educational supervision in an

educational system, and getting assistance of the same for constant improvement of

quality and production of new educational qualities depends on fundamental principles

of supervision. Educational guides must follow principles of educational supervision and

guidance for improvement of educational and learning conditions. They must always be

concerned about the said principles in their plans and activities. Thus, due to

importance of observance and consideration of respective principles in significant

educational supervision and guidance, in this paper, it has been tried to state principles

of supervision, which may guide supervisors in design and execution of educational

supervision.
 Educational supervision and guidance are among the most important duties,

which are required for administration of a desirable educational system. Its main goal is

to modify and to improve educational status. Available educational supervision and

guidance plans and quality of its perpetuation in materialization of educational goals

play a determining role. Nowadays, educational guides as educational leaders

cooperate with teachers and help them with educating in order to modify educational

status, aiming at promotion of quality of teachers’ performance and removal of their

problems through professional cooperation. Although educational supervision and

guidance plans and titles of educational guides are different in various educational

systems, their duties are similar to some extent. Supervision is necessary in education

to ensure uniformity and effectiveness of educational programs it is required to promote

teaching and learning in schools. It incorporates checking, enquiry, fact-finding, keeping

watch, survey, correction, prevention, inspiration, guidance, direction, diagnosis, and

improvement. Educational supervision is one of the most important supports for the

educational system and educator’s professional development. Educational Supervision

means an all out effort of the school officials directed towards providing leadership to

teachers and other educational workers for the improvement of institution. It involves

both human and material elements. The human elements are the pupils, parents,

teachers and other employees, the community and other officials of the state. On the

material side money, building, equipment, playgrounds etc. are included. Besides these,

the curriculum, methods and techniques of teaching also come under the scope of

supervision.
2. Explain briefly the three roles of the school supervisor.

1. Counselor – reviewing protocols for documenting critical incidents with clients,

including emergency client situation; addressing issues of diversity, sexual feelings, and

other potential ethical minefields; being a good model of open communication;

incorporating strategies that are sensitive to the unique needs of your supervisee by

appropriately scaffolding their practicum experience.

2. Teacher –facilitate opportunities for pre-service teachers to observe effective

teaching practice; support pre-service teachers to interpret and respond to observations

of teaching and learning by sharing expertise and knowledge of students and discussing

teaching practice; support pre-service teachers to build constructive learning

relationships and plan and implement an appropriate learning program for students;

help pre-service teachers understand and interpret student data to effectively plan and

modify their teaching practice; provide feedback on the pre-service teacher’s practices

using the focus areas outlined in the Information and Guidelines Booklet or areas of

strength and need for improvement.

3. Consultant – analyzing curricula, resources, student results, and teacher

performances, and ensuring that they align with set goals; gathering information from

educators, support staff, students, and parents; examining academic systems and

reporting to the relevant stakeholders; providing workshops and instructional materials

to improve lesson delivery and admin processes; developing new and more effective
curricula, learning outcomes, and teaching methods; advising teachers, students, and

parents on the effective use of digital learning tools; visiting classrooms to observe

lessons and provide feedback; counseling educators on how to cope with exceptionally

talented students as well as those who require extra attention.

2. Identify the techniques of educational supervision.

There are several instructional supervisory techniques. Iloh, Nwaham, Igbinedion

and Ogogor (2016) listed the variety of supervision techniques to include: classroom

visitation/ observation, inter/intra school, team teaching practices, workshops,

demonstration, clinical supervision and micro-teaching among others. This is also in line

with Ani (2007) who outlined supervision techniques as follow: classroom visitation,

micro-teaching, research approach, workshop, demonstration technique and tape

recording. The supervisory techniques outlined by the above scholars adopted in this

study are: classroom visitation/observation, workshop and demonstration.

1.Classroom visitation or observation is a supervisory technique in which the principals

visit the classroom and observe teacher’s delivery of the instruction taking account of

their mastery of the subject matter, application of teaching strategies and aids,

classroom management and organization among others. Similar to this, Iloh et al (2016)

pointed out that classroom observation involves practicality in real classroom situation,

whereby the supervisee, presents what he or she had prepared for his or her lesson,

utilizing various teaching methodologies, instructional materials, interacting with the

learners, jotting salient points on the instructional board, assessing the students using
both formative and summative evaluations, coordinating class activities, while the

supervisor (principal) inspects, observes and evaluates what and how the instructor has

performed. Classroom observation is not an avenue for fault-finding in the classroom

teaching process before the students but a platform for principals to involve teachers in

the process of improving upon their shortcomings. After the classroom observation, the

objective of the visitation could not be said to have been achieved unless, heads

provide professional guidance and assistance to help teachers improve on their

instructional delivery. This is because the essence of supervision is not to witch hunt

teachers but to provide professional help for them to improve in delivery of teaching

roles. The deficiency of teachers observed during instructional supervision could be

handled using workshop supervisory technique.

2.Workshop as an instructional supervisory technique is a platform where the

supervisor, teachers and subject specialists are brought together to exchange ideas and

share teaching experiences in order to acquire knowledge and skills to meet current and

emerging demands of teaching profession. To buttress this, Ekpoh and Eze (2015)

pointed that workshop is a technique in which teachers are brought together in an

organized way to enable principals communicate with them on the matters of school

and classroom management and most especially on instructional improvement.

Akinfolarin and Rufai (2017) sees instructional improvement as the act of making

progress in instructional delivery for better academic achievement. School

administrators should communicate new ideas and trends in the education industry to

teachers in order to ensure instructional improvement. During workshops, ideas are

exchange, analyses of new ideas are achieved, evaluations of concepts and

suggestions are made, conclusion are drawn and decision taken (Ani, 2007).

3.Principals’ demonstration technique involves teaching and learning activities in which

principal who is skilled and experienced illustrate educational materials, procedures or

strategies in order to improve instruction (Eze cited in Sule, 2013). During

demonstration, principals clearly explain the subject matter using vivid examples. Ani

(2007) pointed out that demonstration technique of supervision gives teachers the

opportunity of asking probing questions that can lead to discovering new methods and

ideas. However, Eze cited in Sule pointed out that principal as supervisor has little or no

time practicing teaching demonstration and supervisory services for instructional

improvement.

4.Co-Therapy.As the name implies, co-therapy involves the supervisor and supervisee

working together as co-therapists. Supervision occurs in pre- and/or post-session

debriefing sessions. Co-therapy gives the supervisor and supervisee the opportunity to

have a shared firsthand experience of the counseling session. However, given the

imbalanced power dynamic inherent in the supervisor supervisee relationship, it is

particularly important to attend to the balance of power in this arrangement. Haynes,

Corey, and Moulton (2003) suggest that the supervisor needs to refrain from taking over

the work, as this robs the supervisee of space to learn through struggling. There is also

the potential that the client will defer to the supervisor as the authority of the pair.
5. Role-Playing.Role-playing is the acting out of scenarios, with the supervisor and

supervisee taking on the role of counselor and client (or client and counselor) (Haynes,

Corey & Moulton, 2003). Role-playing is an excellent opportunity to rehearse and

strengthen specific supervisee skills and techniques. Role-playing can also focus on

relationship dynamics and increase the supervisee’s empathic understanding of the

client (Borders & Brown, 2005). One drawback of this method is the potential for the

supervisee to interject his/her own dynamics into the portrayal of the client, thus

clouding the enactment (Borders & Brown).

6.Modeling. In its narrowest definition, modeling is a specific kind of role-playing

wherein the supervisor takes on the role of counselor for the purpose of teaching a

technique or intervention to the supervisee. In this way, the supervisor (or supervisee)

selects a specific skill to be modeled by the supervisor and then discussed within the

supervision session (Borders & Brown, 2005). However, in a broader sense, modeling

refers to the supervisor as a constant overt and subtle model of all aspects of

professional behavior, including role definition, interactions with clients, ethical behavior

and decision making, establishing and maintaining collegial and collaborative

relationships, and the pursuit of ongoing professional development (Borders & Brown;

Haynes, Corey, & Moulton, 2003). Being a role model involves serious responsibility for

supervisors, regardless of theoretical orientation or preferred methods of supervision.

Because supervisees are continually watching and learning from us, Haynes, Corey,

and Moulton recommend that we make a concerted effort to explain our thinking
process out loud so that supervisees have access to our thoughts in addition to our

behaviors.

2. Interview at least three (3) teachers from your school or nearby school and

ask them if they are favorable or not on “ INTER SCHOOL VISITATION”? Be

able to state the name of teacher of interviewed and what school he/she is

teaching.