EDU 526 Supervision of Instruction
1. Chapter 1 describes two ineffective schools: Finnie Tyler High School and Germando Elementary School.
For both schools, examine at least three instructional problems likely to result from the type of supervision
practiced by the respective principals. Analyze how each probable instructional problem could be avoided
or better managed at the schools through a more appropriate type of supervision.
2. Often a teacher’s experiences reflect the legacy of the one room schoolhouse. Select three elements
related to that legacy, examine the negative impact of that legacy on teachers, and suggest strategies to
alleviate that impact.
3. The characteristics of traditional schools represent static systems, which impede growth, development,
and adaptation. On the other hand, dynamic schools are driven by an energizing force that enables and
compels the system to act in a certain way. These systems are interactive and promote growth and
development. Examine at least three ways the environment of the dynamic school described in chapter 3
contrasts with the traditional school environment described in chapter 2.
4. Imagine that you have been assigned to design a professional development program to provide a
school’s mentor teachers with knowledge about adult learning and development that will be valuable in
helping them assist other teachers in their schools. Present an argument for what topics related to adults
as learners you would want to include and why. Also, address which of the five conceptual models of adult
and teacher development would most inform your decisions related to the professional development
program.
Unit 1
Key terms –
Conventional school: a school dependent on the structure of a hierarchy to make decisions. Teachers
are totally dependent on their supervisors. No room for professional advancement
Congenial school: Friendly social interactions, without collaboration between teachers. Academics take
a backseat to warm relationships between teachers and students.
Collegial school: purposeful interactions between colleagues in order to improve teaching and learning
strategies. Establish learning goals for students using a democratic process. Driven by goals, missions
and school visions. Use critical studies to create a SuperVision of instruction. Focus on teacher growth
more than compliance
Supervision: watch over, direct or oversee a given task. Can be gone about in many different ways.
Supervisor:
Learning objectives:
1. Examine the process of supervision.
2. Analyze who is responsible for supervision.
3. Evaluate the moral purpose of supervision.
This chapter introduces the area of supervision and suggests that a new paradigm for supervision—the
collegial model—should replace more traditional approaches. The place of supervision in the school is
discussed and the persons responsible for supervision are identified.
Finnie Tyler High School
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Teachers can teach however they wish (pg 4)
Teachers of the same subjects use the same textbook but otherwise seem to have discretion to
function as they please (pg 4)
Observed once a year/faculty meeting once a month (pg4)
Congenial school
Germando Elementary School
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Similarity of the classrooms (pg 4)
Teachers working on same textbook at exact same pace (pg 4)
Standardized entire curriculum (pg 4)
Teachers attempted to make modest changes are forced to resign (pg 5)
Conventional school
Progress Middle School
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Peer coaching program (pg 5)
Teachers brainstorming together(pg 5)
Proposed research assisting schools in meeting vision, mission and goals agreed by entire faculty
Key Term
Leadership
Author
Jo Blase
Source
Gordon, 1995 (pg 7)
SuperVision
Gordon
Textbook
Direct assistance
Group
development
Professional
development
Gordon
Gordon
Textbook page 11
Textbook page 11
Gordon
Textbook page 11
Quote
Leadership is shared with teachers, and
it is cast in coaching, reflection, collegial
investigation, study teams, exploration
into the uncertain, and problem solving
A term that denotes a common vision of
what teaching and learning can and
should be, developed collaboratively by
formally
designated
supervisors,
teachers, and other members of the
school community.
Direct observation and council
Gathering teachers together to make
decisions based on mutual concerns
Learning opportunities for teachers
provided by the school
Curriculum
Development
Gordon
Textbook page 11
Action research
Gordon
Textbook page 11
Democracy
education
Rational trust
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in Glickman,
1998
Textbook page 12
Bryk
& Textbook page 13
Schneider
2003
Revision and modification of the
content, plans, and materials of
classroom instruction.
Systematic study by a faculty of what is
happening in the classroom and school
with the intended aim of improving
learning.
Educators are the primary stewards of
the democratic spirit. The total of our
efforts is far greater than the particulars
of our job.
Relational trust is grounded in the social
respect that comes from the kinds of
social discourse that takes place across
the school community.
Not only principals or members of the administration are in charge of supervision.
Experienced teacher helps plan and carry out an instructional improvement plan designed
collaboratively.
Instructional improvement requires 1. A knowledge base. Understand how the knowledge of
adult and teacher develop and supervisory practices that help those in charge become collegial.
2. Interpersonal skills. Know how a supervisor’s behaviour affects teachers. 3. Technical skills in
observing, planning, assessing, and evaluating instructional improvement.
Supervision based on moral purpose
Unit 21. Assess the culture of schools.
2. Examine the legacy of the one-room schoolhouse.
3. Analyze structural strain
This chapter explores the normative school culture and identifies contributors to the characteristics of the
school work environment. The legacy of the one-room schoolhouse is discussed and the current strain
within the educational system caused by legislated learning is also examined.
Key termsCulture: accepted behaviours by a group of people
Reality shock: collapse of preconceived notions about what teaching is like.
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Our first schoolteachers were seen as working in an honorable but menial profession, poorly paid
but second only to the preacher in prestige (Lortie, 1975)
One room schoolhouse- teachers responsible for all that occurred in its walls. This legacy of
independence, isolation and privatization of teaching remains in many schools.
Today, individual classrooms have become mini one room schoolhouses
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Schools with the greatest student learning do not isolate teachers, but instead encourage
professional dialogue and collaboration.
Isolation
 Spatial scattering- teachers work in different places at the same time
 Work and training activities occur simultaneously as trial and error
 Teachers are difficult to supervise based on physical structure
 Physical isolation has effects psychologically
 Their classroom, their students, their teaching
 In this author’s school the space is totally open air, except the classrooms, which are the only
areas surrounded by four walls.
 In this author’s school even the supply closets are segregated between kindergarten,
elementary, middle, and high school, with strict rules not to intermingle.
Psychological Dilemma and Frustration
 Teachers are made to feel that their worth as an educator is measured by how much students
learn in a given period of time.
 Teachers cope by routinizing classroom activity
 Teaching resembles clinical psychology, but taking place in a factory
Routine
 Imposed by administration
 Routine different between elementary to high school, but same principles remain
 Teachers do not have the right to make changes in their schedule
 Although readjustments are made, the overall routine remains
 See quote ‘teaching’
Inadequate induction of beginning teachers
 Difficulties include: inadequate resources, difficult work assignments, unclear expectations, sink
or swim mentality, reality shock pg 23
o Inadequate resources- teachers pillage leaving teacher’s materials. Discarded items are
replaced. Leaving new teachers with less desirable conditions
o Difficult work assignments - Problem children or low achievers usually pegged to new
teachers. Least interesting and most difficult courses assigned to beginners pg 24. More
duties
o Unclear expectations – admin, other teachers, and parents present conflicting
expectations. Leads to ‘condition of not knowing’
o Sink-or-swim mentality – first year is ‘trial by fire’. Some veterans think it’s only fair. As
best practices in modern schools have evolved, so too should the support given to new
teachers. “Weeds out” weak teachers. Novice are expected to assume same or more
roles than veterans.
o Reality shock- collapse of preconceived notions of teaching. Classroom management
problems, student learning difficulties and environmental difficulties destroy these ideals.
Teachers realize they are unprepared.
o Effects of environmental difficulties- novice teachers have more negative attitudes about
themselves, their teaching, their professions and their students by the end of their first
year (Gordon 1991). New teacher programs.
Inequity
 Lower income communities no resources, larger class sizes, run down schools, textbooks out of
date, teachers outside of their field
 Sufficient resources or incentives not provided to highly qualified teachers
 Low-income groups miss out on higher-level curriculum opportunities
 Unconscious and overt racism goes unchallenged
Unstaged Career
 Prestigious careers avoid transition from student to full professional.
 Transitional or proving-ground stage not in teaching
 Teaching is unstaged from enter to exit
 Once moving into the classroom there is no more stages
 Salary increase identical to that received by others of comparable experience
Lack of Dialogue about instruction
 Talking about teaching is viewed as uncomfortable
 Talking often and seriously with teachers is a rarity
 Lack of dialogue is related to one-room schoolhouse legacy
Lack of involvement in schoolwide curriculum and instructional decisions
Lack of a shared technical culture
 Most schools are not characterized by shared technical clutres
 Lortie (1975) the teachers craft is marked by the absence of concrete models for emulation,
unclear lines of influence, multiple controversial criteria, ambiguity about assessment timing and
instability in the product (Pg 136)
Conservatism
 Lack of shared technical culture and resulting ambiguity and uncertainty foster conservatism.
 Emphasis on short range goals
 Reliance on personal experience
 Narrow limits on the degree of collegiality in which teachers are willing to engage
 Resistance to curricular innovations
Blaming the Victim and structural strain
 Blaming not correlated with increased teacher education, pay or school improvement
 Results in state-mandated curriculum, statewide teacher evaluation systems, and high stakes
achievement tests
 Education cannot move forward simply by raising the bar
 Problems aggravated by teachers inability to enact change in their schools
 Environment of schools must be altered
 Supervision of instruction can play a strong role in reshaping the work environment to promote
collegiality
Key term
Instructional
improvement
Learning
Collaboration
Routinizing
Teaching
New teachers
New teachers
drop out
New teachers
drop out
Treatment of
teachers
in
schools
Teacher
contributions
Teacher
Blaming
Supervision
Author
Glickman et al.
Source
Pg 19
Quote
We must acknowledge that schools cannot be left
alone to do business as usual, if we are serious
about lasting instructional improvement.
Glickman et al. pg 20
When we grasp the underlying values of our
particular school as a work environment, we can
consciously act to reshape the organization into a
purposeful collection of individuals who believe
that schools are for students, for learning, and for
improvement rather than for insularity, selfprotection, and complacency.
Glickman et al. Pg 21
The sense of classrooms as being private places is
in direct contrast to the research on norms of
improving schools.
Glickman et al. Pg 23
By routinizing what happens within the classroom,
a teacher avoids making hundreds of decisions.
Sarason 1996
Pg
200; If teaching becomes neither terribly interesting
emphasis on nor exciting to many teachers, can one expect
original (pg 24 them to make learning interesting or exciting to
text)
the children?
Newberry,
Pg 25 text
In fact, neophytes often go to great lengths to
1978
conceal their classroom problems.
Metropolitan
Pg 26 text
Between one-third and one-half of teachers drop
Life, 1985
out of the profession within their first seven years
of teaching.
Harris
and Pg 26 text
Many of the most promising teachers are the ones
Collay, 1990;
who leave the professions early in their career.
Schlechty and
Vance, 1983)
Blumberg
Pg 28
Public schools premised on having mature,
1987
competent adults as employees, yet treating the
same adults as children when it comes to deciding
and operationalizing their work.
Boyer 1983
Pg 28
The norm in most schools is that teachers are not
expected to contribute experience, knowledge,
and wisdom to decisions about the common good
of educating students.
National
Pg 30
Tendency for politicians, policy makers, and the
Commission
general public to blame educators for the low
on Education,
academic achievement of many K-12 students.
1983
Glickman et al. Pg 32
Supervision is intended to reduce the norms of the
one-room schoolhouse
Unit 31. Examine the characteristics of a dynamic school.
2. Compare traditional schools with dynamic schools.
3. Analyze the importance of partnerships and networks.
This chapter explores dynamic schools and their characteristics. Dynamic systems are driven by an
energizing force that enables and compels the system to act in a certain way. These systems are interactive
and have the ability for continuous growth and development. This chapter also explores the role of having
an authentic curriculum, democracy, and cultural responsiveness in dynamic schools.
Key termsPositive learning climate:
Cultural responsiveness:
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All schools could be effective
Effective schools have the presence of:
o Strong leadership
o A climate of expectation
o An orderly but not rigid atmosphere
o Communication to students of the school’s priority on learning the basics
o Diversion of school energy and resources when necessary to maintain priorities
o Means of monitoring student and teacher achievement
Page 32-33 for characteristics of effective schools.
Effective school research has been used to institute reform based on the standardized test scores of
good schools
There is a correlation, but not cause
Murphy claims these principles constitute the real legacy of the effective schools research:
o All students can learn
o Schools should focus on student outcomes and rigorously assess progress towards reaching
those outcomes
o Schools should assume a fair share of the responsibility for student learning.
o Schools should be structurally, symbolically and culturally liked, providing for consistency and
coordination throughout the school community.
Figure 3.1 (characteristics of improving schools) pg. 42
Successful schools can vary in the degree of community involvement, school leadership and change
initiation
Successful schools see themselves in “a moral equivalent of war” or “a cause beyond oneself.”
o Teachers do not view their work as simply what they carry out within their own four walls.
o Teachers see themselves as part of a large enterprise of complementing work.
Supervision is the main force that shapes the organization into a productive unit.
Parents and other community members are involved in planning, implementing and assessing school
improvement efforts.
Educators need to reach out to parents to collaborate on not only education of individuals, but
decisions on school improvement.
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Teaching models that connect real world experience to education. Connects students to the
community and larger society.
Successful schools are considered the centers of their communities
First order of business for supervisors is to build staff into a team. Create professional togetherness.
Key term
Successful school
Author
Glickman, 1987
Source
Pg 37
School
improvement
research
Parent
involvement
Glickman et al. Pg 41
2007
Service learning
Arrington and Page 44
Moore, 2001
Place-based
learning
Smith,
2002; Pg 44
powers, 2004
Democratic
learning
Glickman et al. Pg 44-45
2007
Glickman et al. Page 43
2007
Quote
A successful school is foremost an organization
that defines good education for itself, through its
goals and desired practices, and then engages in
collective action to achieve that vision.
Focuses on how schools improve over time.
Focused on school culture and the change
process. Concerned with long term growth.
Successful schools do not treat parents and
community members as outsiders. Rather,
parents are welcome and invited to participate
in a variety of school and classroom activities.
In service learning students analyze community
issues and formulate a plan to enact change.
Cuts across several learning areas
Students produce rather than consume
knowledge by learning from their local
environment
Integrate self-concerns with concerns about the
larger world and common good. Students decide
on a common theme. Students develop
questions and projects on their own. Focus on
social issues.
Unit 4 –
1. Examine developmental theories of motivation and teacher development.
2. Analyze adult learners.
3. Examine the influences on teacher development.
This chapter explores the area of adult and teacher development within the context of the school, and
begins with a discussion of the characteristics of adult learners. Adult and teacher development is
explored and developmental theories of motivation and teacher development are presented. The cycles
of development are discussed, and the influences on teacher development are identified. Finally, seven
propositions are identified that relate to teacher development and supervision.
Fluid intelligence: depends heavily on physiological and neurological capacitates, peaks early. Quick
insight, short memorization
Multiple intelligences: seven (eight types) linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily
kinesthetic, intrapersonal, and interpersonal (naturalistic intelligence)
Triarchic theory of intelligence: three sub theories: componential = cognitive processing (intellectual
ability), experiential = level of experience is considered – promotes ability to respond automatically,
contextual = socially influenced abilities, adaptation to environment, how teachers deal with challenging
situations.
Andragogy: adults need to be self-directing, experience should be tapped into in the learning situation,
adults need to solve real-life problems related to developmental task, want to make immediate
application of the knowledge, intrinsic motivation.
Self-directed learning: learning that adults engage in systematically as part of everyday life and without
benefit of an instructor.
Transformational learning: process which we transform our perspectives, habits of mind, mindsets to
make them more inclusive and open, emotionally capable of change and reflective so that they generate
beliefs and opinions that will prove more true or justified to guide action. (Changes in how we know)
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Adult learning does not peak in youth
Intelligence consists of multiple components or factors
Supervisors can identify and utilize the learning strengths of individuals when assisting with
instructional improvements
Differences between adults and children as learners may be a matter of degree and situation
Supervisors should foster self-directed learning by matching supervisory behaviors with teachers;
readiness for self-direction
Teacher’s trigger for transformative learning may occur in a situation as obvious as experiencing
failure for the first time when accepting a new position
Transformational learning can be accomplished by: writing journals, visiting the classrooms of
colleagues, conducting criteria analysis of incidents which epitomize their notions of success of failure
in practice, experimenting with practice, eliciting feedback from learners, and consulting or engaging
in dialogue with colleagues.
Important to link learning about instructional innovations to teachers’ past experiences, and to allow
them ample time to integrate the innovations
Teachers have been bombarded with a plethora of innovations as part of the educational reform
movement.
Supervisors must assist teachers in integrating innovations into their teaching.
Novice teachers need to be supervised differently than experienced teachers.
In most schools, teachers receive the same in-service workshops, the same observations, and the
same assessments.
Many schools do not foster collaborative action, reflection, critical thinking, or teacher empowerment.
Low CL evaluate things in simple terms. Moderate CL developing abstract thinking but need assistance
to form a comprehensive plan. High CL independent, self-actualizing, resourceful.
High concept teachers stimulate positive student attitudes and student achievement gains, less
susceptible to stress
High concept teachers elicit higher-order conceptual responses from their students
Key term
Author
Source
Quote
Crystallized
intelligence
Gorn and Cattell text pg. 52
1967
Self-reflection
Cranton 1994
Situated
cognition
Brown, Collins, Text page 56
and
Duguid
1989
Text page 55
Learning
in Wilson 1993
experience
Text page 56
Cognitive
Brown, Collins,
apprenticeship and
Duguid
1989
Informal
Marsick
and
learning
Watkins 1990,
2001
Incidental
Marsick
and
learning
Watkins 1990,
2001
Dialectical
Many
thought,
integrative
thought,
epistemic
cognition
Conceptual
Hunt,
Butler,
level
Noy, and Rosser,
1978
Text page 56
Text page 56
Text page 56
Calling for judgement, knowledge, and
experience. Is influenced by education and
experience. Older individuals show advantage.
Educator should critically reflect on his or her own
meaning perspective of being an educator.
Education is misconceived to the degree that it
emphasizes the acquisition of decontextualized,
abstract knowledge. Lasing knowledge emerges as
learners engaged in authentic activity embedded
in specific situations.
Adults learn in experience as they act in situations
and are acted upon by situations, rather than the
traditional assumption that adults learn from
experience.
Means for learners to acquire knowledge as
participants in a community of practice. Reflective
practicum
Usually intentional but less structured than formal
learning. (self-directed learning, networking,
informal coaching, and mentoring)
Byproduct of some other activity. Most likely
unconscious at the time.
Text page 60
Highest stage of cognition observed in adults.
Meaning of wisdom
Text page 61
1. Increasing
conceptual
complexity
Increasing interpersonal maturity
2.