Clinical Supervision
Clinical
Supervision
…has as its goal the
professional development of
teachers, with an emphasis on
improving teachers’ classroom
performance. (Acheson & Gall, p. 1)
Jones’ Law #1
• Teachers are not
born…they grow
Most teachers
• Are good teachers some of the time and
not so good
(or downright awful)
at other times
Classrooms are incredibly busy places
• …classrooms are complex environments in
which teachers often must make quick
decisions while using incomplete information
Classrooms are incredibly busy places
Philip Jackson, Life in Classrooms (1968) - over
1,000 interpersonal interactions in a single
day
Classrooms are incredibly busy places
Philip Jackson, Life in Classrooms (1968)
Over 1,000 interpersonal interactions daily
Supervision Problem #1
– Determining what professional teaching
looks like
Consider the Inquiry Teacher
The Perfect
Classroom
(how it
looks,
smells, feels,
etc.)
The Perfect
The Perfect
Teacher
Lesson
(classroom
management,
instructional
methods,
presentation
style, etc.)
(subject,
duration,
type of
activity, etc.)
After Borich, 2003
Consider the Inquiry Teacher
A Terrible
A Terrible
A Terrible
Classroom
Teacher
Lesson
(how it
looks,
smells, feels,
etc.)
(classroom
management,
instructional
methods,
presentation
style, etc.)
(subject,
duration,
type of
activity, etc.)
After Borich, 2003
Wonderful Classroom
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Kids engaged (bad pun)
Student work displayed
Cooperative Learning
Confidence level of students is high
Smells good (dissected sharks?)
Spacious and comfortable
Colorful, bright
Displays evidence of learning
Non-threatening
Teacher’s positive attitude
Warm and inviting (no yelling)
Accepting
PROBLEMS EVIDENT
Teacher is facilitating
Not-so-Wonderful Classroom
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Cluttered in a non-organized manner
Sterile
Blank walls
Quiet, no-academic interaction
Dirty, smelling
Students uninvolved
Statements instead of questions
Austere, cold
Teacher centered
Desks all in a row
Blank stares…
Stacks of paper
Smells old
After Leinhardt, Putnam, Stein &
Baxter (1981)
Teachers’ Roles
• Subject-matter
Knowledge
– Includes the specific
information needed to
present content
• Action-System
Knowledge
– Skills for planning
lessons, making pacing
decisions, explaining
materials clearly,
responding to individual
differences..
Dunkin and Biddle
Study of Teaching (1973)
Presage
Teacher
intelligence,
motivation,
training…
Process
Class size,
bussing, …
Context
Questioning,
models,
management…
Student
background,
motivation…
Test scores,
graduation
rates, …
Product
From Transactional Analysis, we know…
Pre-ignition
Afterburn
Success
Bomb
Observation Skills
But toward what end?
-Research?
-Teacher
Assistance?
Reward/Punish?
Views of Data Recording
(after Evertson & Green)
Everyday
Tacit
Less
Everyday
Deliberate
Systematic
Deliberate
Systematic
Highly
Formal
Formal
Observations
Situation-
Question-
Specific
Specific
Observations
Observations
Purposes of Teacher Assessment
• To assist in institutional and
administrative decision making
–Whom to promote, place on growth
plans, recommend for licensure…
• To increase instructional effectiveness
From Evaluation to ….
• To meet contractual requirements,
e.g. punctuality, attendance, extra-curricular
assignments…
• To certify the effectiveness of instruction to the
board, public, staff.
• To illuminate and made commendations for
excellence in instructional practices.
• To meet legal requirements as determined by legal
mandates.
• To apply district/school adopted criteria for judging
instructional effectiveness.
Top
From Evaluation to ….
• To monitor professional conduct: e.g., dress,
continuing to learn, participating in district
improvement tasks, enthusiasm, etc.
• To identify instructional deficiencies and plan
learning opportunities to remediate those
deficiencies.
• To guarantee minimum uniformity.
Down
Is it any wonder….?
“Under the supervisory structure used
in many schools, teachers may view
feedback from supervisors with
suspicion or hostility”
(Good & Brophy)
Leadership Styles….
Theory X
Theory Y
• The average human being has an
inherent dislike of work and will
avoid it if (s)he can
• People have to be coerced,
controlled, directed, threatened
to get them to put forward
appropriate effort
• People prefer to be be directed
and avoid responsibility; most
have little ambition and want
security above all
• The expenditure of physical and
mental effort in work is as natural
as play or rest
• Humans exercise self-direction in
the service of committed
objectives
• Commitment is a function of
rewards associated with their
achievement
• The average human seeks
responsibility
• Imagination, ingenuity, and
creativity are widely distributed
• Human intellectual potential is only
partly utilized
After McGregor
Clinical Supervision ….
• To improve teacher performance
• To enhance classroom climate for learning.
• To improve the organization of instruction.
• To align teaching processes and learning activities
with theory and learner needs.
• To identify and resolve school and classroom
problems that may be hindering learning.
Teacher
Supervisor
Clinical Supervision ….
• To identify and remediate students’ behavior
problems.
• A central objective … is the development of the
professionally responsible teacher who is analytical
of his/her own performance, open to help from
others, and withal self-directing (Maurice Cogan)
• Guides teachers toward self-evaluation
• Bridges the real-ideal gap
Supervision Problem #2
– Who should do the supervision
Superordinate
Colleague
Teacher
Clinical…
• …meant to suggest a face-to-face relationship
between teacher and supervisor and a focus on the
teacher’s actual behavior in the classroom
• Teacher-centered supervision
(paralleling Carl Rogers’
“person-centered” counseling)
George C. Kyte (1930)
1. Planning for the observation of teaching
2. Getting the most out of the observation
period
3. Analyzing the teaching observed
George C. Kyte (1930)
Identified two kinds of conferences
1. After a supervisory visit or the products of pupils’
efforts have been submitted to a supervisory
officer
2. Preparatory – first conferences with a new teacher,
consultations based on requests of teachers,
interviews for for planning classroom
experimentation
Approaches to Clinical Supervision (after
Original Models
Edward Pajak)
• Collegiality and mutual
discovery of meaning
(1960’s - early 1970’s)
1962 Harvard-Lexington Summer
Program of Harvard’s MAT program*
Robert Goldhammer (1969)
(Anderson, Krajewski (1993)
Maurice Cogan* (1973)
Ralph Mosher &
David Purpel (1972)
Clinical Supervision ….
Popular assumptions
• Learning to teach is easy; the preparation for
teaching should therefore be short and
simple
• Teachers’ 12+ years as students provide teacher
education students with certain models of what
teachers are and do
• Professionals need little face-to-face
interactions from other professionals
Clinical Supervision ….
• Big Changes…
• Face-to-face relationships between
supervisors and teachers
• Detailed observational data
• Intensity of focus in professional
relationships
Clinical Supervision ….
• – “of, relating to, or conducted in or as if in a clinic” and
“involving or depending on direct observation…”
• “the presentation, analysis, and treatment of actual cases
and concrete problems in some special field”
• General supervision subsumes supervisory operations
principally outside of the classroom
• Clinical supervision focuses upon the improvement of the
teacher’s classroom instruction
• Assumption – teacher education is continuous – becoming a
teacher is developmental
Early Clinical Supervisory Moves
Robert Goldhammer (1969)
1. Pre-Observation Conference
2. Observation
3. Analysis and Strategy
4. Supervision Conference
5. Post-Conference Analysis
Morris Cogan (1973)
1. Establishing the teacher-supervisor
relationship
2. Planning with the teacher
3. Planning the strategy of
observation
4. Observing instruction
5. Analyzing the teaching-learning
processes
6. Planning the strategy of the
conference
7. The conference
8. Renewed Planning
Approaches to Clinical Supervision (after
Humanistic/
Artistic Models
(mid 1970s to
early 1980s)
Blumberg
- Counseling the key
Eisner
- Artistic Approach
- “hear the music” as well as
observe the action
Edward Pajak)
• Positive and productive
interpersonal relations
with holistic
understanding of
classroom events
Approaches to Clinical Supervision (after
Edward Pajak)
• Effective teaching
Technical/
strategies, techniques,
Didactic Models
and organizational
(early to mid 1980s)
expectations
Acheson & Gall
Hunter
Joyce & Showers
Approaches to Clinical Supervision (after
Edward Pajak)
Developmental/
• Teacher cognitive
development,
Reflective Models
introspection, and
(mid 1980s to present)
Glickman, Schon,
discovery of contextCosta & Garmston, Zeichner
specific principles of
& Liston, Garman, Smyth,
practice
Retallick, Bowwers &
Flinders
The Three Phases of the
Clinical Supervision Cycle
After Acheson
and Gall
Supervisory Assumptions
• Instructional improvement is not a superficial process; it requires
considerable time and effort
• When dealing with adult professionals, no one changes another person’s
behavior
• Goal directed behavior is more effective in achieving instructional
improvement than behavior that is not focused on specific outcomes
• Objective recording and descriptive reporting of teaching data are more
useful for instructional improvement than subjective, evaluative
statements
• Teaching, as an intellectual and social act, is amenable to intellectual
analysis
• Supervisors demonstrate leadership most effectively as a participant of
educational growth
An Effective Teacher Satisfactorily
• Provides instruction in academic knowledge and skills’
• Provides an instructional climate that helps students develop
positive attitudes toward learning and self
• Adjusts instruction in response to students’ abilities, ethnic
identification, home background, and gender
• Manages the learning environment so students are engaged
in learning
• Makes sound decisions and plans
• Implements agreed-upon curriculum decisions
After Acheson and Gall, p. 44
… this course
Will provide you background and skills to assist in this
growth by
•
•
•
•
Understanding the theory of supervision
Mastering observation skills
Becoming adept at conferencing and feedback
Being able to tie classroom efforts with a research
base
Slides courtesy
Dr. Howard Jones