Supervision of Student Teachers
Supervising Teacher / Faculty Associate / University Supervisor
Introduction
Historically, student teaching or internships have been supervised in a two tier system: the K-12
Supervising or Cooperating Teacher and the University Supervisor. At the University of West Florida, an
additional level of supervision has been added: the Faculty Associate (FA). These individuals are
responsible for providing support to the Supervising Teacher. They also act as a liaison between the
University and the Supervising Teacher and, most recently, assess specific products of the student
teacher or intern to assure efficiency and fairness in evaluation of competence.
Roles and Responsibilities of the Supervising Educators
In the traditional two tier system, the Supervising Teacher assumes the role of daily supervision while
the University Supervisor observes several times throughout the semester (Anderson & Radencich,
2001; Shiveley & Poetter, 2002). The Supervising Teacher provides ideas to the student teacher
regarding all aspects of teaching, from the basics of lesson planning and teaching, to working with a
parent or consoling a sad child. In essence, the Supervising Teacher views the student teaching
experience as a motion picture,-a continuous observation of the student’s progress from the first day
until the last day of student teaching. In comparison, the University Supervisor is only privy to a
“snapshot,” a brief observation of the student’s teaching that has been carefully orchestrated. The
University Supervisor provides feedback regarding the student’s performance and offers suggestions for
improvement, as well as praise for those teaching behaviors the student has acquired (Anderson &
Radencich, 2001; Coulon & Lorenzo, 2003; Shantz & Ward, 2000). Both supervisors provide written
evaluations and the student teacher’s grade is derived from these evaluations.
While there is research to support the need for immediate formative feedback and summative
evaluative assessment for the student teacher (Borko & Mayfield, 1995; Shantz & Ward, 2000), the most
valuable feedback is provided by the Supervising Teacher, who is present on a daily basis (Anderson &
Radencich, 2001; Beck & Kosnik, 2002; Coulon & Lorenzo, 2003; Shantz & Ward, 2000). Since the
Supervising Teacher observes daily, he or she can provide feedback aimed at a specific behavior and
“fine tune” the student’s performance. This does not mean that the University Supervisor’s feedback is
considered less important than the Supervising Teacher’s views; but rather that the feedback provided
by the University Supervisor helps the student to construct the links between theory and practice.
Interestingly, Anderson and Radencich (2001) reported that student teachers valued the feedback from
the university supervisor higher than the feedback provided by the Supervising Teacher. However, Borko
and Mayfield (1995) and Gimbert and Nolan (2003) proposed that the university supervisor’s feedback
was not as meaningful as the Supervising Teacher’s.
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Supervision at the University of West Florida
At the University of West Florida, we have utilized the traditional two-tiered system since the inception
of our teacher education programs. We have a cadre of supervisors who are retired teachers, retired
principals and even retired Teacher Education faculty (Cochran-Smith & Zeichner, 2005). In addition,
some current faculty who have expertise in supervision are often assigned student teachers. These
University Supervisors are assigned up to fifteen student teachers whom they observe a minimum of
two times over the 15 week semester. The University Supervisors receive the standard adjunct fee as
well as a mileage
For student teachers with placements outside of the UWF service area, an individual is identified to
serve in the role of University Supervisor, often the school principal or a retired educator in the area.
Two formal observations with accompanying evaluations are conducted with the opportunity to have as
much contact between the University Supervisor, Student Teacher, and Supervising Teacher as may be
needed. Data for these students is managed by the Director of Student teaching.
A review of the evaluations submitted by the University Supervisors and the Supervising Teachers was
conducted and we discovered that an overwhelming majority of the student teachers were highly
successful. Indeed, approximately 98% of the student teachers received at a minimum “Meets
Expectations” and most received “Exceeds Expectations” from the University Supervisors. Feedback also
indicated that the classroom K-12 Supervising Teachers felt that they needed more support, especially in
implementation of the new TK20 assessment system. These data, along with reviewing the research
regarding supervision, lead to development of the Faculty Associate program.
Faculty Associates
During an informal meeting in the spring of 2008, ideas for enhancement of the traditional supervision
system were discussed. One theme that was repeated was the underutilization of the knowledge and
experiences of our Supervising Teachers. As with most universities, our Supervising Teachers are chosen
for their teaching effectiveness and their ability to mentor students. In the traditional student teaching
assignment, only one student teacher benefits from the vast knowledge experience possessed by the
Supervising Teacher each semester. Realizing we were not capitalizing on our Supervising Teachers’
expertise, we needed a program that allowed the sharing of this expertise with more than one student
teacher. This could also reduce the number of University Supervisor visits. With these thoughts in mind,
the idea of the Faculty Associate was conceived
In the summer of 2008, a committee discussed the specific qualifications that Faculty Associates should
have, as well as the duties that would be assigned to their position. The term Faculty Associate was used
to help identify the new position as an extension of the University supervision process. The following
qualifications were required for a Supervising Teacher to apply for the Faculty Associate position:
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Minimum 5 years teaching experience in current certification area
Clinical Educator Training
Reading endorsed or certified (preferred)
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ESOL endorsed or certified (preferred)
Successful mentorship of a minimum of 3 student teachers
Letter of recommendation from current principal attesting to mentorship ability
Letter of recommendation from previous mentees attesting to mentorship ability
Faculty Associates (FAs) are assigned a maximum of 10 Supervising Teachers/student teachers and paid
a small stipend for “supervising” each Supervising Teacher. FAs are responsible for communicating
through email on a weekly basis with their Supervising Teachers to provide helpful information, clarify
student requirements, and become a “sounding board” for their Supervising Teachers. If there is a
problem regarding student teachers’ performance that cannot be solved by FAs and Supervising
Teachers, the faculty member designated as the University Supervisor is contacted. University
Supervisors provide the needed additional support for student teachers and Supervising Teachers.
Through this program, the expertise of our Faculty Associates is shared with other Supervising Teachers,
and the burden of observing successful student teachers is minimized. The University Supervisor is also
available to provide additional observations and support for student teachers who are in need. This
additional layer provides support for the student, the classroom supervising teacher, and the faculty
associate. This multi layered approach allows the Supervising Teacher to provide student teachers with
focused feedback with support from the Faculty Associate. The University Supervisor provides a second
perspective on the student teachers’ performance and evaluation through the two formal observations
conducted during the student teaching semester. The Faculty Associate is able to assist the Supervising
Teacher in the process of developing student teachers’ skills and to assure continuity of data entry in the
assessment system and equity in the evaluation products from the student teaching experience.
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