This was my first class in the Educational Administration program at the University of Saskatchewan. After graduating almost nine years ago, I was quite nervous to start this program!
This was a face-to-face class that focused on how supervision of educators affected their teaching. This course stressed that supervision of teachers should not necessarily be used for performance evaluative purposes. Dr. Renihan instead suggested that reflective supervision be used to enhance teachers’ ability to teach, by pointing out their strengths, weaknesses and how to fix any potential problems promptly.
Reflecting on teaching is an important theme in this course. Teachers should be reflecting on their teaching practices daily, perhaps constantly, and effective teacher supervision formalizes this process. Collaboration is another important theme in this course. Both administrators and teachers need to work together in order to make supervision effective and purposeful. Both parties need to fully engage in the supervision process (pre-observation, observation, post-observation) in order for any growth to be possible.
There is a feedback loop that should be used by all supervisors and teachers. First, teachers should have a pre-observation meeting with their supervisor, discussing what they perceive as weaknesses, which the supervisor will then look out for during the observation. Second, the supervisor observes a lesson (this can be a wide-lens (general) or narrow-lens (specific)). Finally, the teacher and supervisor meet in a post-observation meeting, where they discuss the observation and future steps.
This class taught me that supervision in the classroom should not be scary, but embraced and used to improve teaching. Supervision of teachers should not be tied to performance reviews. It should be an ongoing dialogue between administrators and teachers. A process of constant reflection, hard work and improvement. In a nutshell, effective supervision of teachers can lead to the enhancement of teaching.
Important Sources
Danielson, Charlotte (2007). Enhancing professional practice: a framework for teaching.
Ing, M. (2010). Using informal observations to improve instruction. Journal of Educational Administration.
Marks, Helen M., Printy, Susan M (2003). Principal leadership and school performance: an integration of transformational and instructional leadership. Educational Administration Quarterly.
Moolenaar, N. M., Sleegers, P. J. C., & Daly, A. J. (2012). Teaming up: Linking collaboration networks, collective efficacy, and student achievement. Teaching and Teacher Education, 28(2), 251–262.
Newton, P, & Wallin, D (2013). The teaching principal: An untenable position or a promising model? Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 59(1), 1-17.
Reitzug, U. C., West, D. L., & Angel, R. (2008). Conceptualizing Instructional Leadership The Voices of Principals. Education and Urban Society.
Robinson, V., M. J. (2006). Putting education back into educational leadership. Leading & Managing, 12(1), 62-75.