Supervision and Inspection in Education Essay Example

supervising, and therefore improving the teaching-learning process.

Definition of Concepts

What is Supervision?

Oliva and Pawlas (2004) argue that it is extremely difficult to come up with a succinct definition of supervision. Mosher and Purpel (1972:3) in Oliva and Pawlas (2004) explain the cause of such difficulty as follows:

‘The difficulty of defining supervision in relation to education also stems, in a large part, from unsolved theoretical problems about teaching. … When we have achieved more understanding of what and how to teach, and with what special effects on students, we will be much less vague about the supervision of these processes.’

As a word, supervision is derived from the Latin word “super video” which means to oversee. Many occupations outside education use the services of supervisors as overseers. They demonstrate techniques, offer suggestions, give orders, evaluate employees’ performance and check on results, or products. (Sullivan and Glanz 2009) define school supervision as the process of bringing about improvement in instruction by working with people who are working with pupils. It has also been described as a process of stimulating growth and a means of helping teachers to achieve excellence in teaching. Supervision in school therefore is a vital process and combination of activities which is concerned with the teaching and improvement of the teaching in the school framework. The supervisor is not and should not be the overseer or prescriber but rather the guide, facilitator, or collaborator (Sullivan and Glanz 2009).

Ideally, the purpose of the supervision process is to provide a safe, supportive opportunity for individuals to engage in critical reflection in order to raise issues, explore

problems, and discover new ways of handling both the situation and oneself. It has the potential to educate.

Inspection can be described as the process of information gathering as a basis of supervision. It could be described as the critical examination and evaluation of a school as a place of learning (Sullivan and Glanz 2009). Through inspection, necessary and relevant advice may be given for the improvement of the school. Such advice is usually registered in a report.

Content

Historical perspective of supervision

Oliva and Pawlas (2004:5) give a detailed description of the historical development of supervision in education in the United States of America. Between 1620 and 1910, the only type of supervision was inspection, and the purpose of such supervision was monitoring rules and looking for deficiencies. It was basically fault finding. The era from 1910 saw the introduction of what is described as scientific supervision, now focussing on improving instruction and efficiency. These remain the focus of supervision till the present time, although a hoard of other types of inspection are now in use. Although inspection is still employed as a part and parcel of supervision, it is only used in so far as it is a method of data collection, and its use will depend on the nature of the supervision process. Some models of supervision exclude inspection altogether.

Power and authority in supervision

Neagley and Evans (1980) in Oliva and Pawlas (2004) proffer the following definition of supervision in current times:

‘Modern supervision is considered as any service for teachers that eventually results in improving instruction, learning, and the curriculum. It consists of

positive, dynamic, democratic actions designed to improve instruction through the continued growth of all concerned individuals- the child, the teacher, the supervisor, the administrator, and the parent or other lay person.’

The emphasis on service, cooperation, and democracy works on the assumption that all supervision is undertaken under such conditions. This is not necessarily the case as this can depend on the type of power and authority that the supervisor employs.

Supervisors rely upon power and authority to ensure that employees get things done. Authority is the legitimate power of a supervisor to direct subordinates to take action within the scope of the supervisor’s position. Power is the ability to exert influence in the organisation beyond authority, which is derived from position.

If a supervisor relies on bureaucratic authority, they place emphasis on rules, regulations, job descriptions and set expectations. There are consequences for non-compliance. In the South African education system, Facilitators wield such authority. Teachers must adhere to policy or else they face sanctions or are reprimanded. The emphasis is more on the administrative aspects of teaching, and less on the teaching and learning that takes place in the classroom.

With psychological authority, the supervisor relies on motivation and both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. The Gauteng Primary Literacy and mathematics Strategy (GPLMS) Coaches make use of such authority. The aim is to motivate poorly committed teachers to improve in their teaching.

Yet another type of authority that can be employed is technical rational authority. The supervisor appeals to the supervisee by pointing out that which is considered to be the truth.

Professional authority is whereby the supervisee respects

the supervisor on account of their superior expertise and practice. For example, only experienced former teachers are employed as GPLMS coaches or Facilitators to assist with supervision in the schools. Some heads of department or other supervisors who lack such authority can be challenged by sub-ordinates in their execution of duty.

The last but not least type of authority that supervisors can employ is moral authority. This is whereby the supervisor appeals to the subordinate’s sense of duty or doing what is right. A coach may alert a teacher that if they do not attend their lessons, they are letting the African child down.

Along the same vein, there are also various sources of power at the disposal of a supervisor. When supervisees comply with the supervisor on account of their coercive power, the situation does not result in the promotion of organisational effectiveness. Legitimate power is derived from the position or office that a person occupies. The Facilitator, Coach or Head of Department have legitimate power to supervise a teacher, and therefore the teacher cooperates. They may also wield expert power by being specialists in their areas. It has a positive influence on the personnel. Referent power and reward power also lead to organizational effectiveness as there is no coercion on the part of the subordinate.

Because authority bases for supervisors are changing, a good supervisor is one who relies less on legitimacy and position but more on professional competence. The supervisor is not the only source of knowledge. The era of inspection relied on the normative perspective, with set goals and objectives. It emphasises compliance with what should be done,

and there was only one way, and it was prescriptive. The descriptive view accurately describes the situation on the ground. This gives rise to the different types or models of supervision that have been employed over the years.

Models of supervision

Scientific supervision was introduced to address a need in education to match the development of the scientific methods in other disciplines. It however evolved from the era of inspection. The supervising personnel were inadequately trained, if at all. Its focus was on teacher ratings, objective measurements, use of standardised tests and the over-reliance on examinations to determine effectiveness. It objectified and disempowered teachers, was too prescriptive and stifled creativity.

On the other hand, artistic supervision appeals to a supervisor’s intuition. The supervisor relies on techniques to record interactions in the classroom, and does not make use of rating scales and other evaluation tools.

Clinical supervision made its appearance in the 1950’s (Oliva and Pawlas 2004). It involves gathering data from direct observation of actual teaching and learning activities with the aim of improving such classroom instruction. The first point interaction between the supervisor and supervisee is the establishment of a supervisor-teacher relationship, then they meet before the lesson, to plan the lesson and methodologies, during the lesson to observe and after the lesson to analyse the teaching-learning process and to map out the focus of the next session. Its strengths are that it is personalised and consultative and there is the strong emphasis on classroom practice. However, it has the weakness that it may fail to pick up on aspects in the hidden curriculum and it deals with the teacher

at too micro a level and neglects issues such as the design, developing and evaluating of programmes.

Another model of supervision is self-assessment supervision. The teacher uses self-analysis skills to facilitate self-controlled improvement activities. The teacher becomes more aware of their strengths and weaknesses in consultation with the observations of other witnesses like the supervisor and the learners. The teacher should be willing to be open to views that may differ from their own, and to remember that criticism is not negative appraisal.

Developmental supervision implies the use of different styles of supervision to meet the individual needs of teachers and circumstances. The directive style may be employed with an inexperienced teacher; the collaborative style with a teacher who has mixed abilities and the non-directive with other types of teachers. It involves democratic participation by all parties in problem solving, promotes interdependence and has a scientific outlook.

Connoisseurship supervision assumes that the supervisor is such an expert in his area that he can pass judgment on what is observed, and so relies on intuition. Their qualities of appreciation, inference, disclosure and judgment must be well-developed. The supervisor relies on description, interpretation, and evaluation to make judgements. Although it has the strength that it views teaching-learning holistically, it faces challenges as it gives no guidelines to the supervisor and can be subjective.

Collegial supervision is whereby the supervisor and supervisee are equals; colleagues. Because the supervisee is aware that the supervision is not for administrative purposes, they may be more open and relaxed. Although it gives psychological support, collegial supervision lacks authority base, and yet recommendations may require input from management. Supervision

by coaches and mentors are also included in this type of supervision.

Informal supervision is casual, frequent and is done verbally. It can help to put a teacher at ease with their supervisor.

In inquiry-based supervision the supervisor works with a supervisee to solve a problem. The first step is that they identify a problem, and then develop hypotheses about the causes and solutions to the problems, before finally putting one of the hypotheses to the test. It is research focused and promotes team-work.

The model of supervision that a good supervisor chooses to employ should depend on the situation at hand.

Conclusion

Although inspection preceded supervision per se, it is now only useful to supervision in so far as it aids in data collection. Earlier models of supervision like the scientific method, which were more normative rather than descriptive, favoured the use of rating scales and issues of following rules and regulations. Supervision was in the form of inspections, and educational personnel were not expected to add their individuality, input or creativity. Times have now changed, and so more collaborative means of supervision are now viewed in better light.

Because by its nature inspection uses instruments to make judgments against a standard, it is more related to evaluation and appraisal than to supervision. Just like inspection, evaluation includes describing, judging and valuing a person. Similarly, in appraisal the super-ordinates measure performance and tie a varied range of outcomes that include promotions or salary raises. On the other hand, supervision is more concerned with the improvement of the teaching and learning process and the development of educational personnel so

as to improve organisational effectiveness.