The supervisory conference appears to be a general failure because most supervisors fail to foster a helping relationship. (RA)

Personal and professional growth of both teachers and supervisors are identified as products to be sought from the supervision process. A reconceptualization of the supervisor's role from that of methodological and curriculum specialist to that of interpersonal intervenor is urged, along with a reconceptualization of related systems and processes.…

A study was conducted to develop and test a method for describing, in a systematic and quantifiable fashion, the nature of the interaction that takes place between a supervisor (e.g., principal or helping teacher) and a teacher. Tape recordings of 50 supervisor-teacher conferences were collected. They were analyzed by use of a 15-category…

The contexts within which teachers engage in personally meaningful discourse about teaching and learning are explored. Connections are drawn between the perspectives and experiences of teachers and the organizational structure of the workplace. Methodology involved a pattern analysis of responses to an open-ended survey administered to 90 K-12…

Responding to four critiques of his article, "Toward a Scholarship of Practice," published in the Spring 1990 issue of the "Journal," the author welcomes further discussion of his ideas. Frances Bolin's remarks concerning needed societal changes were appreciated, but Patricia Holland's overemphasis on hermeneutics is not the author's cup of tea.…

This book focuses on the human side of relationships between supervisors and teachers to understand their interactions better. Chapter 1 presents an overview of the book and chapters 2-4 frame the interactive problems that confront supervision and highlight the conflict between the overall goals of supervision and what seems to occur. Chapters 5-8…

Professors who study and teach supervision should realize that they are involved in creating a scholarship of practice, not a science or applied science. Pretending to "do science" maligns education's legitimacy and assigns its professors to second-class status. The practice approach has more potential for creating a true community of…

This paper quotes liberally from writings on teacher supervision as it traces the history of attitudes toward the relationship between teachers and their supervisors from the middle 1800's to the present. The paper begins with the "Annual Report of the Superintendent of Common Schools of the State of New York" (1845), which reveals the simpler…

The speaker presents his notion about reconceptualizing the function of supervision and the role of supervisors in a way that fits the needs of teachers, supervisors, and schools. This new approach conceives of the function of supervisors as interpersonal intervention and the role of the supervisor as that of interpersonal interventionist--a…

County school superintendents' thoughts on education in 1845, drawn from the New York State superintendent's annual report and analyzed in this article, provide an enriching historical perspective for today's administrator. (MCG)

Instructionally, schools tend to be "weakly normed" organizational systems in which teachers bring relatively little pressure upon each other to change and/or improve their classroom performance. Because teachers tolerate a wide range of behavior among their colleagues and are reluctant to offer criticism of each other, those responsibile for…

Recent studies of the perceptions of teachers and supervisors about the benefits of teacher supervision show clear disagreement between the two groups. Supervisors see their efforts as helpful to teachers, whereas teachers consider supervision ineffectual. This document reports on research conducted to test the theory that positive…