Diagnostic supervision helps supervisors identify teachers' job-related and personal needs and respond to them within the expectations of the institution. A planning questionnaire is used to guide discussion during a diagnostic conference. (CL)

Traditional supervision paradigms, based on changing teachers' behavior, are ineffective. The Knowledge Work Supervision model helps align supervisory processes with a school system's purposes, goals, and outcomes. A special supervisory paradigm that shifts focus from individual behavior to an organization's work processes and social systems is…

At the heart of the instructional supervisor's role is helping teachers learn and unlearn attitudes, concepts, and skills relevant to their jobs. Among the principles the supervisor must understand to provide this help are those relating to motivation, learning readiness, the learning climate, levels of aspiration, and reinforcement. Diagnostic…

Because knowledge work occurs inside teachers' heads, it cannot be supervised directly. School improvement can become a permanent, ongoing organizational function by replacing traditional instructional supervision with a supervision-for-school-improvement function. The focus then shifts to examining a district's work processes, social…

This article describes a new supervision model conceived to help a school system redesign its anatomy (structures), physiology (flow of information and webs of relationships), and psychology (beliefs and values). The new paradigm (Knowledge Work Supervision) was constructed by reviewing the practices of several interrelated areas: sociotechnical…

This paper summarizes a new paradigm of instructional supervision, which shifts the focus on supervision from an examination of individual behavior to the improvement of work processes and social system components of the school district. The paradigm, called "Knowledge Work Supervision," helps teams of teachers and specially trained supervisors…

This paper summarizes a new paradigm of instructional supervision, which shifts the focus from individual behavior to the improvement of work processes and social system components of the school district. The proposed paradigm, the Knowledge Work Supervision model, is derived from sociotechnical systems design theory and linked to the premise that…

Using the literature and experiences of theorists and practitioners from several interrelated areas (knowledge work, organization learning/development, sociotechnical systems design, and quality improvement), this article proposes a new instructional supervision paradigm called Knowledge Work Supervision aimed at improving school systems'…

The strategy of diagnostic supervision, and the diagnostic conference, are outlined in this paper. Diagnostic supervision involves the supervisor and teachers in a process of recognizing needs, stating problems, and agreeing on objectives for the teachers' instructional improvement. The diagnostic conference, one tool used within the process,…