The theory and practice of supervision developed during a period in which the legitimization of any enterprise was most effectively sought through appeals to science and scientific methods for problem-solving. The failure of scientific discipline to develop conclusively effective theories in many social fields, including supervision, suggests that…

To what extent can school principals provide effective educational leadership? Research shows that, contrary to textbook images, principals react to their circumstances instead of controlling them and that they spend most of their time on administrative, not instructional, matters. Further entrenching principals in their administrative role is the…

Clinical supervision should not be construed as "delivery of services" to targeted audiences of teachers deemed inexperienced, inefficient, or incompetent. Supervision should instead empower and emancipate teachers by creating conditions under which they can examine classroom actions in terms of the historical, social, and cultural…

Needed is a shift from more traditional, technical, scientific, management-based teacher supervision to methods that allow teachers to gain a greater understanding of the teaching process per se, such as clinical supervision. However, greater attention needs to be given to the philosophy and rationale of clinical supervision. (Author/DCS)

Teacher supervision is suffering from a legacy of being affiliated with an outmoded integration of science and technology. Dialectical supervision, which emphasizes empowering teachers with ways of knowing that involve continually confronting themselves and searching for more responsive and less dominant educative practices, is proposed as an…

Properly construed, clinical supervision in education involves a true, collaborative collegiality among teachers in place of the traditional power relationship between teachers and dominant, "expert," administrator-level supervisors. By eliminating the power of the nonteaching supervisor to prescribe procedures for improving teaching,…

The principal has a duty to assess the worth (make a summative evaluation) of the various parts of the organization, including teachers, and the further responsibility for making provision for the formative evaluation of the teaching staff with a view to assisting them in their personal and professional growth. (Author)

In Australia, outside inspectors no longer assess teachers for promotion and advancement, but public concern has stirred interest in new forms of teacher evaluation. More teachers now accept the desirability of being observed by fellow teachers. (Author/JM)

A review of the research indicates that the interface between the findings from research on teaching and staff development of teachers is an important but neglected one. An improvement in teaching skills calls for an interactive or collaborative mode of professional development which is based on classroom interests and the needs of teachers, with…

Relevant theory and research are brought to bear on the questions of what administrators can do that makes a difference to student learning, of exactly what principals manage in their role as education leader, and of what knowledge they must have to increase learning in their schools. Conclusions are that principals can improve student achievement…

Through the process of clinical supervision, systematic approaches permit effective change by the collaborative analysis of teaching. This guide's first section, "Beginnings," describes the process of clinical supervision. Emphasis is upon teachers working collaboratively to discover implicit teaching messages and to assimilate new…