For this commentary, the author went back and read most of her own writings on graduate education. Having only just retired but still working with supervisees and doing research, she reflects on supervision and culture. She has four questions for authors and readers: (1) What is supervision?; (2) What are the implications of "sameness" and…

In the light of viewpoints that pedagogy has been an obvious missing category in considerations of scholarly supervisory work, the author argues that the existing theory on the (more established) scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) may be successfully adapted to make it highly applicable to supervisory scholarship. Research supervision…

In this essay, the authors talk about higher degree supervision as a human relationship, and shares how to supervise a PhD. There's a tendency now to talk about supervision as if it's a technical process one needs to learn the rules of. This paper urges educators to think about this as a human educational relationship, which has all the ups and…

Exploring postgraduate supervision practices with supervisors is a complex and contested endeavour. The growing body of literature on approaches to working with supervisors attests to this. Unlike some areas of higher education research, studies of supervision span theoretical spectrums from liberal approaches (e.g. Ballard and Clanchy 1991; Bruce…

Publications about postgraduate studies and the supervision address issues and concerns such as supervisory orientations and strategies, ways to handle postgraduate students, challenging postgraduate education practices, factors related to success in postgraduate studies, the benefits of advanced studies, transition to independent research and…

Postmodernists have criticized modern conceptions of supervision as bureaucratic, hierarchical, and oppressive. This paper asserts that the postmodern proclivity to completely eschew expert supervision, evaluation, and judicious use of directive supervision is misguided, potentially limiting, and dangerous. The paper argues that collegial…

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…

Evidence suggests that group clinical supervision of counsellors and trainees is an effective mode of service delivery. However, clinical supervision is often understood to be concerned with teaching a generic set of skills. Without specifically labeling them as such, clinical supervision groups are implicitly identified as psycho-educational…

Businesses are finding that positive reinforcement is a useful tool in management and supervision. However, there are few reports of the systematic use of positive reinforcement by educational administrators and supervisors. (Author/MLF)

The field of instructional supervision in schools has a history of being misunderstood and devalued, having been beset by problems of definition and purpose. This paper examines the history of supervision and its ties with educational administration, and describes implications for supervision and administration. There is a history of tension…

An ethnographic or anthropological perspective is useful for the reexamination of the assumptions and taken-for-granted nature of the practice of supervision. An indepth survey of literature on supervisors illustrates supervisory roles and the existence of a separate "supervisor culture". Specifically, the relationship between novice teachers and…

This article examines the conflict over the definition of clinical supervision from the neo-traditional and neo-progressive perspectives. It shows how this conflict affects teachers' assessment and assistance, and suggests possible areas of compromise and future directions the conflict may take. (TE)

Discusses the supervisory responsibilities generated by mandated changes in New York State testing procedures in social studies. Points out that the task in providing remediation programs is now more complicated. Discusses state guidelines for needs assessment, in-service training of staff, coordinating and planning for at-risk students, and…

Presents a definition and examines arguments for and against the clinical supervision model for teacher improvement. (SJL)

This paper identifies the factors that can make a building principal an effective instructional leader, as seen from the superintendent's perspective. According to the author, the effective instructional leader helps those in the educational community define instructional goals and objectives, works to develop effectiveness in teaching, builds a…