Teacher effectiveness has long been identified as critical to student success and, more recently, supporting students attaining the skills and dispositions required to be successful in the early 21st century. To do so requires that teachers engage in professional learning characterized as a shift away from conventional models of evaluation and…

This inquiry focuses on the "overall instructional leadership" approaches used by exemplary principals in three high performing Canadian provinces to overcome three persistent obstacles to effective teacher supervision and evaluation: (a) the management challenge, (b) the complexity challenge, and (c) the learning challenge. Analysis of…

A questionnaire was used to determine the individual and collective teacher supervision practices of school principals and vice-principals in Québec (n = 39) who participated in a research-action study on pedagogical supervision. These practices were then analyzed in terms of the principals' sociodemographic and socioprofessional characteristics…

In the province of Québec, Canada, school principals are obligated by law to ensure pedagogical supervision. This law, the Public Education Act (Government of Québec, 2017), also advocates a contractual Results-Based Management approach (RBM). We examined how the practices and perceptions of these supervisors influence the implementation of this…

Networked learning communities are growing and they offer new opportunities for reflection on practice in education. Many authors have studied the processes followed and the contents produced by such communities. On the other hand, few have observed how collective asynchronous discourse can be enacted in the classroom. This objective was pursued…

This paper reports on research that suggests a new view of assessment of the practicum in teacher education. By transcending the stereotypes of "failing" student teachers who do not achieve traditional benchmarks, this new lens highlights the complexity, diversity and inequality of experiences through listening to the voices of the…

This article investigates the hidden curriculum of Ontario's New Teacher Induction Program (NTIP). The study involved interviews with 47 teacher educators from eight faculties of education. Responses revealed concerns about (a) who chooses the mentors, (b) the probationary status of new teachers, and (c) the evaluation of new teachers' competence.…

In recent years, it has been reported that an alarming number of teachers are leaving the profession in the first three years after graduation from a pre-service program. This phenomenon is common in North America and it is essential that educators identify the challenges surrounding new teachers and provide supports to assist them. The vast…

The concept of clinical supervision has for several years incorporated ideas about supervisory techniques that have recently received growing support from research on the implementation of innovations by teachers. Among these ideas are that supervision should be focused on teacher behaviors, that analysis of patterns of teacher behavior can help…

Since 1975, more than 400 teachers have successfully completed workshops at the University of Lethbridge (Canada) on the application of clinical supervision methods in the supervision of student teachers. Over 100 of these teachers, all of whom had supervised at least 3 student teachers, responded to a questionnaire requesting information on the…

The student teaching experience can be successful if the student teacher, the host teacher, and the student-teacher supervisor share common goals. Because these goals are frequently not shared, a study was undertaken to develop a scale for the observation of student teachers that would both promote student teacher development and improve the…

In order to determine current practices and policies concerning the formal evaluation of certified teaching personnel in Alberta, this survey was conducted by means of a questionnaire (appended) sent to all school districts in the province. The findings were then compared to those of a similar survey conducted in 1977. The comparison revealed that…

Reports a study that examined and considered improvements to supervision of Canadian beginning teachers during the three-year transition phase into formal teaching. Existing supervisory practice, as determined by a survey, was compared to that recommended in the literature. Results suggest a need for strong, collaborative supervision efforts…

This study, initiated by the Scarborough (Ontario) Board of Education, examines principals' perceptions of their role in curriculum implementation, the difficulties inherent in this role and the support systems available to assist principals, and the leadership component of the principals' role in curriculum implementation. Interviews, based on a…

Findings of a study that examined the school administrator's role in the induction and support of beginning teachers are presented in this paper. Conducted in a school district in southwestern Ontario, Canada, data were derived from interviews with 4 principals who volunteered to develop school-based induction programs in their schools and from…