This study reviews the literature on the supervisory conference over the past 30 years in order to examine the underlying assumptions about conferences and how they have been incorporated and interpreted by those who have written about supervisory conferences. The review is organized according to the three major components of the conference: the…

Extending research findings that strong administrative leadership is the most important influence on a school system, this paper argues that improved leadership, aided by models of leadership style and behavior, can improve instructional effectiveness. Because a significant correlation has been found between teachers' behavior and student…

Draws on theory and research from education, counseling, and social work to form some preliminary conclusions regarding how race and ethnicity might affect the supervisory relationship. Calls on educational practitioners to fill the research gap on how diversity affects the process of supervision. (Contains 46 footnotes.) (AUTHOR/WFA)

From an organizational perspective, this paper synthesizes research on instructional leadership at the secondary level to provide principals with useful school management models to overcome obstacles to effective supervision. In addition, this paper analyzes the properties of secondary schools that shape principals' work; reviews their daily…

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,…

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…

Although 57% of community and junior college faculty are employed on a part-time basis, the supervision of adjunct faculty has received little attention in the literature. Reports on part-time faculty have generally dealt with their personal and professional characteristics, their job responsibilities and relationship to the college, and their…

Argues that effective supervision requires the ability to acquire skills in a variety of areas, to select those appropriate to a task, and to use them in concert. Discusses a number of skills necessary for good supervision. (FL)

This paper presents a transformational philosophy of educational leadership, with a focus on the practice of supervision. The paper defines and outlines the purposes of both leadership and supervision. It discusses multilevel social forces that affect leadership for K-8 schools and examines four dimensions of leadership--knowing oneself, the…

This document reports on a review of the leadership literature, a cross-sectional correlation study, and a series of in-depth teacher interviews, all of which were parts of an effort to better understand the conditions under which a principal can lead. The correlation study makes use of S. Kerr's theory that the effect of the leader's behavior on…

Thirty elementary school principals in a large urban school system were interviewed. They identified a pattern of strategies for identifying, managing, and possibly dismissing, borderline incompetent teachers. (LHW)

A review of recent research on personal characteristics of effective principals and on common leadership prerequisites concludes that effective instructional leadership depends on the interrelation between personal style and organizational context. Essential leadership functions identified by these studies include communicating school purpose,…

Examines images of principals' instructional leadership, based on 10 supervision textbooks published between 1985 and 1995. Textbooks portrayed principals as experts and superiors, teachers as deficient and voiceless, teaching as fixed technology, and supervision as a discrete intervention. Images of professional growth (stressing collegiality and…

A conceptual framework is developed to consider two dimensions of evaluation systems likely to lead performers to internalize the evaluation process. The theory of evaluation and authority developed by Dornbusch and Scott provides the basis for a review of six studies in support of two propositions: (1) the more frequently performers are…

Documents in the ERIC database which bear on teacher evaluation in the 1980s are cited. References deal with subjects such as evaluation criteria and methods, the validity of various measurement techniques, state policies, teacher attitudes, and who should evaluate teachers. (PP)