This paper presents findings of an ethnographic study of a school district's Staff Development, Supervision, and Evaluation Program (SDSEP). Data were gathered through interviews, observations, participant observation, analysis of kinesics and proxemics, semiotic analysis of discourse, unobtrusive measures, and analysis of official documents. The…

Year One of the 3-year Montana Beginning Teacher Support Program (BTSP) was conducted as a pilot study to investigate mentor-mentee pairing functioning under the study parameters as evidenced by a sampling of Montana participants, and to develop a manageable research model to be implemented during the second and third years of the study. The study…

Educational supervision has historically sought to improve the quality of teaching. This book is a text for undergraduate and graduate students who are engaged in the study of issues in educational supervision; it is a compendium of informed commentaries on current issues written by prominent scholars in the field. The first part (12 chapters)…

The purposes of this study were to discover if a list of 14 common experiences would be part of the student teachers' reflective process during their two 8-week practicums, and to evaluate how different mediums (written journals, telecommunications, and personal observation/conferences) would impact the student teachers' reflection process. The…

Findings of a study that examined novice supervisors' understandings of supervision are presented in this paper. Data were collected from 110 graduate-level students enrolled in an introductory supervision class. Four themes emerged from students' definitions of supervision-domains, relationships, traits, and tasks. The most surprising finding was…

Two experiments in instructional supervision were conducted to support teachers in changing their teaching behavior as they implemented a new math curriculum. The focus of the investigation was a method of teaching multiplication and principles of effective teaching. In the first experiment, instructional supervision, both with and without…

This paper offers suggestions for using portfolios to assess teacher performance. Key policy decisions that should be addressed prior to preparation of the portfolios include purpose, domains, audience, administrative matters, technical issues, and legal issues. After these policy decisions have been made, guidelines for portfolio design--its…

Originally developed for the Department of Defense Schools (DoDDS) system, this learning package on observation and feedback is designed for teachers who wish to upgrade or expand their teaching skills on their own. The package includes a comprehensive search of the ERIC database; a lecture giving an overview on the topic; the full text of several…

The growth of an academic area can be measured by the growth of its literature. It is a natural corollary that the demand for excellence in education engenders a demand for literature. Due to the increased importance of student teaching as a final step in the preparation of future music teachers, it is timely to assemble as much bibliographic…

A report is given of a conference which recommended changes in the manner in which new teachers are inducted into the schools in Massachusetts. The focus of the conference was on mentoring programs. The basic philosophy of the conferees was that an effective mentoring program must be a communal enterprise, drawing upon and fostering a collegiality…

During the 1985-86 school year an Intern-Mentor Program was implemented in all four regions of the District of Columbia Public Schools by the Incentive Programs Office. This program, designed to improve the teaching performance of first-year, beginning teachers, involved 90 new teachers and 10 specially selected mentor teachers. Mentors provided…

This study sought to describe how an elementary school faculty made sense of the impending succession of its principal, and to extend Gephart's effort to develop a grounded theory of leader succession by examining an unforced succession in an organization whose members exerted little if any influence on the selection process. On the basis of…

Several years of research support a differentiated system of supervision in which teachers can choose from among four different supervision styles. With the clinical style, intense observation and feedback is conducted by a trained supervisor. Cooperative professional development consists of small teams of peers working together for their mutual…

This review surveys major currents of thought and practice in teacher evaluation. Citing recent state-mandated teacher evaluation policies and procedures, several compelling questions of accuracy, fairness, and utility are raised. In response to these questions, the document first focuses on the distinction between formative and summative…

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a beginning teacher supervision program conducted by the Department of Agricultural and Extension Education at Pennsylvania State University. Specifically, it analyzed differences between a group of 23 vocational agriculture teachers who participated in the beginning teacher supervision program that used…