Reviewed is the literature on the supervisory conference over the 20 years since the advent of clinical supervision. First, the purpose and components of the conference are examined, followed by reflections on the underlying assumptions of the relationship between supervisor and teacher. Literature on the use of observation data in the conference…

Principal and teacher readiness is a crucial prerequisite to successful supervision. Principals can achieve positive results by using a group approach to instructional improvement. Videotapes and other classroom data can help focus discussion and promote teacher growth and self-learning. (MLH)

Case studies in four Scottish primary schools of beginning teachers identified crucial elements: induction program for transition from college to teaching; experienced teacher support; making explicit the roles and responsibilities of all; and regular, supportive, structured feedback. (SK)

Describes seven phases in the evolution of supervisory practice in the schools. Describes each historical phase in relation to its purpose (assisting or assessing), focus or emphases, the personnel typically involved, the skills needed to implement supervision, and the assumptions surrounding the process. (SR)

The author of EC 604 973 comments on his case study of a first-year teacher with a learning disability. These reflections focus on the emotions of the first-year subject, the use of the case study approach, and methods of assisting teachers with learning disabilities in the workplace. (JDD)

Critiquing Jean Hill's article in the same "Journal of Curriculum and Supervision" issue from an interpretivist viewpoint, this article uses generic hermeneutics to illuminate instructional supervision as a practice, theory, and field of study. Generic hermeneutics recognizes both dichotomies and complementarities. Hill's article…

Many states and school districts have developed mentor programs to ease beginning teachers' transitions into the profession. Research shows mentoring programs improve teaching, raise teachers' self-confidence, and increase teacher retention. However, their high cost has made them targets for state and local budget cuts. (SM)

Somewhere between easygoing and hardboiled management extremes lies the realm of true leadership. An effective administrator gets results by leading people (not ordering them), learning how to handle them, and discovering what makes each one tick. A true leader captures and holds staff members' confidence, helps them develop needed skills, and…

A principal need not be a musician to supervise a music program. Supervisory emphasis should be on elements of the musical process that can be taught, reinforced, and evaluated. At the core of the instructional program, there should be a method book, behavioral objectives, and a graded course of instruction. (MLH)

New principals need a game plan for an orderly transition. This article outlines a plan organized by seven significant areas of school leadership: administration, curriculum and instruction, professional development and supervision, staffing, student issues, student activities, and communication with important school constituencies. Being…

Examines the rules of practice, practical principles, and images of teaching students that teachers constructed under the supervision of inservice teachers. Reports on the student teachers' seminar assessment as an opportunity for constructing practical knowledge about teaching. (Contains 16 references.) (YDS)

Presents a four-phase, theoretically based model for supervision co-constructed and shared by members of a professional-development school community and influenced by four bodies of literature. The four phases include building of readiness, directed supervision, reflective supervision, and teacher inquiry. Benefits of collaborative supervision are…

Differentiated supervision is an approach to supervision that provides teachers with options about the kinds of supervisory and evaluative services they receive. The differentiated model provides intensive development to nontenured teachers and to tenured teachers with serious problems. The rest of the faculty receive options for fostering their…

This paper reviews the literature on the developmental stages of trainees and supervisors and how experience changes each of these groups. The assumption that trainees and supervisors learn and improve as they gain in experience does not explain how psychology trainees and supervisors change. The nature of this change leads to a number of…

A systematic exploration of the nature of teacher evaluation is presented. After a critique of the widespread impositional (or "dominant") mode of teacher evaluation, two alternative forms of teacher evaluation, referred to as "educative," are proposed. These educative teacher evaluation approaches, "horizontal"…