Teachers Appraise Supervision

Abstract

A major point often overlooked in a supervisor's attempt to improve teachers in service, is the necessity for constant evaluation of the supervisory practices which he uses in the attempt. Teachers are prodded and cajoled into accepting more effective techniques for their improvement. They are able to study the excellences of some teachers and to see inherent weaknesses in others. All of this contributes to teacher growth. With intelligent super vision, there is additional stimulation for teachers. These are all factors which play a big part in their continuous growth in service. Supervision, unfortunately, cannot be improved in the same way. A supervisor must be philosophic enough to envision goals, purposes, and out comes. He must be scientific enough to weigh the results of his policies on the scales of reliability, validity, and effectiveness. He must be pliable enough to modify his practices to suit changing conditions. He must realize that his professional growth will result only from what he does to produce desirable changes in his educational thinking and planning. In short, he cannot depend upon outside influences to the extent that teachers can. The latter will be helped in the growth process. The former will grow almost solely as a result of their own efforts. There is evidence that a large number of supervisors, content that their supervision works, are coasting along in this state of contentment With out analyzing and critically assaying the various devices they use in supervi sion, they keep repeating them in the belief that they are time-tested and consequently productive of results. As long as they feel this way, there is a likelihood not only of stagnation, but even of retrogression. This conviction is the chief outcome of a study that was recently under taken and completed, to test teacher appraisal of the worth of the common supervisory practices. What do teachers think of the values of the usual techniques of supervision? Are they as helpful as supervisors think they are? May some of them be actually detrimental? What can supervisors 606