PEP 590 The Supervision of Physical Education

View of Clinical Supervision The teacher is viewed as a professional who is actively seeking greater expertise, so the focus of supervision is on strengths and needs to progress towards expertise –What are characteristics of expertise for professional teachers?

Role of Clinical Supervisor The supervisor must relate to the teacher Primary goal is the professional development of the preservice or inservice teacher –The supervisor’s mind, emotions, actions must point to this goal

Problems in Teacher Supervision Most teachers don’t think it is valuable –Typically arises from a need ‘elsewhere’, not from teachers Often communication is one-sided from the supervisor rather than ‘side-by-side’ between teacher and supervisor Time often hinders good supervision

Goals of Clinical Supervision The teacher and supervisor interact in a side by side relationship that focuses on detailed observational data with the intent to improve the teacher’s actual behavior in the classroom

Goals of Clinical Supervision To provide teachers with objective feedback on the current state of their instruction To diagnose and solve instructional problems To help teachers develop skill in using instructional strategies To help teachers develop a positive attitude toward professional development To evaluate teachers for contract renewal, tenure, or dismissal

Models of Clinical Supervision Technical/didactic –Draws from process-product work in the 1970s to reinforce effective behaviors of the teacher that help students learn Developmental/reflective –Encourages teachers to reflect on individual differences and the critical pedagogy contexts of teaching –Fosters professional growth, context-specific principles of practice, and justice and equity

What are your thoughts on supervision? How can we make clinical supervision a combination of systematic observational data AND reflection and introspection to transform the teacher’s pedagogy?

Clinical Supervision Processes A cyclical process with three major components: –A pre-planning conference where teacher and supervisor plan for the classroom observation –The systematic observation where data are collected –The post-observation feedback conference where data are analyzed, interpreted, and decisions for ‘what is next’ are determined

Theoretical Framework for Clinical Supervision Reflection in practice and reflection on practice –Teachers think about their teaching behaviors and make rational decisions and choices to improve the learning environment and learning opportunities of students Through the three components the teacher and supervisor identify concerns, gather the data, analyze and interpret the data and reflect on decisions and strategies to improve the concerns

Why is reflective practice important? Evaluate the importance of reflective practice in preservice teacher education. –How might reflective practice be absent in teacher education? Evaluate the importance of reflective practice in inservice education. –How might reflective practice be absent in professional development within inservice education?

Role Play Active Listening –Role #1. Talk about your weekend. The active listener will maintain eye contact, repeat phrases back to speaker, demonstrate enthusiasm to the speaker. –Role #2. Talk about something important. The active listener will maintain eye contact, but not interject phrases, and will remain in a neutral body language position. As the speaker, which role of the listener did you prefer?

Role Play Summary As a clinical supervisor, your emotions, thoughts, and actions must work together to facilitate improvements in teaching behaviors in the classroom The active listening skills of the supervisor are critical to avoid ‘telling’ the teacher what to do