Supervision, Teaching, and Learning in Successful Schools: A Hall of Mirrors

Successful supervision is broad-based and collegial, and positively affects both teaching and learning. Successful teaching is characterized by professional decision making facilitated by supportive supervision. The most powerful type of learning is student-driven, teacher-facilitated learning. Successful supervision, teaching, and learning are congruent and reflect one another, creating a “hall of mirrors.” Supervision, teaching, and learning can both contribute to and flourish across 10 dimensions of successful schools, including care, service, trust, democratic community, equity grounded in equality, justice and peace, symbols and ceremonies, freedom and creativity, holistic development, and school vision. Reviews of literature on the dimensions of successful schools indicate a variety of positive benefits for schools, teachers, and students

Lessons from the Past: Ideas from Supervision Books Published from 1920 through 1950

By understanding its past, a field of study and practice can better understand its present and improve its future, yet the field of educational supervision has done very little to document or contemplate its history. In this paper, 10 books on supervision published from 1920 through 1950 are reviewed, including books by Nutt (1920), Burton (1922), Crabbs (1925), Barr and Burton (1926), Nutt (1928), Kyte (1930), Barr (1931), Rorer (1942), Barr, Burton, and Brueckner (1947), and Wiles (1950). The discussion of each book is organized into three parts. First, the author discusses a concept from the book that he believes should be retained, meaning the concept should continue to be discussed and acted upon. Second, the author reviews a concept no longer valued or utilized that he argues should be revived in order to improve present-day supervision. Third, the author describes a concept discussed in the book under review that he maintains should be reproved as a negative influence on the field. The reader is urged to review historical literature on supervision and form her or his own perspectives on the value of historical concepts to modern supervision

Supervision’s New Challenge: Facilitating a Multidimensional Curriculum

In this article I propose that curriculum and instruction are inextricably intertwined, curriculum development should be an important function of educational supervision, and supervision should foster a multidimensional curriculum developed by teachers. The proposed curriculum framework includes cognitive, social-emotional, moral, cultural, democratic, creative-artistic, and health and physical dimensions. I provide a rationale for including each of the seven dimensions, and recommend integrating the seven dimensions within a holistic curriculum. I contend that each dimension of the proposed curriculum will promote learning in the other dimensions. The suggested curriculum development process involves the supervisor facilitating professional development for teachers and curriculum design by teachers. Finally, I recommend a three-phase model for curriculum development leading to the multidimensional curriculum, with continuous curriculum development at the school, team, and individual level

Educational Supervision: Reflections on Its Past, Present, and Future

The author shares summaries of the supervision literature along with personal reflections and recommendations to discuss supervision’s past, present, and future. Topics from the past include the heyday of clinical superevision, the University of Georgia’s Department of Curriculum and Supervision, important concepts introduced by supervision scholars, and groups associated with supervision. Consideration of the present encompasses current scholarship, other recent influences on supervision, and the resurgence of the Council of Professors of Instructional Supervision (COPIS). The part of the article on supervision’s future consists of hopes and recommendations for the future, with discussions of the Journal of Educational Supervision as well as recommendations for political action, teacher leadership, and fully functioning professional development schools. The author also recommends an expanded COPIS as well as partnership among scholarly groups focused on educational supervision, school districts and schools, and supervision scholars from around the world

Integrating the Experiential Learning Cycle with Educational Supervision

Kolb’s experiential learning cycle includes concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation. This paper first examines some preliminary questions concerning the rationale for exploring the use of Kolb’s experiential learning in supervision. Kolb’s experiential learning theory, as well as four supervision models compatible with his learning cycle, are reviewed. Guidelines are suggested for integrating the experiential learning cycle with clinical supervision, collaborative action research, lesson study, and the collegial support group. Different types of research are recommended for studying the integration of the experiential learning cycle with supervision

Instructional Supervision for Culturally Responsive Teaching

Instructional Supervision for Culturally Responsive Teaching Stephen P. Gordon Professor Emeritus, Texas State University, [email protected] Sara Espinoza School Designer, Teaching for Transformation, [email protected] Abstract In this position paper we argue that clinical supervision and other processes of instructional supervision, if focused on collaborative inquiry rather than external critique, can assist teachers to engage in more culturally responsive teaching (CRT). The article begins with a brief review of CRT, including its definition, principles, and goals. We then describe how clinical supervision based on a collaboration, mutual trust, and collegiality can assist a teacher to reflect on classroom behaviors, engage in self-critique, and adopt new teaching behaviors. Following the discussion of clinical supervision, we illustrate how other supervision processes—professional development, professional learning communities (PLCs), curriculum development, and action research—can be combined with clinical supervision to support CRT. Professional development can help teachers to develop a variety of capacities associated with CRT. In PLCs, teachers can assist each other to reflect on classroom experiences, plan for needed change, and assist each other to implement and assess that change. With the assistance of the supervisor, teachers can work together to design and implement culturally responsive curriculum. The supervisor and teachers can engage in action research for CRT in which they select a focus area, design an action plan, implement the plan, and assess results. The article concludes with a case study that illustrates how all five of the supervision processes discussed can be integrated in a comprehensive effort to promote CRT

Integrating Multiple Professional Learning Frameworks to Assist Teachers’ Reflective Inquiry

This study sought to determine how three teachers experienced learning when engaged in ongoing reflective inquiry regarding their teaching beliefs, teaching behaviors, and the comparison of those beliefs and behaviors. Three case studies describe teachers writing educational platforms, comparing their platforms to their classroom behaviors, and engaging in efforts to align their teaching with their beliefs. Five professional learning frameworks supported the teachers in their reflective inquiry: action research, a critical friend, reflective writing, a collegial support group and clinical supervision. The critical friend met teachers in individual meetings to discuss the inquiry process, facilitated their collegial support group meetings and conducted non-evaluative clinical supervision cycles for each teacher. Data collected for the study included transcribed audio recordings of the critical friend’s individual meetings with teachers, post-observation conferences, and collegial support group meetings. Additional data included the teachers’ educational platforms, action research game plans, classroom observation data, and reflective journals. Data for each teacher were analyzed and triangulated to develop individual cases, and a cross-case comparison identified group themes. Although they progressed through the inquiry process in different ways and at different tempos, all three teachers experienced cognitive dissonance that led to a commitment to align their beliefs and behaviors

Teacher Leaders of Collaborative Action Research: Challenges and Rewards

This study describes four successful collaborative action research (CAR) projects through the lens of teacher leaders who facilitated the CAR. For each CAR project described, the study reports on the relationship of the teacher leader with team members, various phases of CAR, the challenges of implementation and how those challenges were addressed, and results of the action research. Additionally, the study identifies several common characteristics of the widely varied CAR projects. All of the teacher leaders relied on positive relationships with teachers to enlist them into the CAR and keep it going. The CAR teams gathered a variety of data throughout their action research, to assess needs, monitor progress, and determine outcomes. The four CAR projects all included embedded professional development and opportunities for teacher reflection. The teacher leaders gathered feedback from the participating teachers throughout the implementation of the CAR. All of the CAR projects encountered barriers that caused the teachers stress and threatened to curtail the projects; however the teacher leaders were able to navigate those barriers by displaying flexibility and modifying the CAR. All of the CAR projects yielded positive outcomes, and in each case the participants agreed to continue the CAR the following school year

Year One of School Improvement: Examples from Nine Schools

School improvement research asks the question “How do schools improve over time?” and thus is focused on school culture and the change process

Genetic stability of pneumococcal isolates during 35 days of human experimental carriage

Background Pneumococcal carriage is a reservoir for transmission and a precursor to pneumococcal disease. The experimental human pneumococcal carriage model provides a useful tool to aid vaccine licensure through the measurement of vaccine efficacy against carriage (VEcol). Documentation of the genetic stability of the experimental human pneumococcal carriage model is important to further strengthen confidence in its safety and conclusions, enabling it to further facilitate vaccine licensure through providing evidence of VEcol. Methods 229 isolates were sequenced from 10 volunteers in whom experimental human pneumococcal carriage was established, sampled over a period of 35 days. Multiple isolates from within a single volunteer at a single time provided a deep resolution for detecting variation. HiSeq data from the isolates were mapped against a PacBio reference of the inoculum to call variable sites. Results The observed variation between experimental carriage isolates was minimal with the maximum SNP distance between any isolate and the reference being 3 SNPs. Conclusion The low-level variation described provides evidence for the stability of the experimental human pneumococcal carriage model over 35 days, which can be reliably and confidently used to measure VEcol and aid future progression of pneumococcal vaccination