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Reflections on Schools, Teaching, and SuperVision
Chapter 5 (105-119)
EFFECTIVE TEACHING RESEARCH
 
Effective teachers have a "can-do" attitude, spend whatever time and effort is necessary , have realistic, professional attitudes toward students and expect their students to achieve. (According to Brophy and Evertson)
 
Other research examined the effectiveness of:  classroom climate, academic learning time, homework and student diagnosis and evaluation. 
 
Six instructional functions: review, presentation of new skills, initial student practice, feedback and reteaching, independent practice, and weekly/monthly reviews. (Rosenshine)
 
 
 
 

CAUTIONS CONCERNING EFFECTIVE TEACHING RESEARCH
 
The research on effective teaching cannot be generalized for every classroom, teacher and student. 
  • more about "teachers' effects" than effective teaching
  • less relevant for some subject areas than others
  • appropriate for only 40% of teaching
  • inappropriate to view explicit, direct instruction as the model for effective teaching.

 

 
 

INSTRUCTIONAL IMPROVEMENT AND EFFECTIVE TEACHING
 
Actually, the search for a single instructional model is FUTILE!!!!
 
Instead, effective instruction is seen as the teacher's ability to use various ways of teaching according to a variety of learning goals and student learning styles.

BELIEFS ABOUT EDUCATION
 
As a teacher, you developed an educational platform that guides everything you do in your classroom.
 
As a supervisor, you must identify your supervisory platform since that will guide all the decisions you will make as an administrator.
  • What is your definition of instructional supervision?
  • What should be the ultimate purpose of supervision?
  • Who should supervise? Who should be supervised?
  • What knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values are possessed by successful supervisors?
  • What are the most important needs of teachers?
  • What makes for positive relationships between supervisors and teachers?
  • What types of activities should be part of instructional supervision?
  • What should be changed about the currect practice of instructional supervision?

 

Educators who care about the fate of all children must define goodness before they worry about effectiveness.

CONSTRUCTIVISTISM
According to this theory, learning takes place in two ways:
  1. Cognitive constructivism:  individual encounters an idea or experience that contradicts his or her conception of reality.
  2. Social constructivism: proposes that knowledge is not created by the individual but is a result of the individual's intereaction with his/her social context.

Example:  Traditional Classroom vs. Constructivist Classroom (pg 111)

 

THREE MAJOR EDUCATIONAL SUPERPHILOSOPHIES that have direct relevance to supervision:
 
  1. Essentialism: world is pre-ordained, mechanistic reality.  All of existence operates according to scientific, cause-and-effect relations.  Knowledge of learning how the machine works; truths are the scientific laws of regulation.  The purpose of education is to condition the mind to think in a natural, logical way.  The mind should be trained to become consciously aware of the pre-determined nature of the world.  Supervisor is expert, transmits knowledge to teachers.
  2. Experimentalism: reality is what works.  On repeated experimentation with the same results, it becomes real.  Yet, the human environment if constantly changing, therefore; there is never an absolute truth.  A new situation and a different approach may alter yesterday's reality.  Knowledge is a result of the interaction between the scientific person and the environment.  Supervisor works democratically with teachers.
  3. Existentialism:  the rejection of the other two philosophies!  Existentialists believe that this same rational thinking restricts humans from discovering existence and therefore keeps them ignorant!  Beyond the individual exists only chaos.  This supervision philosophy means a full commitment to individual teacher choice.  This supervisor helps only when needed, and allows teachers to learn for themselves.