Peer review of teachers is controversial for several reasons. Some say peer reviewers encroach on the rightful domain of the principal as instructional leader. Others argue that, because peer evaluators are fellow teachers, they may be biased or unwilling to make hard decisions. Many teachers find the prospect of peer evaluation unsettling because…

Like high-stakes student assessment, high-stakes teacher evaluation threatens to be an occasional event that is disconnected from day-to-day teaching and learning, producing results that do not help teachers improve their performance and placing teachers in a passive role as recipients of external judgment. For several years, the authors have…

Classroom observation is a crucial aspect of any system of teacher evaluation. No matter how skilled a teacher is in other aspects of teaching--such as careful planning, working well with colleagues, and communicating with parents--if classroom practice is deficient, that individual cannot be considered a good teacher. Classroom observations can…

According to Sergiovanni and Starratt (2007), the evaluation process plays a powerful role in developing and nurturing a teacher's instructional capacity, which, in turn, contributes to students' academic successes. School districts in South Carolina utilize the Assisting, Developing and Evaluating Professional Teaching (ADEPT) system. A component…

In all professions, the development of the field rests on an established knowledge base and on newer, emerging information. As a discipline, instructional supervision has been influenced by both evaluation-based and clinically oriented theories. This paper presents findings of a study that sought to determine the degree to which various…

Courses preparing early childhood professionals through institutes of technical and further education utilise competency standards to guide the assessment of students during professional experience. Some universities offering early childhood teacher education courses use the term "competencies" in practicum assessment forms and draw on…

In our pre-service department, university practicum supervisors are faculty members who offer academic, social, and personal support to teacher candidates during their year-long program. Their role is described as one designed primarily to provide formative assessment and feedback to improve classroom practice and reflection on practice. This…

Written for practitioners who must supervise early childhood staff from a wide variety of educational and cultural backgrounds, this book provides guidelines and practical suggestions for staff training and development in early childhood settings. Part 1 challenges myths regarding supervision to ease the burden under which supervisors carry out…

Considers perceptions of novice and experienced teachers towards models of supervision commonly used in public schools. Suggests using that form of supervision considered most effective by experienced teachers produces the greatest improvement in teaching. Generally, adopting supervisory models considered reliable and appropriate by teachers is…

This article examines the conflict over the definition of clinical supervision from the neo-traditional and neo-progressive perspectives. It shows how this conflict affects teachers' assessment and assistance, and suggests possible areas of compromise and future directions the conflict may take. (TE)

Two national surveys found that the supervision needs of practicum students, interns, and practitioners in school psychology were underemphasized in the training of counselors. This paper focuses on the M. P. Wilbur and others (1991) Structured Group Supervision Model (SGSM) and how it has been used with a variety of supervisees in counselor…

Sets forth a model of group supervision, drawing on a creative therapies approach which provides an effective way of delivering process issues, conceptualization issues, and personalization issues. The model makes particular use of techniques drawn from art therapy and from psychodrama, and should be applicable to therapists of many orientations.…

It is common for supervisors to evaluate their supervisees with a rating form. Despite the importance of supervisor ratings to the training of counselors and therapists, very little attention has been devoted to the overall reliability (generalizability) of these ratings. This study examined the generalizability of supervisor ratings of…

The development of two instruments useful in evaluating supervisory behavior is described in this paper. Form 1 of the Supervisory Behavior Description Questionnaire (SBDQ) is an ordinal-type scale originally composed of eight sub-scales and 132 triads of items. Each item is composed of a very directive statement, a collaborative statement, and a…