Clinical Supervision and Teacher Learning

Clinical Supervision
Supervision that is direct
Face-to-face contact with teachers in order to improve instruction and increase
professional growth
Centered in the classroom
Focused on teachers issues
Primarily aimed to help teachers understand and improve their craft.
A collaborative process
Teachers/supervisors/administrators collaborate together to research their
practice and improve their learning and teaching
Is extremely time consuming and difficult to achieve under the current bureaucratic
system

The focus of clinical supervision should be on formative evaluation.
Emphasis is consistent with holding teachers accountable in a professional manner, not a
bureaucratic one.
Professional accountability is growth-oriented and implies a commitment to improvement.
Improving classroom instructions must start with the teachers.
Supervisors do not change teachers, but instead, help them to change.

The Practice of Clinical Supervision
Involves an in-depth examination and study of selected teaching issues.
Collection of data that helps the teacher to understand these issues.
The development of improved practice.
A partnership in inquiry
Healthy general supervisory climate; mutual support system called colleagueship.
Comprised of conferences and observations of teachers at work and pattern
analysis.
The teacher decides the course of clinical supervision, issues to be discussed and for what
purpose
Evaluation is responsive to the needs and desires of the teacher.
Clinical supervisors can be other teachers, principals, supervisors, etc.
Supervisors job is to help the teacher select goals for improvement and to understand
his/her practice.

Cogans Eight Phases of Clinical Supervision
Establish the teacher-supervisor relationship
Success dependent on a sharing of responsibility between teacher and supervisor for all
steps and activities involved in the process. Supervisor must build relationship based on
mutual trust and support.
Intensive planning of lessons and units with the teacher
Teacher and supervisor plan together a lesson, unit, etc.
Planning the classroom observation strategy by teacher and supervisor
Mutual agreement on the kind and amount of data to gather and the method used.
Supervisor observes in-class instruction
Only after the first three steps have been successfully accomplished does the
observation take place.

Careful analysis of the teaching-learning process
Work separately or together; identification of teacher patterns and behaviour; possible
collection and review of teaching artifacts.
Planning the conference strategy
Preparation of tentative objectives and processes; conference should be unhurried and
on school time.
The conference
Teacher and supervisor exchange information about what was intended and what
actually happened; success dependent on mutual understanding about the formative
nature of the process to improve instruction.
The resumption of planning
Agreement on the changes that need to be explored and begin planning the next goal
and/or lesson objective.
*** A proper clinical supervision model asks supervisors to give 2-3 hours a week to
each teacher!



The Bi-products of CS
Helps teachers to understand and improve their professional practice
Helps them to learn more about the skills of classroom analysis needed in supervision
*** As teachers become more adept, competent and assume more of the responsibility in a
clinical supervision framework, they should begin to participate in clinical supervision as a form
of collegial supervision.

Modified Clinical Supervision Model
Pre-conference/Teacher Notification
Discuss lesson objectives and strategies the teacher will focus on
Determine if the observation will focus on a mutually agreed upon specific behavior.
If this is an initial conference, the discussion should include an overview of each
persons educational philosophy.
Observe the Lesson
Be as unobtrusive as possible; dont get involved in the lesson unless the teacher brings
you into it.
Plan to stay for the whole lesson, specifically if it is an initial visit.
Record teacher behaviour
Perform the data capture
Perform Lesson Analysis
Review and label the Data Capture in terms of effective instructional practice as it
relates to:
Lesson Planning and Preparation
Classroom Management and Climate
Delivery of Instruction
Plan the Post-Observation Conference

Post-Observation Conference
1. Develop a Plan
Determine the conference objectives in behavioral terms
2-3 things that promoted student learning
1-2 items that impeded student learning
Use open-ended questions that will assist the teacher in reflecting on the instructional
skills that promoted student learning and that did not promote learning
Plan to collaboratively discuss concepts and actions that will focus on improving
those skills that can be mutually identified and agreed upon
Plan the follow-up
2. Conduct the conference
Review conference sequence with the teacher.
Begin discussion with open-ended questions.
Come to a mutual agreement on the action to be taken for future lessons
Plan the follow-up
Post conference can be used as the next pre-conference.
3. Do the next observation and repeat the process.