Article Reviewed:

Usman, Yunusa Dangara, The Impact of Instructional Supervision on Academic

Performance of Secondary School Students in Nasarawa State, Nigeria, Federal Road Safety
Commision (FRSC), RS4.35 Nassarawa Eggon Unit Command, Nasawara State, Nigeria.

The article, The Impact of Instructional Supervision on Academic Performance of

Secondary School Students in Nasawara State, Nigeria , by Yunusa Dangara Usman claims
and highlights how the academic performance of secondary school students influenced by
the instructional supervision. The author had mentioned about the instructional supervision
using robust supervision methods like checking of students notebooks, classroom
visitation/inspection by school administrators, checking teachers lesson plan/notes and
inspection of teachers record keeping have significant relationship with the students
performance on academic issue. It is clear from the abstract of this article that this is no
simple issue. I agreed with (Olaleye,2013) that the school and its organizational management
has correlation with the academic achievement of the students. This clearly showed that the
author wants to prove whether this research will find if the school management will give
impact on students performance.

In the first section of this article, as a reader we were highlighted with the word of
Instructional Supervision. In fact the author provided us with quite relevant quote
evidences to support that performance of the students were influenced by the Instructional
Supervision by the school administrators. As we can study from the article, it clearly claims
that poor performance of students influenced by the principals and teachers. Regarding this
article, I feel that authors should find more evidences to show that instructional supervision
really effected students performance in academic. Early of the article, the author
recommends that instructional supervision is one of the main mechanisms in order to enhance
students performance in academic. The lack of this article on its abstract is the author just
mentioned about 92 teachers. For me, to make this research high on validity, the survey
should be conducted for students and school administrators as well as the teachers. Author
mentioned 92 teachers were participated in this research. In my opinion, if the author use
sampling and population of 100 teachers, then the result and findings will be more accurate.
 The main subject and focus for this article is about how instructional supervision will
impact the performance of the students in Nasarawa State, Nigeria. For the introduction,
author had consistently give the literature about supervision as the mechanism to enhance the
result of the students in Nigeria. Author gives quite interesting literature about instructional
supervision. It could be more attractive if the author can explain and elaborate a bit about the
factors and causes of the weak performance in student academic in the secondary school in
Nigeria. What I mean from this is, author should add some more literature that supports
students performance in academic were influenced from the school system. Other than that,
the way of the author introduce us about the main issue is quite clear and the language were
easy to understand. Overall, from the abstract and introduction, we can highlight and find the
main issue that the author wants to deliver.

As we can read, the author managed to reveal and write the purpose of the study quite
well and it has written in proper sentences. As a reader I could easily understand what he
wants from his study. Furthermore, from the purpose, questions, and hypotheses, I can derive
that the author wants to prove 5 elements to make the result valid. Firstly, the relationship
between instructional supervision with students academic performance. Secondly, is the
class visitation by principals will give impact on students performance? Thirdly, is the
Supervisors have impact on Teachers performance of job. Next is the relationship between
regular instructional supervision will impact teachers performance. Last purpose of the study
is to derive how frequent the instructional supervision conducted in your school. As a reader I
feel that author managed to use simple language to understand on the purpose of the study.
But as mentioned in the abstract, I feel that author missed the part of checking of students
notebooks and checking teachers lesson plan/notes (refer to page 160, abstract). I feel that if
the author explains these more, I could make it clear assumptions on what he said. Overall,
the purpose and hypotheses of the study clearly understand by the reader. On behalf of myself
I feel that, if I could be the author, I would focus on the purpose that related to the
performance of the students academic. For example, my purpose would be like this, to
what extend does if the checking of students notebook by the administrators will impact their
academic performance? Maybe the author can change a bit of the research questions so that
we can get the good findings from the study.
 The author carried out the study using the Descriptive Survey Method. For me the
methods and comments are appropriate and adequate with the task. For me, when the author
using this kind of method, it clearly show that the author wants to describe about the situation
happened in secondary school in Nigeria. In survey method research, using interviews or
questionnaires will ease the author to describe the responses from the participants. Based on
article, I found that the author did not make clear explanation whether the author use open-
ended, closed-ended, partially open-ended, or rating scale questions clearly. Jackson, 2008, p.
89 said that .open-ended questions allow for a greater variety of responses from the
participant but are difficult to analyze.closed-ended questions are easy to analyse
statistically, but many researchers prefer to use Likert-type scale because its very easy to
analyze statistically. The author mentioned that the structured questionnaires were used to
obtain the data from the study. As a reader, I found I will be understood if the author states
the examples of the questionnaires clearly. Questions should be written clearly and make the
reader easy to comprehend. Overall, the research method chosen was suitable for the sample
and population for the study. My suggestion is if the author uses the Likert-scale
questionnaires, the finding will be more comprehend.

The data presentation, analysis and findings were quite simple writing and easy to
understand. From my view, the author had claimed that findings have significant with the
relationship between instructional supervision and its impact toward the students academic
performance. For me the findings are designed and showed clearly using the tables. It makes
reader easy to access and understand the findings. The results section clearly showed that
author managed to present a clear and easy data provided. But as a reader, I feel that
something leak in the explanation from the authors about the data presentation. If the author
adds the percentage column, maybe it will be more clear to the reader understand them. I
agreed with the Question 5 Data Presentation which is the author using the table of
percentage. It makes the reader easy to interpret the data given. Overall, I found that the
results of the data presented statistically and meaningful.

Regarding the discussion of findings, the author mentioned and revealed about the
significant impact of class visitations by principals on students academic performance.
Author also provided us with the literature to support the finding. (refer to Ebiringhas 1987,
pg 164). Next, the finding also mentioned that the test on impact of positive/negative remarks
by supervisors on teachers performance was significant. Next, there is significant result on
frequency of instructional supervision will impact on teachers performance. Lastly, the
author managed to reveal the significant role instructional supervision plays in academic
performance of students in Nasawara state.

Overall, I feel satisfied because the questions and the purposes of the study clearly
explain in the discussion of the finding. From my view, it would be better an explanation
regarding the discussion of the findings if the author could add some more literature to
support the result. Maybe author also can elaborate a bit about the findings to ease the reader
access the information about the result. More than that, it clearly written in simple and
comprehend writing for the findings. It is clear from the survey that Instructional Supervision
should be applied in secondary school in Nigeria to enhance students academic performance.
The findings reveal that robust supervision strategies like checking of students notebook,
classroom visitation/inspection, checking teachers lesson plan/notes and inspection of
teachers record keeping have significant to the teachers performance as well as the academic
achievement of the students.

The writing style of the article is quite easy to understand. The author communicates
with straightforward words and phrases to brief the article in simple arrangement. Thus make
us as a reader easy to follow the flow of the study in the article. Overall I found that this issue
as important issue in order to enhance our academic performance among the students. The
instructional supervision can be applied to many secondary schools as well as in primary
school because this mechanism has significant to both teachers and administrators. A good
development in education will create a lot of success for the students.

References

Jackson, S.L. (2009). Research Methods and Statistics : A Critical Thinking Approach 3 rd
Edition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.