Supervisor Development Research Summary

Benefits for mentees: Emotional and psychological support. Support in developing capabilities, and socialization to adapt to education setting. Disadvantages for mentees: mentor unavailability; lack of challenge; no space for exploration/risk-taking.

Benefit mentors: Reflect on own practice. Learn from mentees, mentoring training courses and course trainers. Gain from discussing teaching: novel insights, perspectives, ideas. Disadvantage mentors: unmanageable workload; stress and insecurity; feelings of isolation.

Benefits schools/educational systems: Increase novice teacher retention. Socialization between staff. Instill a professional development culture. Cost-effective.

Conditions for mentoring to be successful (based on mentor and teacher reports):

Contextual support for mentoring – e.g. the educational setting provides time and space for mentoring practices, and compensation to mentor
Mentor selection and pairing – e.g. optional, good pairing; have professional relationship with equalitarian status; teach same subject
Mentoring strategies – e.g. responds to mentee’s needs. Focus on self-reflection. Establish and revise mentoring goals
Mentor preparation and support – e.g. receives training, reads on subject, develops, and discusses pedagogical issues with mentees. Develops interpersonal skills as well as skills to promote mentee self-reflection

Zepeda & Ponticelli (1998): At cross-purposes: What do teachers need, want and get from supervision?

Explores teachers’ perceptions of supervision and supervisor behaviours that inhibit and support teacher growth. Novice teachers find themselves in situations/contexts their training did not prepare them for. Supervisor should be “a vehicle for professionalism” (p. 73) guiding teachers towards becoming independent and working alone.

Best supervision practices include:

teacher validation and empowerment through a supervisor that is a visible presence, a coach, and a vehicle of empowerment.
teachers feeling their abilities are acknowledged and valued, and are masters of their growth and improvement as teachers
supervisors being present and aware of the complexities of teaching contexts and giving feedback accordingly

Worst supervision practices include:

a dog and pony show: teacher teach to the supervisor’s expectations during observation),
a weapon: supervisors abuse their position of power
an meaningless and invisible routine: neither supervisors nor teachers grow professionally
a fix-it list: the supervisor focuses on everything that is perceived as wrong in the teacher’s approach
an unwelcome intervention: when teachers see no value in the supervisor’s intervention

Models of Supervision

Bowers (1987): Developing perceptions of the classroom: Observation and evaluation, training and counselling.

Proposes a meticulous approach to counselling and training that provides relevant and structured feedback to the teacher, with clear professional development aims.

Phase 1: diagnosis through hearing, observing, recording, analyzing, considering and evaluating (HORACE) the context of the teacher and the teaching.
Phase 2: consultation through acknowledgement of what cannot be changed, focused and concise feedback towards what can be changed, as well as identification of areas both counselor and teacher feel need to be worked on.
Phase 3: remediation – a training phase where the teacher tries new approaches, the counsellor collaborates and teaches previously agreed upon and selected materials, and tailored teacher training is devised by the trainer for the teacher.

Gebhard (1984): Models of Supervision: Choices.

Traditional understanding of supervisors’ functions/roles are to direct or guide teaching, offer suggestions, model, advise and evaluate. Five approaches to mentoring are described: directive, non-directive, alternative, collaborative, and creative.

Directive Supervision: supervisor’s role is to inform/direct the teacher, model teaching behaviours and evaluate based on a set of pre-defined (by supervisor) teaching behaviours.
Alternative Supervision: supervisor’s role is to suggest alternative approaches to widen the teacher’s options and perspectives. Ideally this is done in a non-judgemental and objective manner, i.e., through sharing personal teaching experiences.
Collaborative Supervision: supervisor’s role is to work with teachers without directing them. Teacher and supervisor share the decision making and have common ground. Supervisor asks questions, teacher and supervisor share ideas, hypothesize, experiment, implement strategies, and go back to sharing ideas on the implementation of strategies, etc.
Non-directive Supervision: supervisor’s role is to provide “understanding responses”: repeat/mirror (with different words and body language) what teacher expresses. Strive towards really being present and caring, really hearing and understanding the teacher. Teacher has the freedom to express and clarify ideas while feeling supported. A good approach to developing trust.
Creative Supervision: the main precept is that many truths exist. A variety of approaches are possible. 1) a combination of approaches 1-4; 2) the supervisor’s role is moved to other sources, i.e., teacher is responsible for their own supervision or peer supervisions; 3) can incorporate insights from other fields, i.e., neurolinguistics programming.

Randall and Thornton (2003a): Learning to teach. Chapter 2 of Advising and Supporting Teachers.

Examines how teachers learn to teach and how to better advise them. How does a teacher become an effective practitioner? Types of knowledge involved in teaching; theory vs practice. Teacher (regardless of subject specialization) should have knowledge of: 1) content, 2) pedagogy, 3) curriculum, 4) pedagogical content, 5) learners and their characteristics, 6) educational contexts, 7) educational ends, purposes and values.

Skills learning perspectives:

cognitive psychological perspective
development process insights perspective

Cognitive psychological perspective: acquiring teaching skill and routines practice. Apply ACT[1] (Anderson, 1983) to teacher development - novice teachers are in cognitive stage (meticulous planning is crucial); expert teachers are in autonomous stage (skilled and automatized behaviour – experience but not expertise). Advisor should identify the stage of development of the teacher and give relevant support Advisors/mentors and teachers communicate and interact such that the teacher is scaffolded into an independent and autonomous self-reflexive practice. The role of the mentor is that of an advisor who asks critical questions, thus scaffolding the teacher in a Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD).

Development process insights perspective: The life-cycle approach. Teacher behaviour defines their stage of development: Novice: follows the recipe; focused on own performance. Advanced Beginner: automatized classroom routines; focused on performance, instructional design and classroom approach. Competent: developed strategies for most teaching contexts, and is comfortable improvising; focused on long-term planning and learner development. Proficient: intuitive performance; context-specific problem-solving; focused on learner and long-term planning. Expert: fluid, effortless; flexible planning; anticipates problems and recognizes global patterns. Growth from novice to expert does not necessarily occur automatically. The role of the advisor is to move teacher towards expert and ensure they don’t become complacent and stay in their comfort zone.

Approaches to training teachers:

Apprenticeship: learn from observation and discussion with experts.
Competency-led process: teaching is broken down into discrete skills that are monitored and learned.
Coach and reflective practitioner model. Learning on the job through feedback and develop knowledge through reflection. Scaffolded learning.

[1] Anderson (1992): ACT (Adaptive Control of Thought) model of skill learning. To master a skill, cognitive processing transitions from declarative to procedural memory in three stages. 1) cognitive stage: actions are consciously controlled. 2) associative stage: behaviours start being automatized. 3) autonomous stage: no conscious control; behaviours are highly automatized and intuitive.

Collaborative Supervision

Fanselow (1988): “Let’s see”: Contrasting conversations about teaching.

Explores a collaborative approach to supervision and observation with the main argument that there should be no help involved in the concept of supervision or observation. It is suggested teachers learn from each other through observation, and supervision should be about peer collaboration. Therefore, it is suggested that instead of having supervisors, teachers collaborate among themselves. The goal is to seek alternative interpretations by a juxtaposition of perspectives, which ideally results in a change of perspective through discussion with others and identifying new angles. In contrast to a more traditional product-approach where observation is used to evaluate, a process-approach is suggested in which observation is used to explore what is possible in teaching though objective data collection and analysis. The supervisor is a peer, and thus named “visiting teacher”. The visiting teacher can observe themselves “through a mirror” by observing another teacher and reflect on their own practice. The goal is to note only facts – what happens, without making comment or judgement. The recommended approach involves the following:

setting aside time for observation and discussion
collecting information from observations by note-taking or recording and transcribing
collective information gathered through exchanges and collaborative activities
notes, tapes, and all collected data are used to explore and re-think notions, beliefs about teaching and revisit goals
insights gained are considered and related to each teacher’s lessons

Richards & Lockhart (1992): Teacher development through peer observation.

Describes a program implementing peer observation to promote teacher professional development through learning about new teaching styles and engaging in critical reflection. The recommended focus for observation is to collect information on specific teaching behaviours and procedures that should be established before entering the observation exercise. Effective observation involves focused collection of information defined prior to observation, specific procedures developed for observation, i.e., data collection devices such as coding charts, and observation that does not include participation.

The observation project involved participant training in observation through reading about observation, choosing a colleague to work with and meeting to discuss observation and observation experiences, and the approach to be taken. General guidelines:

Teachers are observed and observe their colleagues
Pre-observation meeting to discuss what to observe, the teaching style of the observed teacher, and the goals of the lesson to define the observation focus
Post-observation meeting to discuss what was observed

Critical Supervision

Farrell (2013): Critical incident analysis through narrative reflective practice: A case study.

A narrative reflective practice approach uses critical incident analysis as a tool for teacher empowerment and professional development. This involves exploration through self-reflexive story-telling leading to constructive criticism. A critical incident is defined as an “unplanned and unanticipated event that occurs during class, outside of class, or during a teacher’s career, but is vividly remembered” (Brookfield, 1990: 84 as cited by Farrell 2013: 81). Conscious reflection makes an incident a critical incident through two phases: 1) description, 2) explanation. The approach to critical incident analysis involves the following steps:

Orientation: describe who, what, when and where
Complication: describe what happened, what the problem was, and any relevant contextual details
Evaluation: reflect on so what? by considering the meaning of the incident to the people involved in it
Result: find or discuss the resolution of the incident, problem or crisis

A recommended approach (Thiel, 1999) to reporting or writing about critical incidents involves:

Self-observation in light of the events
A detailed description of the incident
Self-awareness in the analysis
And self-evaluation to determine whether the incident results in a change in approach or practice

Working with a “critical friend” is a peer or mentor who collaborates in the reflection process.

Randal & Thornton (2003b): Ways of talking to teachers 4: Towards critical Self-awareness.

An approach to mentoring involving catalytic interventions, in which mentors facilitate teacher self-direction through critical incident analysis, is proposed. Mentors provide effective advice through scaffolding to develop teachers who are independent, autonomous and professional. Feedback sessions between mentors and teachers focus on increasing self-reflection skill in the teacher so they become increasingly responsible for their own learning. The agenda and solutions arrived to are defined by the teacher. The mentor or advisor is the catalyst who analyses and probes through critical questions (see Figure 29, p.129) with the goal of promoting critical thinking in the teacher in a zone of proximal development (ZPD). The approach considers a continuum from advisor- to teacher-directed intervention which ranges from commanding perception through benevolent direction, consultative prescription, and negotiation to facilitating self-direction. The role of the advisor is to:

identify critical incidents
explore the teacher’s view of incidents
negotiate the way the incident is viewed
provide opportunities for the teacher to view the incident from a different perspective

The advisor as a catalytic interventionist can approach scaffolding the teacher through:

Following: teacher defined direction to exploring incidents
Consulting: incidents to be explored are elicited from the teacher
Proposing: incidents to be explored are elected from a list provided by the advisor
Leading: issues to be explored are brought up by advisor through direct questions

The “catalytic toolkit” to promote self-reflection requires effective attending – being fully present in the interaction between advisor and advisee. Suggested strategies include 1) simple echoing, 2) selective echoing, 3) questioning, 4) empathetic divining, 5) checking for understanding, 6) paraphrasing, 7) logical marshalling.

Pennycook (2004): Critical moments in a TESOL praxicum.

A case study reflection that explores bringing about change through critical moment analysis in a practicum observation feedback session with a student-teacher. A reflection on critical moments, which occur when a novel approach is adopted, new understanding is acquired, and there is a change, for example, in the direction of a discourse. The approach to using critical incidents as a tool for professional development is to reflect on a critical moment and articulate: 1) what happened, 2) how it happened, and 3) what can be done. Three critical issues were discussed: a difficult student, collaborative vs conflictive dialogues, and nonstandard language forms. These critical moments emerged from the class context, were jointly created by Pennycook and the student-teacher, and arose from the student-teacher’s interests and concerns. Pennycook intervened critically in the student-teacher’s practicum in three ways (Freeman, 1990):

Critical-alternative: the student-teacher’s understanding of larger issues such as gender, power, culture and rights relevant to dealing with difficult students increased
Critical-directive: Pennycook imposed his own views and concerns about collaborative and conflictive dialogues – using collaborative dialogue role plays in the classroom fail to prepare students for conflictive dialogues in the real world, in which power dynamics are at play
Critical-non-directive: the student-teacher’s awareness of politics of language and standardization of language forms increased

Farrell (2008): Critical incidents in initial teacher training.

Reports a case study on trainee English teachers in Singapore which involved journal writing and reflection on two critical incidents. Critical incidents are defined as occurrences in the classroom that were not planned and that are analyzed to gain a deeper understanding of both teaching and learning. The goal is to shed light on the incident and view it within the larger context in which it is situated with reflection on: 1) what happened, 2) how it happened, and 3) what else could be done. Examples of the critical incidents reported and discussed:

Language proficiency
Class participation
Behaviour
Gender
Classroom space
Lesson objectives
Classroom activities
Attention span
Additional class assistance

Observation and Feedback Sessions

Sheal (1989): Classroom observations: Training the observers.

Describes a workshop on objective peer observation training and feedback giving by using systematic observation tools. Emphasis is placed on the importance of structured classroom observation. The three-part workshop that trained participants on effective observation included:

Watching and rating a filmed lesson and. Results comparison highlights observation subjectivity and the need for a predetermined focus of observation.
Training on the use of class observation forms. Four types: 1) frequency tabulation; 2) structured description; 3) checklist; 4) rating scale.
Conducting class observation meetings with respectful communication by following observation principles and strategies: 1) oriented focus; 2) professional courtesy; 3) use of standard observation forms; 4) respecting observed teacher’s experience; 5) discussing alternative approaches; 6) not being negative.

For observation feedback to be heard and integrated the delivery must be well-oriented. Three types of systematic teacher observations suggested:

Diagnostic: New staff, general
Formative: Professional development, repeated
Summative: Wrap-up of teaching period

Wajnryb (1992): Classroom observation tasks.

Explores observation approaches suited/matched to observation focus. Procedures and behaviours to consider in classroom observation:

Attending behaviour: Teacher’s attending behaviour towards the learners tracked through presence or absence of attending strategies (hyperlink), i.e., eye contact, use of name, etc.
The language of questions: Question and answers dynamic in the classroom tracked through detailed note-taking of a set of approx. 20 questions which are developed into categories analyzed afterwards according to question type (hyperlink), i.e., Yes/No Qs, open-ended, etc.
The language of feedback to error: collect samples of feedback delivery structured with four-utterance paradigm: 1) teacher questions; 2) student response; 3) teacher feedback; 4) student response to feedback
Lesson planning: infer the teachers lesson preparation reasoning and decision-making during lesson through focused questions (hyperlink), i.e., establishing classroom atmosphere? motivating students? etc.
Openings and closures: use of a chart to track (hyperlink) interaction patterns during start and end of lessons.
Lesson phases and transitions: monitor and track transitions in the lesson through a descriptive checklist (hyperlink)
Use of materials and resources: use narrative description and graph-drawing to track use of resources, i.e., blackboard (hyperlink)

Engin (2015b): Written artifacts in post-conference feedback sessions: The running commentary as a support for teacher learning.

Reflection on the role of written artifacts such as detailed notes taken during observation (running commentary) for post-observation feedback. Written artifacts can create opportunities for student-teacher learning by bringing the observed teaching practice into the present and making the feedback more tangible, structuring the talk and creating learning affordances. It helps mentor and student-teacher be on the same page. But written artifacts can limit the scope and direction of feedback, as well as confer too much power to the mentor in leading the feedback dialogue. When mentor and student-teacher share an understanding of the teaching event through a written record it can be a catalyst for reflection. Recommendations include the student-teacher receiving a copy of the written feedback prior to the feedback meeting as well as writing a recall of the lesson reflecting their perspective. The written feedback documents should be used as a teaching tool to engage the student-teacher in discussion and reflection on teaching practices.

Engin (2015a): Trainer talk in post-observation feedback sessions: An exploration of scaffolding.

Explores the role of scaffolding in excerpts from two observation feedback session with teachers in pre-service training. Highlights the importance of language as a mediating tool in the dialogue between trainer and trainee. Scaffolding is defined as an interactional phenomenon that accounts for the dynamic between the trainer and trainee, as well as context (i.e., cultural, educational) and intentions (i.e., immediate goals to achieve as a function of scaffolding). The aim of scaffolding is to break down a hard task into a series of manageable steps, thus reducing the level of difficulty of the task. Task difficulty is decreased providing support that is gradually removed by a more knowledgeable other through direct and guided intervention. Interactional scaffolding involves the trainer asking short focused questions on a specific topic related to the observed lesson. The role of the trainer is to engage the teacher in dialogue through cued elicitation related the discussion and to prior experiences, and reflect on how to move forward. The two feedback sessions are explored through Maybin, Mercer, and Stierer’s (1992) six features of scaffolding:

The context: the nature of the class/lesson observed and the place and timing of the feedback session
The topic discussed: issues the trainer wants to address and points the trainee brings up
The intentions: the intentions behind the topics discussed by trainer and trainee
The talk of the trainer: the language used by the trainer, i.e., questions, prompts and directions
The response of the trainee: language and response of trainee highlights the effect of trainer talk (point 4)
The outcome: results of point 5 is used to determine whether the trainer successfully scaffolded co-constructed knowledge of teaching

Supervisor – Teacher Relationship

Chamberlin (2000): TESL degree candidates’ perceptions of trust in supervisors.

Explores how supervisor communication style impacts teacher perception of trust. Mentoring strategies that result in “good” mentoring do not necessarily come naturally to mentors, and in most cases need to be learned. Reflective supervision should involve both teachers reflecting on their teaching practice, and supervisors and mentors to reflect on their supervision and mentoring practices (and their previous teaching experience). Supervisors provide guidance and facilitate the process of teachers gaining new perspectives by asking questions and avoiding judgements. The tasks of supervisors include:

helping teacher make sense of issues in teaching and learning
exploring the teachers understanding of issues
approach points 1 and 2 in a manner that does not undermine or threaten the teacher

The approach involves a shift in the supervisor from expert and evaluator to facilitator and mentor. Both teacher and supervisor can learn and gain deeper awareness about teaching and learning. The responsibility of the supervisor – mentor, is to cultivate reflection, exploration and change, which highlights the need to build a relationship that allows for this to occur. The role of trust in this relationship is crucial given it is an antecedent for self-disclosure. Reflection may be limited by lack of trust in the supervisor – trust must be established for teachers to engage in self-disclosure and reflection on their teaching practices. Teachers value supervisors who are good listeners, make teachers feel intelligent and are genuine in their relationships. The communication style of supervisors directly impacts teachers’ perceptions of trust. Therefore, supervisors need to learn good verbal and nonverbal communication strategies so they can be respectful, empathetic and honest.

Copland (2011): Negotiating face in feedback conferences: A linguistic ethnographic analysis.

The concept of face is “the relationship created by two or more persons in interaction” (Arundale, 2010: 2078 as cited by Copland, 2011: 3833). Face threats are utterances that challenge preconceived notions of connectedness and/or separateness in light of the specific context and history connecting the interlocutors and defining their relational dynamic. Face attacks are utterances that area “intentionally rude, disrespectful and insulting” (Tracy, 2008: 173 as cited by Copland, 2011: 3833). Teacher trainers must navigate face threats without making face attacks. In giving feedback, trainers must know or establish the “Rules of the Game”, which depend on the conventions and expectations of the social group or network context within which one is giving feedback. This creates a space in which face threatening acts are acceptable to the degree in which they follow the established rules.

Wajnryb (1998): Telling it like it isn’t – exploring an instance of pragmatic ambivalence in supervisory discourse. Explores supervisory discourse that is pragmatically ambivalent to avoid threatening teacher face – being purposefully unclear and indirect is a technique often used to navigate face threatening speech acts. Relying heavily on hedging or pragmatic ambivalence can result in misunderstandings in a feedback scenario. The role of the supervisor is that of helper and assessor, thus disguising criticism with ambivalence allows supervisors to walk the line between two contradictory roles. The importance of explicit criticism to deliver clear and concise feedback to teachers is highlighted. Pragmatic ambivalence is recommended as an elicitation tool to explore teachers’ thoughts and perspectives.

Language Learning

Norton & Toohey (2011): Identity, language learning and social change.

Review of studies investigating the role of identity categories such as race, gender and sexuality in language learning, as well as the impact of technology on learner identity. Central arguments considered:

learners, teachers and language are situated within a large social context
learner position in society limits identity construction
motivation decreases with discriminatory practices
power in the social world impacts learners’ access to TL community
empowered notion of identity enhances TL acquisition opportunities
imagined community and identity regulate learner investment in TL

Theoretical framework – poststructuralist language theory: language is situated and interactive; involves dialogue and co-creation of meaning. Language use is social; the focus and goal is language use in social interaction. Individuals act on the world with tools, for example, symbolic tools such as language (Vygotsky, 1978, 1987). L2 learners are members of social and historical collectivities who use language as a dynamic and changing tool. They benefit from mature practice through access to TL speaking communities. Interlocutors do not all have the same speaking rights – social position regulates speaker privileges. Access to language can be gained or denied as a consequence of social position and thus access to social networks. Language signals status and position. Position is a proxy for identity – position is established by others, whereas identity is a position negotiated by the agent (speaker). Poststructural views on identity postulate identity is fluid and shaped by context, history and culture. Identity is defined by an interplay between the learner’s desired identity and the impact of the context on the learner’s identity.

Gebhard 1984

Bowers 1987

Hobson et al 2009

Randal & Thornton 2003b

The Role of Supervision

Models of Supervision

Zepeda and Ponticelli

Collaborative Supervision

Fanselow 1988

Engin 2015a

Engin 2015b

Wajnryb 1992

Sheal 1989

Farrell 2008

Pennycook 2004

Farrell 2013

Richards & Lockhart 1992

Randall & Thornton 2003a

Critical Supervision

Observation and Feedback Session

Supervisor - Teacher Relationship

Chamberlin (2000)

Copland (2011)

Wajnryb (1998)

Language Learning

Norton & Toohey (2011)