The Effects of an Alternative Model of Student Teaching Supervision on Clinical Master Teachers

Abstract

Traditionally, student teaching programs have used a triad supervision model that involves the student teacher; the school-based cooperating teacher; and the universiiybased supervisor: Howevec the professional literature recognizes deficiencies in this model. This article describes an alternative model to supervision that teams Clinical Master Teachers who combine the traditional roles of the cooperating teacher and the college supervisor: Specifically, this article will examine four secondary teachers as they participated in their first year of the program and the changes these teachers made in their supervision.

An analysis of pre-service teacher preparation and instructional supervisory practices in Agricultural Education

“…Cooperating teachers spend the entire student teaching period with the student teacher while university supervisors only see the student teacher during their student teacher visits (Wilson & Saleh, 2000). Given the differences in professional roles and the length of time they spend with student teachers, it is plausible to expect them to approach student teacher supervision differently.…”

“…Because of these concerns, university supervisors may tend to assess the student teachers instead of supervising, supporting, and guiding them (Wilson & Saleh, 2000), as a result, university supervisors might resort to employing structure in their supervision, hence their tendency to follow the rather definite structure of clinical supervision. Also, the fact that university supervisors are limited by time when they visit student teachers (Wilson & Saleh) might motivate them to use the structured, hence time efficient clinical supervision procedures.…”

“…The authors asserted that cooperating teachers beliefs can influence their approach to supervision. Another study by Wilson and Saleh (2000) noted that cooperating teachers prefer their student teachers to write journals, conduct interviews with them, and hold conferences with them, which, according…”

“…Unlike cooperating teachers who are concerned with relationships, university supervisors are more concerned with connections between the pedagogical knowledge they taught in their college classes and how the student teachers practically apply the knowledge in the classroom (Carr et al 1999;Horton & Harvey, 1979;Wilson & Saleh, 2000). Because of these concerns, university supervisors may tend to assess the student teachers instead of supervising, supporting, and guiding them (Wilson & Saleh, 2000), as a result, university supervisors might resort to employing structure in their supervision, hence their tendency to follow the rather definite structure of clinical supervision.…”

“…However, the basic content of pedagogy includes several learning areas such as linking theory and practice, the learning process, classroom management and discipline, the use of instructional technology, multicultural education, school law and finance, methods of teaching various subject areas, selection of instructional materials, classroom teaching techniques, and educational psychology (Morey et al 1997;Wilson et al). Unlike subject matter knowledge, the connection between the pedagogical knowledge of a teacher and student learning is not yet established (Wilson et al); however research findings "suggest some benefit of pedagogical preparation" (p. 12).…”