Unearthing the Complexities of Clinical Pedagogy in Supervision: Identifying the Pedagogical Skills of Supervisors

Abstract

Instructional supervision is a highly complex endeavor as supervisors work to enhance teacher, teacher candidate, and school effectiveness. The process of learning to supervise well can be daunting and difficult. Recent research on teaching has focused on enhancing teachers' ability to notice or observe aspects of teaching and student learning. The ability to assist teacher candidates to "notice" and observe is equally important when supervising them. This qualitative case study builds upon the research on teaching and on supervision. It illustrates that "noticing" is one of a constellation of pedagogical skills supervisors use to support the learning of others. In addition, the authors identify six other pedagogical skills including ignoring, marking, intervening, pointing, unpacking, and processing. Further defining these skills is useful for understanding the intricacies of clinical pedagogy in instructional supervision. The results of this study suggest that supervision in clinically rich contexts is a pedagogical or teaching function which extends beyond traditional conceptions of observation and feedback. ARTICLE HISTORY

Educational Supervision: Reflections on Its Past, Present, and Future

“…Examples include articles on prospective supervisors in a professional learning community focused on equity (Jacobs & Yendol-Hoppey, 2010), supervision and evaluation (Burns & Badiali, 2015;Mette et al, 2017;Mette & Riegel, 2018), the art of dialogue in supervision (Kelehear, 2010), solution focused strategies in clinical supervision (McGhee & Stark, 2018), strength-based coaching in supervision (Haberlin, 2019), and supervision of curriculum development (Gordon, 2019). Additional examples include articles on supervision and culturally relevant teaching (Willey & Magee, 2019), tasks and practices of preservice teacher supervision (Burns, Jacobs, & Yendol-Hoppey, 2016a), the pedagogical skills of supervisors (Burns & Badiali, 2016), reform in preservice teacher supervision (Burns, Jacobs, & Yandol-Hoppey, 2016b), elementary preservice teacher supervision (Jacobs, Hogarty, & Burns, 2017), and the state of the field of supervision (Glanz, 2018;Glanz & Hazi, 2019).…”

Untitled

“…Scholars in this area have provided much new literature on the importance of providing supervision in educator preparation programs (EPPs). Shunned by the instructional supervision community for decades, the recent acceptance and influx of relatively new scholarship on supervision of teacher candidates provides important theoretical frameworks for EEPs (Burns & Badiali, 2016Burns, Jacobs, & Yendol-Hoppey, 2015Burns & Yendol-Hoppey, 2015;Snow et. al., 2019).…”

Scaffolding Development of Clinical Supervisors: Learning to be a Liaison

“…Clinical supervisors are often charged with the observation and evaluation of teacher candidatesthose in preparation programs studying to become teachers (referred to hereafter as "candidates"). However, the role of "supervisor" in these clinical field experiences is undervalued (Burns & Badiali, 2016, 2018, and their pedagogy is underdeveloped and underconceptualized. In our teacher education context, we focus on clinical practice and demonstrate institutional value for supervision being enacted by university-based clinical supervisors, orliaisons.…”

“…Liaisons are also charged with building partnerships with school sites, supporting mentor teachers in their roles as school-based teacher educators, working in communities of practice (Snow, Martin, & Dismuke, 2015), and cultivating new educator development across the professional life span. Certainly, liaisons in this context are engaged in the complexities of clinical pedagogy in supervision (Burns & Badiali, 2016).…”