WHAT IS SUPERVISION?

Glatthorn (1997) defined the supervision of classroom instruction as follows:

“Supervision is a process of facilitating the professional growth of a teacher, primarily by giving the
teacher feedback about the classroom interactions and helping the teacher make use of that feedback in
order to make teaching more effective. ”

 Implies / strongly suggest that supervision is an activity that has target goals
 Primary goal / desired result is to make teachers more effective in the classroom
 That supervision promotes cooperation and communication in schools ( Glatthorn , 1997 )

Differentiated Approach to Instructional

Differentiated supervision is unique in the sense that it provides the teacher options about how his/her
teaching improvement is to be supervised.

Teachers making a choice as to how they will be supervised is indeed an Alternative Approach

Some teachers want a “closely guarded , hands-on approach, prefer a higher level of independence,
others want to work with their colleagues
WHAT IS DIFFERENTIATED SUPERVISION?

The differentiated system of supervision allows teachers to choose the supervisory option that

is appropriate for them. Within certain limits, they are free to choose whether they wish to

receive clinical supervision, work with a co-teacher in a cooperative development program, or

be mostly independent and direct their own professional growth. They are given a choice on

what they would have, when they would have it, and whom to work with (Glatthorn,1990)

The expectation is that by making the choices themselves, they would have more “ownership”

of the process. The preferred type of supervision is predicted to be more responsive to their

personal needs (Glatthorn, 1997)

Table 1.

Positive Effects How to Sustain Positive Effects

Negative Effects How to Address Negative Effects

WHY DIFFERENTIATED SUPERVISION?

( 3 ) Major Reasons ;

1. The use of clinical supervision as a “one-for-all” approach is inadequate.

 uses a ‘’ hands-on approach “close guarding” of the teacher by the supervisor

 if implemented for all teachers, would be both time-consuming and impractical

2. Teachers have different growth needs and learning styles.

 differentiated approach acknowledges the uniqueness of each individual

 teachers vary in the kind of interactions they prefer, some would prefer a more formal

helping relationship while some only want to work with other teachers in a collegial

relationship, have different views about supervisory relationships and would prefer

different types of work environments

3. Supervisors also have different personalities and supervising styles.

 as teachers’ needs are highly individualized, supervisors, too, need to individualize their

supervising approaches

 school heads who are more comfortable treating their teachers as peers or friends

might find the rigidity of clinical supervision disconcerting

 some supervisors would also find a hard time dealing with teachers who want to work

independently

 the demands of clinical supervision may not be adequately attuned to the supervisor’s

personality and skills

 Differentiated supervision addresses this concern by providing the school head with

options on the type of supervision he/she can apply.