Clinical Supervision: effects and Implications. Effects and implications of clinical supervision for teacher development and student achievement

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is to explore the effectiveness of clinical supervision in teacher development and student achievement at university level. The study attempts to find answers to the following basic questions: Will the clinical supervision process, in any way, affect the teachers' instruction in the classroom? If so, to what extent? Is the change in the instructional behaviors of teachers performance-based or competence-based? Will the amount of change in instruction of experienced teachers differ from that of the novice? Will the positive change in the teaching behaviors of the teachers in the experimental group be reflected on the success rate of the students? If so, how significant will be the success? The study adopts a descriptive and quasi-experimental approach, and the research design integrates longitudinal and cross-sectional samples. The data were obtained from the classroom observations of the samples and their students' achievement tests. These data were analyzed by using the distribution of means and standard deviations, and unpaired t-test (2 tail). The overall conclusion of the present study is that clinical supervision has been very effective in improving teachers' instruction in various ways: (a) teachers have become more analytical towards their own instructions in the classroom, (b) It has provided ground on which teachers can discuss the issues related to their instruction with a clinical supervisor and easily get outside assistance whenever they need. (c) Clinical supervision has created self-responsibility and self-confidence in teachers in terms of the preparation, implementation and evaluation of their lessons, and (d) it has also created awareness in teachers towards all the teaching activities taking place in the classroom, after which the teachers have learned to ask themselves the purpose of each activity they are to instruct. (e) It has helped the teachers revise their strategies in teaching four language skills and use educational equipment such as tape-recorder, video, and overhead projector (OHP) efficiently, and (f) also their classroom management strategies, and their roles as a teacher. The other notable finding is that the improvement in the instructions of teachers has been reflected positively on the success ratio of their students to a significant extent.