Shaping the Supervision Narrative: Innovating Teaching and Leading to Improve STEM Instruction

Abstract

This paper offers a model of supervisory collaboration that brings teacher and administrator programs together through a lens of formative evaluation. The roles of teacher and principal must be collaborative to sustain student success, yet the preparation models for those respective positions are often isolated from each other, as varying university departments and focus areas exist in silos. Preparation programs must maximize the clinical experiences of teacher education and administrator preparation programs, with a focus on practical teaching strategies and authentic feedback to pre-service educators and their instructors for reflection and change. This paper overviews a collaborative supervision model and incorporates case study vignettes focused on reflective supervisory practices in a STEM instructional environment.

Reframing educator preparation to collaboratively prepare teachers and administrators: challenges and advantages

“…The Innovating Teaching and Learning Leadership (iTALL) model (Sterrett et al , 2020) informed our teacher and administrator preparation programs using walkthrough observations as a shared field experience. A walkthrough is a brief 5-10 minutes classroom observation intended to provide informal formative feedback to the teacher (Zepeda, 2009).…”

“…University education programs often work in silos even though the professional practice of P-20 educators is collaborative (Sterrett et al , 2020). For example, teacher education programs prepare teachers, educational administration programs train aspiring school leaders, and higher education programs develop student and academic affairs professionals.…”

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“…While some schools and pre-service teaching (PST) programs have begun to more closely consider social, historical, and place-based aspects of how students learn best (Capello, 2020), pedagogical and instructional beliefs are often disconnected in the supervision practice of today's principals (Sterrett et al, 2020). As such, our work as educational supervisors can no longer be grounded in 'catching people up' through accountability structures.…”

“…We also need to be more active in how we shape the supervision narrative. As Sterrett et al (2020) describe, teacher and preparation models continue to be isolated from each other and often operate in silos. This negatively impacts how preparation programs might be better able to align educational outcomes and address issues of equity through the supervision provided to preservice educators and aspiring principals.…”