Glickman, Gordon, & Ross-Gordon (2014) discussed three supervision approaches that can assist with meeting the individual needs of my residents. It is important that, as a supervisor, I am cognizant of my residents’ development level. Knowing this will help me know how I can best support them.
One of the first types of approach was the Directive Information Behavior. In this behavior type the supervisor is the source of information when dealing with a problem. Providing choices for the resident gives ownership in his/her own learning. One thing that I realized in reading this is that directive control statement and directive informational statements are very different. However, Glickman, Gordon, & Ross-Gordon (2014) compared the directive control statements to a police office or judge- they tell people what to do. The directive information statements are similar to what an attorney or physician might - give their expert advice. This is helpful when I am dealing with residents who are constantly struggling with a certain problem and are unsure of how to handle it.
The second approach discussed was the Collaborative Behavior. This is behavior is truly a collaboration between the teacher and supervisor; therefore, it is important that it is used with residents that are functioning at a higher developmental level. Each is the source of knowledge as they share their own ideas and perceptions about the shared problem. Through discussion, they come to an agreement on the course of action that will be followed to solve the problem. I feel that I have residents that partially fall into this category because they are able to identify the problem and come with their own perceptions and ideas, but often still view me as the only knowledge source, although they have more knowledge about the learners in the classroom than I do. I have noticed that the lines between these behavior types are blurry.
The third approach is the Nondirective Behavior. This approach relies on assumptions that the resident knows what instructional changes need to be made and then is able to act on their own. So, the challenge here is that at times my residents know what instructional changes need to be made but aren’t always sure how to make them or they are unable to make them because it isn’t their classroom. This is where the approaches of supervision can become blurry when dealing with students rather than teachers.
I appreciated chapter 11 of Supervision and the Instructional Leader by Glickman, Gordon, & Ross-Gordon (2014) because it spelled out how I can choose the best approach for my residents and help foster their development. Ultimately, the goal is to coach and support the residents so they can construct knowledge about teaching and eventually become self-directed learners……It is a journey!