Individual and Triadic and Group: Supervisee and Supervisor Perceptions of Each Modality

In this consensual qualitative research study, the authors explored supervisors' (n= 11) and their supervisees' (n= 31) perceptions of individual, triadic, and group supervision sessions during practicum. Data from supervisor individual interviews and supervisee focus‐group interviews revealed several themes regarding the advantages and disadvantages of each supervision modality. Findings suggest the relative place of each modality in terms of goals and impact.     

Responding to the Challenges Posed by Summative Teacher Candidate Evaluation: A collaborative self-study of practicum supervision by faculty

In our pre-service department, university practicum supervisors are faculty members who offer academic, social, and personal support to teacher candidates during their year-long program. Their role is described as one designed primarily to provide formative assessment and feedback to improve classroom practice and reflection on practice. This collaborative self-study describes how two new faculty members responded to the challenges posed by the teacher candidate evaluation process. Methods used included formal tape-recorded discussions during meetings of the self-study group of newly hired faculty, email correspondence, field notes, feedback from public forums about our work, and teacher candidate insights concerning the practicum evaluation process conducted by faculty. New strategies were developed to address the tensions associated with using summative evaluations in a formative framework and to improve practice during faculty practicum supervision.     

The Practicum: student‐teacher perceptions of teacher supervision styles

This paper describes a study of 28 student‐teachers during a three‐week practicum in which participating students were asked to keep an unstructured journal describing their experiences and reactions to the practicum. The paper examines the perceptions that these students had of the supervision provided by their cooperating teachers. It identifies four distinct styles of teacher supervision, ranging from neglectful practices which alienate students from the practicum experience, to collegial practices which prove to be empowering. The paper concludes that supervision which is collegial is more likely to facilitate the professional growth of student‐teachers and enhance reflective action.     

Co-counseling Supervision in Practicum

Two groups of 12 trainees were exposed to either monitor-modeling or immediate-feedback supervision in their practicum. Ten-minute individual counseling sessions with coached clients were taped before and after the practicum. Three independent judges rated the tapes, using Carkhuff's scales for gross ratings of facultative interpersonal functioning (Carkhuff 1969). Results indicated that (a) the judges' mean ratings from pretest to posttest increased significantly for the monitor-modeling group but not for the immediate-feedback group; (b) although the results approached significance (p < .09), there were no significant differences on the posttest; and (c) the amount of growth from pretest to posttest was significantly greater for the monitor-modeling group. The data supports the relative effectiveness of monitor-modeling supervision. Additional, more extensive evaluations are suggested to more fully assess the relative value of such team approaches to supervision.     

Improving the Quality of Practicum Learning: Self-Study of a Faculty Member’s Role in Practicum Supervision

Abstract

This self-study of activities as a practicum supervisor in several secondary schools focuses on the supervisor’s contribution to the quality of a teacher candidate’s professional learning in the context of a familiar tension between on-campus courses and in-school practicum experiences. Data from both formal and informal supervisory experiences are taken from notes recorded in classes with those supervised formally, records of notes taken in practicum observations, and email messages exchanged with teacher candidates about their supervision experiences. Analysis of formal supervision experiences generated a series of insights into candidates’ experiences of the practicum, a modest innovation in supervisory practice, and important reminders arising from a significant error in personal practice as a supervisor. Informal supervision experiences involved visits arising from invitations to observe extended by candidates in the author’s physics methods course. These experiences generated opportunities to test an alternative supervisory strategy focused on candidates’ perceptions of their learning from experience. Related literature includes the topics of learning from experience, reflective practice, and the potential significance of an epistemology of practice. In closing, attention is given to trustworthiness, the personal significance of the study and connections to the teacher education literature.     

Novice Supervisees' Self‐Evaluations and Their Perceptions of Supervisor Style

Multiple regression analyses of data obtained for 36 counseling supervision dyads indicated that attractiveness, an aspect of supervisory style, was negatively associated with supervisees' self‐evaluations and positively associated with the difference between trainees' and supervisors' evaluations of counseling competence at the end of the 1st practicum experience. Supervisors' interpersonal sensitivity and task orientation were not found to contribute significantly to either of the criterion variables.     

The NonMSW Task Supervisor,MSW Field Instructor,and the Practicum Student

Abstract

This paper adds to the literature on field instruction and supervision of social work practicum students by nonMSW professionals. It shares insights gained from a focus group discussion of professionals' experiences with practica when there was no MSW on site. Reported findings indicate student, agency, and relational characteristics contribute to the success of these placements. The focus group and the authors conclude that active involvement of all three parties -the on-site nonMSW supervisor, the off-site MSW field instructor, and the practicum student -in a triad model of field education increases the likelihood that these practica provide students with field learning experiences that are among the very best.     

Mentoring for school based teacher education in Australia

This article is to explore the possibilities of mentoring for school based teacher education in Australia. Traditionally, supervision at the school level during the practicum in Australia has been focused on the classroom teacher whose role was to oversee and watch the direct work of the student teacher. However with the reforms in teacher education within the higher education sector which began in the late 1980s, a new challenge has arisen, which emphasises a shift of focus within the practicum from the role of classroom teacher as supervisor to one of mentor. Therefore, teachers who wish to become mentors will require new skills and competencies which extend beyond those of supervision, which necessitates the need for further training and education of classroom teachers. This article examines the mentoring role and the skills needed by teachers in supporting the development and education of student teachers into the teaching profession. The article also briefly examines the implications that this shift in focus from supervisor to mentor may bring for the participants involved in the education of student teachers.     

An Investigation of the Use of E‐Mail as a Supplemental Modality for Clinical Supervision

The authors investigated the use of student‐initiated e‐mail as a supplemental modality for supervision. Nineteen students e‐mailed their instructors weekly during their 15‐week practicum; these e‐mails were analyzed across 3 time periods using the categories of the discrimination model (J. M. Bernard, 1979, 1997) and an adaptation of W. Lanning's (1986) professional behavior category. Although patterns of e‐mails were similar across time, there was a significant decline in the number of e‐mails as the practicum progressed. Significance was found for message focus, with personalization messages and professional behavior/practicum class messages accounting for more than half of the messages across 3 time periods.     

The Community Domain in Practicum Experiences: evidence from the South Pacific

This article reports the outcomes of practicum placement of University of Sydney students in Western Samoan schools. The placement was directed specifically towards examining community domain factors in the practicum. It links the results of an earlier Cook Islands practicum with two subsequent practica held in Western Samoa. The three practica indicate that the levels of learning, enthusiasm and enjoyment which have resulted make the experience valuable for both the teacher education students involved and the teachers and pupils of the host schools.     

The Challenge of Developing a ‘Reflective Practicum’

This paper reports on a study in which I have been involved for the last 4 years, investigating the learning of final‐year primary student teachers and their school‐based teacher educators during the practicum. It highlights specifically the findings associated with the process of reflection in which the student teachers were engaged. Three particular findings are presented and discussed in relation to: the impact of reflection on student teachers’ learning; the quality of reflection in which they engaged; and specific strategies designed to facilitate reflection. It is argued that developing a ‘reflective practicum’ presents many challenges for teacher educators, including changing how the practicum is conceptualised and structured. A further challenge arises as a result of the inevitable shift in power and control which will occur if the changes are embraced. Teacher educators will be faced with some new questions regarding the ways they work in the practicum, if developing a reflective practicum is a priority.     

Dual-Focus Supervision: A Nonapprenticeship Approach

This article provides a professional model for practicum supervision using supervisors with equal responsibility and status. The authors discuss the influence of preprofessional guilds on practicum supervision and cite the major tenets that distinguish a profession from a guild. A model that attempts to meet some of the deficiencies identified in the literature on practicum supervision is proposed. With this model we stress the use of professional knowledge in both the content and process of practicum supervision. Dual-focus supervision is seen as the integration and application of two approaches to practicum supervision. Theory congruency is defined as the ability to translate espoused theory into practice. Interpersonal dynamics refers to the ability to recognize and attend to the impact of the counselor's and the client's behavior on each other. The application of the model is described, and examples from the use of the model are given. Student comments tended to support their satisfaction with the dual-supervision model. The model was seen to produce changes in trainee behavior and in supervisor behavior.     

Preservice Teachers Adrift on a Sea of Knowledges

The paper argues for fresh recognition of the complexities faced by preservice teachers, particularly during the practicum, where they are expected to bring their stockpile of diverse, and sometimes conflicting, knowledges about effective teaching to immediate use with classroom learners. The paper abo draws on insights from postmodern theorising on the privileging of knowledges. While the major focus of the paper is on issues surrounding multiplicity of knowledges about effective classroom teaching, it is also recognised that much of learning to teach occurs in affective, ethical and interpersonal ways as well as cognitive. Several suggestions are made to assist preservice teachers negotiate the complexities of the process of becoming teachers. It is argued that the practicum in preservice teacher education can be seen as a rich site for further exploration of this process—and should be resourced commensurately. Such explorations have the potential to illuminate the ways in which preservice teachers mesh knowledges about effective teaching with their own personal values and beliefs within the specific contexts of their classrooms. Associated with the recognition of the complexities of the processes involved, is a call for university and school based teacher educators to model, with respect to their programmes and practices, the same level of critical reflection they advocate for student teachers.     

Current Trends in Practicum Supervision Research

This article presents a conceptual framework and explores the results and implications of practicum research published from 1975–1982. Forty-two studies were found pertaining directly to practicum supervision and were divided into two categories: maximizing effectiveness of the practicum experience and specific techniques in practicum supervision. Overall, practicum supervision was found to be a worthwhile and beneficial experience and a necessary part of counselor education programs. Focusing on the personality characteristics or value systems of supervisors or supervisees, however, produced mixed results in predicting training effectiveness. There was greater consistency in the examination of specific techniques in supervision with positive outcomes resulting from the utilization of microtraining, dual supervision, peer supervision, modeling, and IPR. The use of programmed instruction was not supported.     

Review of Research on Practicum Supervision

This five-year review of research on practicum supervision examines research findings and research designs. Research is classified according to the role of the supervisor, the training procedure, and the rating systems. The major focus of research has been on training in the core conditions of facilitative communication. Modeling techniques have been used effectively in practicum, didactic approaches have been more effective than experiential approaches, and audiotape procedures in training were as effective as videotape techniques.     

Dual Supervision: A Model for Counseling and Supervision

The counseling practicum is generally accepted as an essential part of a counselor-training program. Likewise, the training of future counselor educators necessitates experiences in supervision of counseling-practicum students. The dual supervision model described in this article is an approach that simultaneously meets the training needs of future counselors and counselor educators. The rationale for the dual supervision model, the results of an exploratory study of the counselor trainees' attitudes toward the dual supervision process, and the counseling-practicum supervisors' reactions to the model are described. Both the students enrolled in their second quarter of counseling practicum and the supervisors had very positive reactions to the dual supervision model.     

Exploring Chinese teachers' commitment to being a cooperating teacher in a university-government-school initiative for rural practicum placements

Faced with urban schools' reluctance to host student teachers on practicum because “student teachers disturb their teaching order”, Northeast Normal University in Changchun, China, collaborated with four rural provinces to develop a University-Government-School (UGS) initiative for rural practicum placements. To understand the teachers' commitment to this alternative approach to practicum placements, we posed the question: What motivates and challenges teacher participation in the UGS initiative? To provide answers, we drew on the recently developed Mentoring Profile Inventory – a 62-item inventory that captures teachers' motivations and challenges in supervising student teachers on practicum. Further, by comparing the UGS results with those of supervising teachers from three other countries, we were able to discern aspects of the UGS teachers' commitment that were particularly distinctive to the Chinese context. For example, UGS supervisors are significantly more motivated than their international counterparts to participate in the practicum because student teachers: act as a Reminder about Career Development; enable supervisors to have Time-Out to Monitor Pupil Learning; and they Promote Pupil Engagement. These results provide important baseline data for making sense of the UGS teachers' commitment to the practicum, for situating their responses within current educational reform efforts, and for determining their professional development needs.     

美国教师教育项目中教师品性评价的实施

为了培养优秀的教师候选人,美国教师教育项目开展了教师品性评价。该评价贯穿于教师候选人的整个学习和实习期间,旨在使教师候选人的品性在不断的反馈中得到充分发展。美国各高校教师教育项目对教师候选人的成功至关重要的品性评价内容进行界定。评价所使用的方法包括行为检核表、评价量表、访谈和品性反思文章。品性评价的实施涉及教师品性评价介绍课程、签订教师品性评价协议、四次主要评价、不定时的评价和评价结果的应用。教师品性的改进采用发挥教授和导师的模范作用、教师品性研讨会、品性改进课程和PDR-PREP方法等途径。