A Study of Experimental Methods for Teaching Emotionally Disturbed,Brain Damaged,Retarded Readers

Abstract

A study was conducted to investigate possible differences in verbal exchanges between supervisors and teachers contrasting clinical supervision and traditional supervision. Past study of supervisors indicated that they were predominantly authoritarian in their relationships with teachers. Clinical supervision was hypothesized to create a more democratic relationship as revealed by the verbal interaction. Seven supervisors each worked with one teacher in the clinical pattern and one in the traditional pattern. Their post-observation conferences were taped and analyzed by trained observers using Blumberg's A System for Analyzing Supervisor Teacher Interaction. Univariate ANOVA analysis of the data revealed a significant difference between the treatment groups favoring the clinical supervision style. Teachers responding on a semantic differential scale also favored the clinical supervision style.