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THE ROLE OF SUPERVISION IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF PRIMARY EDUCATION

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Supervision is one of the administrative tools which individuals as well as groups of people employ in the day-to-day administration of their work or organisations (Nyarko, 2009) and for Segun (2004) the importance attached to school supervision in modern educational systems requires a lot of attention because many people are currently more conscious than in the past about the essence of education. As a result, there is a great interest in the day-to-day operations of the school system (Bessong and Ojong, 2009).

Hismanoglu and Hismanoglu (2010) assert that there is a difficulty in the agreement of a specific definition of the term “educational supervision” since there are some differences in orientations, perceptions, comprehension and familiarity with aspects of the framework and also analysis of its content. This is substantiated with the description of educational supervision by Daresh (2001) as a dynamic process leading to studying and improving all factors that affect the education situation, while Kilminster, Jolly & Van der Vleuten (2007) explain educational supervisionas the provision of guidance and feedback on matters of personal, professional and educational development in the context of trainee’s experience.

Segun (2004) contends that supervision is seen as the stimulation of professional growth and development of teachers, a selection and revision of educational objectives, materials of instruction, methods of teaching, and the evaluation of instruction (Bessong and Ojong, 2009). Dodd (2008) also explains supervision as a way of advising, guiding, refreshing, encouraging, stimulating, improving, and over-seeing certain groups with the hope of seeking their co-operation to enable supervisors become successful in their supervision tasks (Bessong and Ojong, 2009).

Modern educational supervision, as expressed by Bailey (2006) is characterized among others as a technical process which seeks at improving teaching and learning through the care, guidance and simulation of continued development for not only teachers but also any other person having an impact on the educational context. Bailey (2006) also sees educational supervision as a collaborative process in different stages because it welcomes various views that represent the proper relationship between the supervisor and the teacher so as to address the educational problems and find appropriate solutions to them.

From the definitions of educational supervision, various functions could be outlined (Smith, 2005), and according to Hismanoglu and Hismanoglu (2010) these functions are grouped under six main categories namely, development of curricula, supervision and organisation of the educational setting, supervision of the teachers’ professional development, supervision of the teaching methods and techniques, supervision of the novice teacher, and evaluation of the educational process.

Other reasons for educational supervision outlined by Nwaogu (2006) include improving incompetent teachers, providing guides for staff development, helping teachers to see the problems and needs of pupils and help them solve these problems and provide as far as possible for most of their needs, enlisting the co-operation of all staff members in serving their own needs and those of others to prevent teaching difficulties, and knowing the effectiveness of classroom management by teachers and improving methods of teaching and learning (Bessong and Ojong, 2009). Alemayehu (2008) asserts that supervision in most schools in the world, from the era of neoscientific management, have focused on inspection and control of teachers.

Supervision, when carried out in a manner which shows direction and development rather than judgment and criticism will go a long way to improve performance (Wilkinson, 2010). This shows that the improvement of the teaching learning process is dependent upon teacher attitudes toward supervision, and noted that unless teachers view supervision as a process of promoting professional growth and student learning, the supervisory practice will not bring the desired effect.