Supervising Your Teacher Candidate

These techniques and suggestions for supervising your teacher candidate are designed to be non-judgmental.  They are based on a formative assessment we expect to be used by University Supervisors, directing teachers, resident supervisors, and support providers.  Non-judgmental feedback means that you give the teacher candidate the evidence you observe during a lesson. You become another set of eyes in the classroom, and the data collected during the lesson becomes a valuable way to review key components of a Teacher Candidate’s teaching. 

YOUR PURPOSE IN SUPERVISING

Your goal as a Directing Teacher/Support Provider is to help your teacher candidate to think in more complex and sophisticated ways about events in his/her classroom and to learn to come up with and implement solutions on his/her own.   In order to accomplish this purpose, your relationship with your teacher candidate is most important and you want to act in ways that strengthen, rather than weaken, that relationship.  Thus, some of your role is to listen carefully.  In addition, some of your role is to acknowledge improvement where you find it.

While supervising your teacher candidate during this assignment, you will find that your techniques and suggestions move from more direct to less direct.  We think about these differences in relationship as “initial” and “collaborative.”  In the beginning, your teacher candidate will be more like an apprentice than a peer (initial); by the end of the assignment, however, your conversations before and after observing will be more like a conversation between peers (collaborative). 

OBSERVATION OF TEACHER CANDIDATE

During observation, you are listening and watching carefully while taking notes.  Begin with attention to the “basics”: managing student behavior and activities, engaging students, and giving directions.

During the post-observation conference, because your teacher candidates just beginning to teach, you may find that you have many, many suggestions for improvement.  You will need to make wise choices among these suggestions and focus on only two or three of most important among them, while praising those things that have been successful or successfully attempted.

COLLABORATIVE CONFERENCES BETWEEN PEERS

The supervision cycle at this level usually consists of (1) a pre-conference, at which the purpose of the lesson is discussed; (2) the observation, when the data is collected, and (3) a post-conference for discussion and feedback about the lesson.  Your relationship with your teacher candidates now more peer-like and the responsibility for the conversation is shared.

A. Preparing to Observe -- The Pre-Conference
Before you formally observe and collect data, set up a time for a pre-conference with your Teacher Candidate.  At this time, have your teacher candidate share the lesson plan and discuss the objectives of the lesson.

B. Observe the Candidate –
Use Form #6 (for Multiple or Single Subject) or Form#6A (for Education Specialists)  to provide written feedback.

C. Conferring and Giving Feedback -- The Post-Conference
After supervising a specific lesson, you should meet with your teacher candidate to share the data and/or discuss the outcome of the lesson.  This is an important opportunity for real learning and reflection on the part of the teacher candidate if the conference is well planned and includes probing questions.
Some questions you might want to ask at a post-conference:

• How did your expectations for the lesson compare to the reality?
• How did the students respond?  Were they learning?  How did you know?
• What will you do differently or keep the same?
• I noticed... Can you explain what you were thinking when that happened?

B.1 Avoiding Misunderstandings
Before you give any feedback to your teacher candidate in any conference, you should think about the following questions.  The point here is to think about what is important to you and to communicate your ideas to the Teacher Candidate.  The teacher candidate deserves to know what to expect regarding your methods of praising and giving feedback.  If you were a person who holds-off on praise until the end, that would be important to communicate to avoid frustrations and misunderstanding.

• How will you praise your Teacher Candidate?  If you don’t praise consistently, will the teacher candidate think you didn’t like a lesson?  What is the role of praise in teaching?  How do you like to have praise delivered?  Should praise be specific, general, verbal or written?
• How will you give criticism to your Teacher Candidate?  How will it make a difference if the critical feedback relates to appropriate dress, interaction with students, verbal grammar, lesson planning, or some other issue?  How do you like to receive critical feedback?

B.2 Asking Questions to Avoid Judgments
Instead of telling the teacher candidate what you think you saw, consider asking the teacher candidate to respond to some questions you ask.  This promotes a more reflective dialogue and helps you avoid making judgments.  There will be times when you will want to give direct feedback, but if it is mixed with questions, there will be less chance of judgmental comments.  A voyage of self-discovery will bring the teacher candidate to new awareness levels about his/her teaching in a more positive manner without jeopardizing self-esteem.

B.3 Sample Agenda for a Post-Conference

• Introduce the conference and review the lesson plan;
• Share the evidence you collected with the Teacher Candidate;
• Ask probing questions;
• Encourage teacher candidate inquiry (e.g., what do you think of this?  How does this relate to what you thought was happening during the lesson?  Why do you think this happened?);
• Initiate a discussion about teaching and the lesson;
• Set up another observation time to do the cycle again -- ask what the teacher candidate would like you to observe.

B.4 Goal Setting with Your Teacher Candidate
During the conference, jointly select one-three aspects on which your teacher candidate could strive to demonstrate growth.  This could be a “recommendation” from you or a goal offered by your Teacher Candidate.

• Discuss specific actions the teacher candidate would have to take to grow in this area.  List those actions.
• Set a time when you will review this plan to see if the goals have been met.  At that time, you may revise and continue with the same goal or select a new one and start the process again.
• Make the goals achievable, observable, and measurable!
  Sample goals:  Beginning a lesson with linkages to prior knowledge, culminating a lesson with closure, moving around the classroom, giving clear directions, managing an effective classroom routine during a lesson.