Clinical Supervision: an Exploration of its Role on in-Service English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Teachers Professional Development
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Date
2013-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
In today‟s competitive world, the importance of English Language is unquestionable. So, the responsibility of English Language teachers is quite prominent in availing the new generation for this competition. Therefore, designing an on-going professional development schemes for practicing English Language teachers is necessary.
In this respect, the current study intended to explore the role of clinical supervision processes on in-service EFL teachers‟ on-going professional development. The research design was qualitative case study. Classroom practices as well as conceptions on classroom observation and professional development of groups of grade 9 English language teachers and school administrators were explored (i.e. six English teachers and four school administrators). Structured interview, classroom observations, and participants‟ program evaluation were used as research instruments. Accordingly, audio recorder was used to collect interview data while video recorder and field notes were used in collecting classroom observation data.
Although the interview questions were initially prepared in English, it was conducted in Amharic (the participants‟ lingua franca) to help participants speak freely without bothering about their language. Then, it was translated into English during the transcription. The transcribed data were coded and organized using the computer software program called open-code 3.6. Similarly, four successive classroom observations were conducted for each participant teacher. These classroom observations were carefully described and interpreted. Participants‟ project evaluation was also conducted to understand their feelings and comments on the clinical supervision intervention they passed through. Then, the data obtained from their evaluation was described and interpreted.
Drawing largely on data from observation and interviews, the results showed that clinical supervision intervention can help the improvement of in-service EFL teachers‟ lesson presentation/methodological skills and classroom management skills. In addition to these, the results of the study depicted that the participant teachers‟ language learning experience has some influences on their language teaching practices. Some teachers tend to teach in the way they were taught. So, clinical supervision intervention can help teachers unlearn what they unwontedly learned from their previous teachers (their presentation as well as classroom
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management).The research also showed that participant teachers and school administrators held different conceptions on classroom observation and almost similar conceptions on in-service EFL teachers‟ professional development. The participant teachers understand classroom observation as a means of professional development where as school administrators understand it as an instrument for teachers‟ performance evaluation. Both parties understand professional development programs as short-term trainings and workshops.
From the result of the study, we can deduce that Egan‟s (1994) helping cycle model, which was taken as the model of the study, was effective for using clinical supervision intervention as a scheme of in-service EFL teachers‟ professional development. During pre-observation conferences, observers attended and listened to the teacher on what s/he intended to do. During observation, classroom observers related observed behaviors to what the observed teacher had set out to do. They listened attentively to the teacher‟s reflection on the observed lesson, guided the teacher to the new ways of lesson presentation and classroom management, and helped the teacher to plan on the next lesson during the post-observation conferences. Furthermore, the model helped the participant teachers feel free to reflect on their actions and develop positive attitude towards classroom observation. It also helped them unlearn their unwanted language learning experiences, and learn the new ones because helping, according to the research model, is an educative process. As helping is a cognitive behavioral process, clinical supervision help participant teachers to change the way they act through a new understanding of what they are doing. Similarly, since helping is a collaborative process, the aim of clinical supervision fosters collaboration between the clinical supervisor and the teacher.
Based on the study, clinical supervision intervention would work best in the Ethiopian context if the clinical supervisor (experienced English teacher) is given further training in clinical supervision processes. This study suggested that schools and /or English departments can consider clinical supervision as in-service EFL teachers‟ professional development scheme