INSTRUCTIONAL SUPERVISORY PRACTICES OF TEACHERS IN THE PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS OF HARARI REGION

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess instructional supervisory practices of teachers in public secondary schools of Harari Region. To this end, descriptive research design was employed. A total of 142 respondents were addressed as source of data. Stratified proportational sampling technique was used to select 126 teachers and purposive sampling technique was used to select 8 department heads, 4 principals and 4 vice principals. Moreover, 4 secondary schools were also selected through purposive sampling technique. Questionnaires, interviews, documents and focus group discussion were the instruments applied to gather information from the sampled population. The information gathered through questionnaires was analysed in appropriate statistical tools such as frequency, percentage and mean value, and integrated with information gathered through interview, documents and discussion. Based on the analysis, the findings disclosed that teachers were not well oriented to the potential benefits supervision could bring to themselves or to the teaching and learning process. It was also revealed that the school supervisors were ineffective in providing the professional assistance for teachers through conducting regular meetings with teachers to identify teaching learning problems and then to find solutions to these deficiencies. Furthermore, the findings revealed that the supervisors were not capable enough in assisting teachers to conduct action research, and evaluating the existing teaching texts for further improvement. Finally, the findings of the study especially the questionnaire and focus group discussion respondents discovered that instructional supervision was negatively affected by many problems such as non-availability of supervision manual at school; an insufficient allocation of budget and the unavailability of experienced supervisors in schools. As a result, instructional supervision was less supportive for teachers’ professional development. In light of these findings and conclusions the following recommendations were forwarded. Regional Education Bureau and the Woreda Education Offices should help secondary schools by providing supervision manuals and guidelines as necessary reference tools in order to link the practice of instructional supervision with teachers professional development. Appropriate and continuous training programs need to be organized and given for instructional supervisors and teachers. The Regional Education Offices and the schools themselves should allocate adequate budget for the success of instructional supervision. Instructional supervisors should give emphasis to prior planning and discussing with the supervisee and to create awareness on the purpose of classroom observation