DESIGNING AN INSTRUCTIONAL SUPERVISION MODEL FOR EFFECTIVE SCIENCE TEACHING AT SECONDARY LEVEL

Abstract

Head teachers in secondary schools are responsible for instructional supervision of science subjects while most of the head teachers have never worked as science teachers or even science students in their educational career. People who have no knowledge of the subject matter and teaching techniques of the relevant area can not provide sufficient help to teachers as instructional supervisors. This study was conducted to design an instructional supervision model for effective science teaching at secondary level in the context of Pakistani culture and provisions. The main objectives of the study were about the professional and academic competencies of the head teachers responsible for instructional supervision in secondary schools, supervisory practices to supervise teaching of science at secondary level and the problems of teaching of science in secondary schools. The study was conducted in two phases. Three types of instruments (a competency check list, a rating scale for supervisory practices and an interview schedule for respondents) were developed by the researcher. Instruments were validated through expert opinion and the reliability was established through pilot testing. Reliability of the instrument for competencies was ensured .9423 while for supervisory practices and the problems it was ensured at .9534 and .7362 respectively. For first phase, data was collected from 332 science teachers, 327 head teachers, and 73 executives i.e. Execuitive District Officers (EDOs) (Education) & District Education Officers (DEOs). The second phase was experimental and designed model was implemented in selected schools to determine its validity and feasibility. Data of first phase was analyzed using descriptive statistics and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The findings revealed that most of the head teachers rarely plan teaching learning activities for science classes; rarely observe how teachers teach and redirect their teaching; rarely help teachers to plan and teach lessons in classrooms in science subjects; and head teachers rarely provide any guidance to teachers and students regarding their teaching and learning problems. Paired sample t-test was applied to the data collected in phase two. Analysis of experimental data revealed that designed model may be useful if followed as it improved the achievement scores of the students who were taught by the teachers supervised through designed model.