Instructional Supervision, Coherence, and Job-Embedded Learning

Abstract

theory to accomplished practice. Such learning requires a setting that supports teacher inquiry and collaboration and strategies grounded in teachers' questions and concerns. To understand deeply, teachers must learn about, see, and experience successful learning-centered…teaching practices. (Darling-Hammond 1998, p. 5) To meet the call for more support for teachers, leaders need to examine practices (e.g., peer coaching, portfolio development, and action research) that promote growth and development; however, this examination must go beyond looking at one practice at a time, implementing it, and then moving onto the next one. Leaders need to break out of the black box in which supervision, professional development, teacher evaluation, and other practices such as peer coaching, action research, and portfolio development, are "offered" as discrete activities. Instructional supervision, professional development, teacher evaluation, and other support programs such as mentoring (Feiman-bundled as a comprehensive support program that can provide job-embedded learning opportunities for teachers. To start the discussion, the intents of instructional supervision, professional development, and evaluation are examined. Next, the coherence model (Zepeda 2007) is presented as one way to bundle teacher growth and development, serving as a framework to guide the work needed to support teachers. The foundations of job-embedded learning provide a framework for nestling growth opportunities and processes of supervision. Finally, promising practices related to the portfolio as a way to extend the clinical supervisory model are offered.