The effect of school administration and educational supervision on teachers teaching performance: Training programs as a mediator variable

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of educational supervision as an independent variable on English language teachers’ teaching performance as a dependent variable as well as the role of training programs as a mediator variable. The investigation reported in the study was carried out among Libyan school teachers of English in the city of Zawiya in Libya. Reaching an overall number (N=3036) of teachers as reported by the Ministry of Education, the study sample was (N=351) teachers who were chosen using a random sampling technique. In order to achieve this, the study used a quantitative analysis, specifically a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to test the validity of the assumed relationships among these variables as well as structural equation modeling (SEM) through AMOS. The study obtained several results, most important of which indicated that educational supervision was positively correlated with teachers’ performance in teaching English. In addition, the results showed that training programs played an important role as a mediator variable in a making a higher indirect positive impact of educational supervision on teachers’ teaching performance. Based on these results, in order to enable the Libyan school teachers of English address their weaknesses and identify their strengths, educational supervisors should organize more effective activities related to teacher training. Their interests should not be exclusive to teachers’ imperfections, but they should interact and communicate with teachers for better identifications of their strengths and weaknesses. By so doing, teachers can promote their professional knowledge, skills and experiences.