Term paper on Effective supervision in the Special Schools in Ghana
Definition of Supervision
The value of supervision has long been recognized in the educational setting. According to Bernard and Goodyear (1998), supervision may be defined as the intervention given by a senior member of a certain profession to a junior or group of members working in a similar profession. Various studies in the past have highlighted the advantages of educational supervision. As quoted in the book of Good Oath; “the supervisor is responsible for the student and so if anything awful happens, the supervisor would be held responsible. Supervision should not be regarded as a process whereby the supervisor is seen to be checking up on the student and is therefore viewed with supervision (p.198).”
For instance in the study of Berg and associates (1994), the findings showed that stress levels among staff are significantly reduced through supervision as they provide individual planned care for patients with dementia. Hallberg (1994) also found out that educational supervision allows the improvement of teacher-student relations, reduction of stress levels, enhancement of self-confidence among students and knowledge enrichment.
In some studies, educational supervision enabled teachers and educators to reflect upon themselves, particularly on their formative learning needs. White and associates (1998) on the other hand, noted that educational supervision makes work routine easier for the staff as they can openly share their difficulties with someone who understands their experiences as well as their feelings. Clearly, these studies emphasized the role of educational supervision not only on providing quality educational service but also on developing the supervisors. In the case of Special Schools, supervision is important to ensure the children are given enough attention since they have special needs.
Role of Supervisors
In order to carry out educational supervision effectively, it is important that a systematic framework is implemented and followed. This framework is typically referred to as the educational supervision model. Over time, a number of models for supervision had been introduced; each has its own function, strengths and weaknesses. Hence, it is significant to learn the different characteristics of the supervision asin order for the staff to make the most of their benefits.
Mostly, supervisors are responsible for synchronising the activities and systems implemented by their own bound section. Managing how people do their specific tasks in a specific organisation, such as Special Schools in Ghana is commonly the responsibilities of the supervisors. It includes a variety of activities, decides on student needs, orienting and training the working force and ensuring that the students and other members of the organisation will perform well in order to contribute for the growth of the organisation (Mullins, 2004).
Consequently, it is significant to note that supervisors play a vital and essential task in the organisation in order to make the overall operational system and resource system a valuable asset for the whole organisation. With effective supervisors, the students are being benefited in a way that they will become fully developed students.
Conclusion
Educational supervision is an important aspect of the health system. Through this practice, supervisees are able to gain support from their supervisors, which results to the provision of quality service delivery. Through supervision aspects, other significant benefits are achieved, including teaching-learning adherence, improved patient-staff relations and healthcare cost reduction. Though advantages had been recognized, certain limitations would have to be addressed. The nature however of these limitations is mainly drawn from personal differences and misunderstandings. As previous literatures had pointed this out in the past, there is then an apparent need for individual development particularly among staff and healthcare team members who are working within a specific supervision model. This paper has then concluded that based on special schools needs special needs which should be provided by the supervisors effectively, the type, function and features of supervision models should not be the only concern among organizations. But more importantly, the organizations should realize that skilled and well-prepared personnel are essential to make the most of these educational supervision models. The supervisors, supervisees and other members of the healthcare organization should then address their self-organization needs so as to contribute to the efficacy of educational supervision.
Reference
Bernard, J.M. & Goodyear, R.K. (1998). Fundamentals of Clinical Supervision. (2nd ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
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