A Study of the Need for Supervision of Instruction in the High Schools of Utah

Abstract

Supervision of instruction, in the schools of the United States, has developed through a long and arduous process to the position where it is today considered by our leading educators to be a vital part of the educational system. It has been used in varying degrees of intensity as a tool in helping education to achieve its goals, but seldom has it been utilized so energetically and. so skillfully as to produce the best possible results. There is considerable evidence, that supervision, with its resultant beneficial eftects, has been applied leas vigorously in the secondary schools than it has in the elementary schools. For this reason the present study is concerned with obtaining objective information about the present status of supervision in the high schools of Utah. It is the modern view that supervision, to be most effective, must be carried on in a democratic, cooperative manner, with all parties concerned contributing to its success to the best of their abilities. Consistent with this view, in the present study the high school teachers of the state of Utah will be asked to contribute to the understanding of supervisory problems by indicating what their supervisory needs are and what is being done by supervisory personnel to meet these needs. The purpose of this study is actually three-told, first, to discover the teaching activities in which Utah high school teachers feel they need supervisory help; second, to discover whether teacher needs are being met; and third, if the needs are being met, to discover by what method.