Attitude of Teachers Towards School-Based Instructional Supervision at Secondary Schools of Wolaita Zone

The purpose of this study was to examine the attitude of teachers towards school-based instructional supervision in secondary schools of Wolaita Zone. To conduct the study, a descriptive survey research design was employed and concurrent type of mixed research method was used to enrich data. The study was carried out in 9 selected secondary schools of Wolaita Zone using simple random sampling technique. 200 randomly selected teachers and 30 principals (9 main and 21 vice) were filled questionnaires. From 200 teachers, 18 (9%) were not properly filled the questionnaire. All the available 4 woreda quality assurance heads and 9 supervisors were also included for the interview. Questionnaire was the main data gathering instrument for this study. Quantitative data collected through questionnaire was analyzed by using mean scores, standard deviation, frequency, percentage and independent sample t-test and SPSS version 20 was used for the analysis. Interview and document analysis were also used to substantiate the data gathered through questionnaires. Findings of the study revealed that, teachers had negative attitude towards school-based instructional supervision and they were not satisfied with the function of school-based instructional supervision and the way they behave to realize the function of school-based instructional supervision is different. The finding of the study also revealed that, teachers believe that their supervisors were incompetent to carryout effective school-based instructional supervision and they feel dissatisfied with the approaches of school-based instructional supervision used in their schools. The finding of the study confirmed that, the major factors that negatively affect teachers attitudes towards school-based instructional supervision were: inappropriate approaches of supervisors; lack of basic skills and knowledge in supervisors to carry out effective school-based instructional supervision; lack of awareness of teachers to the importance and usefulness of school based supervision; low trust between teachers and supervisors; lack of pre and post observation conference and inadequate feedback from supervisors; influence on age and gender; poor communication among teachers, principals and supervisors; lack of motivation and commitment in experienced teachers to work collaboratively with conduct of school based supervision. The findings of the study indicated that teachers have negative attitude towards school-based instructional supervision. To solve this, school-based instructional supervisors should encourage teachers and principals to participate actively in school-based instructional supervision by: motivating them to work in groups to solve instructional problems; initiating them to engage in professional activities like mentoring and coaching; assisting them in the evaluation and production of instructional and curricular material and conducting action research to solve instructional problems. In order to mitigate the above problems, the Woreda Officials and school supervisors must have strong relationship and use appropriate approach in the process of instructional supervision to identify the gaps of teachers, principals and supervisors that affect all activities of the schools and how to solve and minimize those gaps. Keywords : Attitude; teacher; School; instruction and supervision DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/9-15-05 Publication date: August 31st 201