AN ANALYSIS OF TEACHERS' PERCEPTION OF THE SUPERVISORY BEHAVIOUR OF SCHOOL INSPECTORS

1.1 Introduction

Supervision is a middle age Romanic concept, meaning deviation from the original text or scanning, reviewing process for the mistakes (Smyth, 2001, in Sullivan & Glanz, 2000). Teacher's Perception of values of education is a detailed practice or conduct of human life consisting of positive and civilized attributes which lead to a high culture in our lives. The introduction of this curriculum showed that the application of noble values in teaching is an important agenda in the national education system. Each strategy of the cultivation of noble values must be implemented in order to enhance the appreciation of the values and the formation of self- discipline in students (Ali & Eni, 2005). It is very important to learn these values but more importantly, these values are to be understood in order to form an integrated and balanced human personality.

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

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1.2 Background of Study

Historically, the first function of supervision of education is inspection; however this function has changed to a large scale in time. That is; whereas periodical visits paid to teachers by a figure of authority and control over teachers’ behaviour regarding rules was once considered the main goal of supervision, however, later, educational supervision was aimed at leadership, interpersonal relationships, program development and instructional development etc. (Glickman et al., 2004; Memduhoglu et al., 2007; Sullivan & Glanz, 2000).

The purpose of supervision of teaching is to develop teaching and success of school to provide success of students, teacher development and educational equality by cooperating with educationists (Glickman at al., 2004). This mentality sees supervision as a social process that promotes teachers’ development, trains them and evaluates them. Starting point is the fact that individuals themselves are able to change their behaviour. These days, however, there is a decrease in many of the practices and processes of education that contribute to value creation in our younger generation (Khadijah, 2008). This is because the education system is more focused on the academic success which has resulted in the negligence of affective education. The absence of an appreciation of noble values in education has caused the students to behave more negatively.

Education supervisors are selected from teachers and managers by an exam (Unal & Kantar, 2009). Primary education supervisors supervise managers and teachers by visiting the schools they were assigned to supervise in groups at least once a year, and write a report after the mission they have carried out and leave the institution. The main purposes of educational supervision are determining defects and improper practice through controlling educational staff work and taking measures to prevent them, providing staff with coordination, motivating staff through guidance and professional assistance, increasing job satisfaction levels and contributing to the integration of all educational institutions with the environment (Memduhoglu at al., 2007; MoNE, 2001).

It is a problem to cultivate noble values in teaching when the teachers are only focusing on delivering the subject contents and ensuring the students’ academic achievement (Ainudin & Abdullah, 2013). It is said that the educator are lacking in the mastery of the principles, methods and techniques in teaching moral values, and have little time to carry out the implementation strategy in teaching, as well asnot getting sufficient exposure in relation to the application of the teaching (Ainudin & Abdullah, 2013). The educators are only using the basic principles of implementation of the first principle for the purpose of teaching the students the knowledge of the three basic principles of knowing the value of implementation, understand and appreciate the value (Robiah, 2001). Other constraints in the implementation of the noble values which are faced by educators are: time constraints, lack of knowledge and skills in terms of moral values, heavy workload and lack of appropriate reference materials (Noor-Lela, 2008).

Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to analyze the teachers' perception of the supervisory behaviour of school inspectors.

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1.3 Statement of Problems

Investigation revealed that Supervisors, according to their own perception, with regard to their personal qualities, are people who are informed on teaching and education, have superior opinions compared to other employees, sharing their information with instructors and school managers, guiding employees, assisting them on their duties and facilitating their jobs. With this perception it can be said that they see themselves as “an ideal person” according to Olivia and Pawlas (2001).

Principals and teacher do not have a positive perception about the supervisors. Principals and teachers perceive the supervisors as persons who constantly look for mistakes, don’t see the good and nice behaviours, do not listen to the other persons, expect their own rights to be accepted by others, try to give punishments when a mistake is determined, incompetent, and affectless as they do not improve themselves, and as persons of whom they should be beware, who are not open to criticism, who believe that they know everything, strict, and who believe that their duty is follow up the implementation of the rules.

The reason for this negative perception may be that the employees abstain from the supervision thinking that the supervision may have negative results for their careers and having negative feelings towards (Acheson & Gall, 1997). In school principals’ and teachers’ perceptions about supervisors being negative, supervisors’ behaviors and attitudes may be effective as well as their having high expectations from the supervisors or primary education supervisors’ doing investigating duty as well. As supervisors are supposed to supervise/guide primary education institutes annually without any request or a problematic situation, this causes supervisors to repeat themselves and this may cause them to be perceived negatively.

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1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to analyze the teachers' perception of the supervisory behaviour of school inspectors. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To determine the perception of teachers supervisory behaviour of school inspectors;
2. To investigate the factors influencing teachers’ supervisory behaviour of school inspectors in senior secondary school;
3. To supervise teachers when they come into a new school and proffer specific skills in lesson delivery;
4. To assist teachers in improving a positive attitude about professional development;
5. To improve the methods of teaching and learning among teachers in senior secondary school.

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1.5 Research Questions

The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:

• Are there factors influencing teachers’ supervisory behaviour of school inspectors in senior secondary school?
• Does teachers’ supervisory behaviour in a new school affect their lesson delivery?
• What is the perception of teacher’s supervisory behaviour of school inspectors?
• How can teachers be assisted in improving a positive attitude about professional development?
• What are the methods of teaching and learning among teachers in senior secondary school?

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1.6 Research Hypothesis

In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.

Hypothesis One

• H0: There are no significant factors influencing teachers’ supervisory behaviour of school inspectors in Delta Career College
• H1: There are significant factors influencing teachers’ supervisory behaviour of school inspectors in Delta Career College

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1.7 Significance of Study

The study will be relevant to teachers by enabling them to make positive changes in their professional practice, particularly in the way they related to and communicated with students, and resulted in increased teacher confidence and sense of fulfillment in teaching.

This study will also be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.

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1.8 Scope of Study

The scope of the research is focused on the analysis of teachers' perception of the supervisory behaviour of school inspectors in Warri-South LGA of Delta State.

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1.9 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
3. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
4. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

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1.10 Definition of Terms

Supervision: Supervision is a means of offering to teacher, in a collegial, collaborative and professional setting, specialized help in improving instruction and thereby student achievement.