The practices and challenges of clinical supervision in government Secondary schools of jimma zone of oromia regional state

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the practices and challenges of clinical supervision in government secondary schools of Jimma Zone. Four research questions were formulated, which assesses the extent to which teachers understand about the roles of clinical supervision in secondary schools of Jimma Zone, the procedures of clinical Supervision employed in classroom in the secondary schools, the extent to which is clinical Supervision contributing for teachers’ professional growth and the challenges existing in the implementation of clinical supervision. To conduct this study, the descriptive survey method was employed. Among the 32 government secondary schools found in Jimma Zone, 10 of them were selected randomly as sample schools. From these sample schools, 10 principals and 7 secondary school supervisors from Woreda Education Office supervision coordinators were included as respondents using purposive sampling technique. Furthermore, 138 teachers and 60 school supervisors have participated in the study through random sampling technique. Questionnaire was used as main tool of data collection. Interview, observation and document analysis were used to substantiate the data gathered through questionnaires. Frequency, percentage, Chi-square and ANOVA were utilized to analyze quantitative data gained through the questionnaires while qualitative data gathered thorough interview, observation and document analysis were analyzed through narration. The result of the study indicated that teachers lack awareness and orientation on the significance, purpose, objectives and other activities of clinical supervision, and inability of supervisors to utilize the necessary structural procedures of clinical Supervision for classroom observation properly. As a result, many teachers of the schools under this study area could not acquire the experience needed and remained dependent professionals. On the other hand, among the factors influencing the clinical supervision; lack of regular class visit, lack of relevant training programs for supervisors, lack of experienced supervisors in clinical supervision activities, lack of supervision manuals in the schools and shortage of allocated budget for supervisory services. Finally, to reduce the problems of clinical supervision in secondary schools, it is recommended to give relevant in-service trainings for supervisors to upgrade their supervisory activities, necessary resources such as supervision manuals and adequate budget for the success of supervision at the school level were suggested