The Current Practices of Instructional Supervision Approaches and Teachers’ Professional Development in Secondary Schools of Bale Zone of Oromia Region

The research is financed by Haramaya University Abstract The purpose of the study is to investigate the current practices of instructional supervision approaches in secondary schools of Bale Zone. The study particularly focuses on the practices and contributions of instructional supervision approaches, and the factors affecting their implementation in promoting teachers professional development. The study has employed a descriptive survey design, which was supplemented by qualitative research to enrich quantitative data. Data were gathered from nine randomly selected secondary schools in Bale Zone. The respondents included 182(52.8%) teachers were selected using systematic random sampling technique. In addition 54 instructional supervision committee members were included in the study. All nine principals and, eight secondary school supervisors had participated. Questionnaire was the main instrument of data collection supplemented with interview method. Frequency, percentage, and chi-square analysis were employed to analyze the data. While the qualitative data obtained through interview was analyzed using descriptive narrative method. The results of the study reveal that the practices of instructional supervision approaches and their contribution to teachers’ professional development were low. Instructional supervisors were found to get involved in the difficult task of supervision without having prior trainings, and their contributions were also unsatisfactory in promoting professional development of teachers. Furthermore, the study shows that: lack of trained supervisors, lack of supervision manuals, lack of training, shortage of budget, and high teaching load of supervisors and assignment of small number of supervisors hinder proper implementation of instructional supervision. As a result, awareness on the part of instructional supervisors and teachers through seminars, workshops and discussion forums about the different approaches of supervision in order to bring professional growth of teachers and improving their instructional practices were recommended. Moreover, suggestions were forwarded to solve the factors that hinder proper implementation of instructional supervision practices. Keywords: instructional supervision, Teachers professional development, Supervision approach DOI : 10.7176/RHSS/9-9-01 Publication date :May 31 st 2019