Supervision Beliefs in Cooperating Teacher-University Supervisor Dyad: Implications for Reflective Dialogue to Strengthen Partnership

Abstract

In most teacher education programmes, school-faculty partnerships provide a vital opportunity for student teachers to learn about teaching. This partnership, however, is undermined by the lack of collaboration between cooperating teachers and university supervisors who are paired up in a student teaching triad to help student teachers improve their teaching skills. As it has been reported in the literature that both cooperating teachers and university supervisors act upon their personal beliefs of how to supervise student teachers, one way to resolve this lack of collaboration is to understand their supervision beliefs. Therefore, drawing on the Personal Construct Theory, this case study aims at exploring the personal theories of a supervisor and a cooperating teacher in relation to effective supervision. The data was collected through the repertory grid technique and analysed on a REP Plus computer software program. The analysis was also supported by follow-up interviews. The results revealed shared and idiosyncratic personal theories of the university supervisor and the cooperating teacher and suggest the need for reflective dialogue and joint communication between dyad members over these beliefs to sustain collaborative school-university partnership.