Ayed Ahmad Khawaldeh, PhD. Assistant Professor, Jerash University. Jamal Fawaz Al-Omari, PhD. Assistant Professor, Balqa University

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1 European Sientifi Journal June edition vol. 8, No.13 ISSN: (Print) e - ISSN AWARENESS OF THE EDUCATIONAL SUPERVISORS IN JORDAN TO THEIR SUPERVISORY BELIEFS (EDUCATIONAL SUPERVISORS IN THE DIRECTORATE OF EDUCATION IN THE PROVINCE OF JERASH) (CASE STUDY) Ayed Ahmad Khawaldeh, PhD Assistant Professor, Jerash University Jamal Fawaz Al-Omari, PhD Assistant Professor, Balqa University Ghadeer Abed_ALraheem Al-Majali Deanship of Student Affairs, Jerash University Abstrat: This study aimed to know the awareness of eduational supervisors in the Diretorate of Eduation in Jerash in terms of their s.a simple random sample onsisted of (24) eduational supervisors who work in the Diretorate of Eduation was hosen.the researhers used the Desriptive Survey Method beause it fits with the objetives of the study. The beliefs reveal sale developed by (Sulliun & Glanz, 2000) was applied. The study found that only (16.6%) of supervisors are aware of their supervisory beliefs, while (83.4%) of them are not through the results whih inluded showed the differenes between what the supervisor imagine himself and what was shown by the sale applied to his supervisory praties. Aordingly, the study reommended that supervisors shall be subjet to training to be aware of their beliefs and to have the ability to examine them,as well as analyzing of the differene between the beliefs that supervisor pereives and his true beliefs. Keywords: Awareness, beliefs, supervisory 47

2 European Sientifi Journal June edition vol. 8, No.13 ISSN: (Print) e - ISSN Introdution Eduational Supervision is an essential element of the development of the eduational proess, beause no matter how different definitions it has, they meet at one point whih is to improve the eduational proess. The definition of eduational supervision was a soure of ontroversy, disussion and debate for many years, where (Afreno and lerth) observed that the study of eduational supervision laks patient and depth. This may be attributed to the lak of in-depth and serious researhes that deal with the mehanisms of its development in the minds of its pratitioners in the field (Sullivan & Glanz, 2000). It is interesting to onsider that suh studies, whether Arabi or foreign, they show that despite the efforts at eduation reform and abundane of reform programs, but there was no signifiant hange. The study onluded that the method applied by eduational pratitioners has not hanged in essential respets, where the traditional methods of teahing are still prevalent (Goodlad, 1984). On the Arab level, the omplaint was repeated. Ammar (1998) desribes the results of the reform and eduational innovation in the Arab world as "Old oil in new bottles This means it is just institutional forms or administrative proedures with new names and logos but with no essential hange. Sheikh (1999) attributes this status to the failure of innovative programs in bringing hanges in the oneptual strutures of belief. The experiene of failure was a ause to oblige the eduational reformers to use new methods to make a hange, so that these methods rely on assumptions that serve the goal of making an atual hange that stems from the belief system where the behavior is a refletion of suh belief. Organizations, whether eduational or non-eduational ones are man-made, where the employees in these organizations deide what should be. The hange must be the result of people who hange themselves, as many of the problems that hinder our pratie are rooted in the patterns of our behaviors and l loate under the perspetive of our awareness, as the hange will not happen if we do not start examining our beliefs and our awareness of them, as hange annot be ahieved unless we fous on our behaviors or beliefs where we proeed (Osterman & Kotkamp, 2002). That eduational supervision, as an important input of the eduational system, is dominated by the beliefs of the bureaurati legay, where it is exposed to severe ritiism by sholars and researhers. Efforts beome intensive to reate a new partiipatory form based on demorati basis that aims at improving eduation and the development of an 48

3 European Sientifi Journal June edition vol. 8, No.13 ISSN: (Print) e - ISSN ideologial system believes in a partiipatory relationship between supervisors and teahers (Duany, 2003). Based on the foregoing mentioned, there is a need to supervisors to live a state of meditation to their s to ensure their suess as supervisors today, where supervisors shall develop supervisory vision that enables them to express their views in eduation and eduational administration to determine their position as administrative leaders (Sullivan & Glanz, 2000). Problem of the study The problem of study demonstrated in many researhes and studies that addressed the issue of eduational supervision, where those studies indiated that in the absene of awareness of the beliefs that guide the pratitioners we annot make any qualitative hange, as the awareness of beliefs is onsidered as a starting point to ahieve the desired reform in eduational supervision. What supervisor needs in this entury is to develop a personal vision to start onsious empathizing on his beliefs in eduation and supervision, as the mediation of these beliefs and awareness represents a strong and influential attitude in promoting professional development, as the eduational supervisors, being faed by omplex soial, politial, tehnologial and ethial issues, may need to play a ruial role in the development of sound eduational programming ompatible with its meaning and purposes with the requirements of this era (Duany, 2003)Aordingly, the problem of the study lies in the following question: Are eduational supervisors in the Diretorate of Eduation in Jerash aware of their s? Objetive of the study and its questions: This study aims to reveal the awareness of supervisors in the Diretorate of Eduation in provine of Jerash to their beliefs through the s through answering the following question: to what extent the eduational supervisors working in the Diretorate of Eduation in the provine of Jerash are aware of their s? 49

4 European Sientifi Journal June edition vol. 8, No.13 ISSN: (Print) e - ISSN Importane of the study This study is important beause it deals with a very important subjet whih is the awareness of eduational supervisors to their s, sine this study fits supervisors to understand their s to develop themselves professionally. This study also provides deision-makers in the Ministry of Eduation with feedbak to onsider this subjet in training programs and professional development. Proedural definitions Belief: Ideas and assumptions that are believed by the person on how to pratie (Osterman &, Kottkamp 2002) For the purposes of this study, the researhers will adopt the following definitions: - Preferenes and trends aording to bureaurati diretions and beliefs set out in the sale used in the study. - Preferenes and trends aording to demorati diretions and beliefs set out in the sale used in the study. Limits of the study - The results of this study are limited by the sale used by the researhers. - The results of this study are limited to the seond semester of the aademi year The results of this study are limited to the study sample who are supervisors working in the Diretorate of Eduation in the provine of Jerash. Theoretial literature and previous studies: Believed theory identifies (beliefs) as what we think and believe. Beliefs, as Osterman &, Kottkamp 2002) deems have two features whih are: they are on the level of awareness; they easily hange in response to information and new ideas. We might think that our believed theories guide our ations,but in fat they often does not diretly affet our behavior, and our ations are often inonsistent with what we believe, also new ideas do not always lead to new behaviors. The lak of ompatibility between belief and pratie, as studies indiate, refers to that eduators, in many ases, feel there is a problem beause they are not aware of ontraditions that exist between what they believe (believed theory) and what they do (applied theory ), and that without this awareness those in harge of the eduational 50

5 European Sientifi Journal June edition vol. 8, No.13 ISSN: (Print) e - ISSN proess annot get helpful feedbak to evaluate themselves and to realize what they intended to do and what really they did. (Cummins, 1996). This may be due to that there is a used theory so deeply ingrained among the faith (believed theory ) and the deviation, whih means that the teahers awareness of the imbalane between what they desire to do and what they really do is a ause for hange. In order to get this hange individual should develop an understanding of his applied theory (Osterman & Kotkamp, 2002). eduational supervisor or shool prinipal may adopt modern theories, but these theories may not diretly affet in his behavior, and this shows that the theory or beliefs pratied by the individual are rooted in his onsiene so that he annot hange them easily This means that the used theories were built and rystallized in the long period of time and beame part of our identity so that we are unaware of the differenes between our beliefs and our ations. The true expression in our behavior annot be ahieved only when we realize the differene between our used (applied theory) and (believed theory) beause this is essential in order to turn new ideas into behavioral pratie we apply, as this annot be ahieved unless we reognize those beliefs and examine them (Downey, 2003). Supervisory beliefs answer the important question represented by knowing what is desirable, as they also derived from the assumptions and theories held by supervisor in relation to knowledge, learning, lassroom and students, and what is desirable to be expressed in the form of ompetenies, goals and purposes (Sergiovannie & Starratt, 1998). In many ases, eduators do not realize their assumptions, not even their eduational theories that look as true to them or they agree with the theories of teahers who admire them, as it seems that the majority of these supervisors in reality applies assumptions, theories and believes that differ from what they really believe in. Previous studies: A study by Khawaldeh and Hawamdeh (2010) aimed to know the degree of ompatibility between the beliefs of faulty members and their teahing praties at the University of Jerash, where the researhers used the analytial survey method. The researhers onluded that there is a disparity between the beliefs of faulty members and their praties. The study has shown the existene of differenes in favor of the belief to pratie, whih onfirms this disparity. A study by Alolimat (2009) aimed to know the pereptions of Siene Teahers in the primary stage in Jordan for pedagogial knowledge and its relationship with teahing 51

6 European Sientifi Journal June edition vol. 8, No.13 ISSN: (Print) e - ISSN praties, where the researher used the analytial method. The study found that there is a disparity in the possession of pedagogial knowledge of the teahers reflets in their pratie teahing. A study by (Feral, 2009) aimed to determine teahers' beliefs and their relationship with teahing, where the study found that teahers have beliefs derived from the onstrutivist theory. The beliefs of some teahers agreed with their praties, but for other teahers they were not. A study by (Perf, 2007) on students and teahers in Denmark. The aim of this study was to find out their pereptions of the theory of teahing whih they believe in and its ompatibility with the field appliation. The study found that students found a vast differene between what they believe and what they apply it in the eduational field. A study by (Keren, 2004) aimed to know the teahing praties of Siene Teahers and the extent of harmony with their beliefs, where the study reported that the praties of teahers have been affeted by the diretives of shool imposed on them,and despite the beliefs had a greater impat in pratie, but the trends and emphasis on them might make a differene between belief and pratie. A study by (Osterman & Kottkamp 2002) entitled meditative praties for eduators showed that many eduational hanges and renovations in this field have no impat. The study found that the lak of meditative pratie or meditative ability was the reason for that, and it has made the teahers unable to meditate the disrepany status found between (believed theory and applied theory). Comment on previous studies in the literature By reviewing previous studies in the literature it is lear that those studies foused on the study of two dimensions, belief and pratie in the ommunities overed in the study. This study takes advantages of the theoretial literature used in those studies and the various attributions to interpret this phenomenon. But this study differed in that it foused on supervisors self - onsiousness in partiular. Method and proedures. The researhers applied the Desriptive Survey Method. Study population and sample The study population onsisted of all the eduational supervisors working in the Diretorate of Eduation in Jerash - seond semester for the aademi year 2011/2012 who 52

7 European Sientifi Journal June edition vol. 8, No.13 ISSN: (Print) e - ISSN were (35) supervisors. The study sample was seleted by simple random method, where the number of supervisors was (24), i.e (68.5% ) of the population of the study. Study tool The researhers used Beliefs Reveal Sale developed by (Sullivan & Glanz, 2000) ontained in Dawana (2003), whih onsists of (40) paragraphs requesting the supervisor to answer eah one (true) or (false) aording to his belief, where the answer determines his tendenies whih operates aording to the trends and tendenies of demoray and the beliefs that operate aording to the trends and beliefs of bureauray. As shown in the Key soring sale (Appendix 1) the sale requests the supervisors to determine their beliefs and whether they are demorati or bureaurati before answering the sale. Sinerity and stability of study tool The sale was shown to a group of ompetent arbitrators in the field of administration and eduational supervision to onsider the sinerity of its ontent, where some adjustments were made in the light of the presented observations and remarks.required adjustments were made in the sale to suit the Jordanian environment. Reliability oeffiient alulated whih amounted to (0.88) whih means that it is valid for measuring what it was developed for. Results and disussion The main question of the study is: Are eduational supervisors in the Diretorate of Eduation in the provine of Jerash aware of their s? And to answer this question tendenies operating in aordane with the trends and beliefs that supervisor believes in, and tendenies that work aording to the trends and beliefs sored by the supervisor on the sale have been identified. Then we determined the awareness of the supervisor for his s in light of the harmony between what he believes in himself and his beliefs as shown by the sale. Table (1) shows the results. 53

8 European Sientifi Journal June edition vol. 8, No.13 ISSN: (Print) e - ISSN Table (1) Antiipated beliefs by the supervisors and beliefs sored on the sale aording to their answers and the degree of harmony between them. Awareness of Supervisor Mark sored on the Supervisor s Code of belief aording to the belief aor sale ) of 40( belief as he supervis degree of ding to the Demorat Autorat pereives or harmony between what the results of i i supervisor believes the and the sale the belief sored on the sale He is not aware of his Bureaurati Demorati A He is aware of his Demorati Demorati B He is not aware of his Bureaurati Demorati C He is not aware of his Autorati Demorati D He is aware of his Demorati Demorati E He is aware of his Demorati Demorati F He is not aware of his Bureaurati Demorati G He is not aware of his Combines them Demorati H He is not aware of his Combines them Demorati I He is not aware of his Bureaurati Demorati J He is aware of his Demorati Demorati K He is not aware of his Bureaurati Demorati L 54

9 European Sientifi Journal June edition vol. 8, No.13 ISSN: (Print) e - ISSN He is not aware of his Bureaurati He is not aware of his Bureaurati He is not aware of his Bureaurati He is not aware of his Bureaurati He is not aware of his Bureaurati He is not aware of his Bureaurati He is not aware of his Bureaurati He is not aware of his Bureaurati He is not aware of his Bureaurati He is not aware of his Bureaurati He is not aware of his Bureaurati He is not aware of his Bureaurati Perentage of supervisors who are aware of their beliefs Perentage of supervisors who are not aware of their beliefs Demorati Demorati Demorati Demorati Demorati Demorati Demorati Demorati Demorati Demorati Demorati Demorati M N O P Q R S T U V W X 16.6% 83.4% As shown in Table (1) above that all the supervisors (the study sample, 24 supervisors) have desribed supervisory praties aording to what they believe as demorati praties when they weeasked about this. But when applying Beliefs Reveal Sale, the results where otherwise, where the demorati beliefs of supervisors did not exeed 16.6% of the proportion of the subjet supervisors on the sale (ie, 4 supervisors out of 24 55

10 European Sientifi Journal June edition vol. 8, No.13 ISSN: (Print) e - ISSN only) proved that they are aware of their s, while the results of 83.4% of the supervisors were inonsistent with their expetations (ie, 20 out of 24 supe rvisors). There were two of the supervisors ombined between autorati and demorati pattern. This means that (83.4%) of the supervisors (the sample) are not aware of their s, and this finding may be due to that the supervisors do not have the skills that enable them to be ompletely aware of their s, as the nature of praties they used to apply in the field as well as the praties of deision makers may be the reason that led to this situation,what led to that their responses on the sale were affeted by the desires, tendenies and work routine. What explains this, the findings onluded by (Osterman & Kotkamp, 2002) in trying to find out the nature of the disrepany between the believed theory and applied theory, where they interpreted that via what is known as the objeting theory whih distort the pratie of belief, whih often auses a ontradition to the individual, beause this theory represents the desires and the tendenies of leaders as the individual tries to satisfy the desires of his leaders even if they are not onsistent with his beliefs. These results agree with the study of Khawaldeh and Hawamdeh (2010), ( Feral, 2009), (Perf, 2007), and (Keren, 2004), whih means that the ontradition bet ween belief and pratie is a phenomenon found in the various eduational ontexts and that it must be onsidered and studied. Reommendations: In light of the findings of the study, it reommends the following: - Training of supervisors to ontemplate their beliefs, examine and analyze the differene between belief and pratie. - Supervisors shall know what keeps them away from the pratie of what they believe in the eduational ontext to avoid it by raising the degree of freedom granted to them. Referenes: Khawaldeh, Ayed, Hawamdeh, Basem (2010), the degree of ompatibility between belief and teahing pratie of faulty members at the Faulty of Eduational Sienes at the University of Jerash, Journal of Culture and Development - Issue (36) Ammar, Hamed (1996) Studies in Eduation and Culture towards ultural and eduational renewal, first edition, Cairo, Masr Al - Arabia for books. 56

11 European Sientifi Journal June edition vol. 8, No.13 ISSN: (Print) e - ISSN Sheikh, Omar (1999), the hallenges of Jordanian shool,, Jordanian shool seminar and the hallenges of the 21 st entury, Amman, Jordan, Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation. Doany, Kamal (2003), Eduational Supervision: Conepts and Prospet, First edition, Amman, University of Jordan. Sergiovanni,T. & Starratt, (1998), Supervision: A redefinition, 6th ed. Boston: MGraw - Hill. Sullivan, S., & Glanz, J. (2000), Supervision that improves teahing: Strategies and tehniques, Clifornia: Corwin Press In. Osterman, K.F & Kottkamp, B. (2002), Refletive Pratie, New York, MGraw - Hill. Feral,Q & Hatie,A. (2009), Preservies teahers instrutional beliefs and examination of onsisteny between beliefs and praties.7, Kerem,M.& John,T. (2004), The Tension Between Teaher Beliefs And Teaher Pratie: The Impat Of The Work Setting.Group for the psyhology of the mathematis eduation.(3) Perf,L. (2007) student teaher's oneption of theory and pratie in teaher eduation - paper presented at the Biannual ISATT Conferene, Brok University, July. Goodlad,J. (1984), a plae alled shool: prospets for the future - New York :M Graw - Hill. Cummins,I. (1986), Empowering minority students: A framework for intervention. Harvard Eduational Review, 56 (1) Appendix (1) Supervisors' beliefs reveal questionnaire 1. supervision task is seeking for errors False True 2. The areas of supervision based on giving instrutions and False True diretions are more appropriate for teahers with low levels in their personal and professional growth. 3. Eduation ativity is very omplex, interative and with a False True partiular ontext. 4. Affairs of the organization are often onsidered seondary False True to the needs of the individual. 5. Supervisor position in the hierarhy system is not onsidered problemati if ompared to the position of False True 57

12 European Sientifi Journal June edition vol. 8, No.13 ISSN: (Print) e - ISSN teaher. 6. Hierarhial onstrution of offies is neessary for False True organizational effiieny. 7. I do not feel omfortable when I work with teahers as False True partners. 8. The task of supervision is to provide speialized False True assistane to teahers to improve teahing. 9. The task of supervision is to test and analyze the behavior False True of eduation in the lassroom to develop reommendations taken into aount during the eduation by teahers. 10. That teahers an help supervisors to improve their False True performane. 11. The majority of teahers are self-oriented. False True 12. Supervisors shall be diagnosti experts. False True 13. Supervision is a partiipatory proess in whih teahers False True and supervisors talks on ways to improve teahing. 14. The task of supervision is to searh for errors and then False True the involvement of teahers in a dialogue to understand what they lak. 15. Supervision should fous on helping teahers to hange False True and improve teahing. 16. Teahers annot make hange without assistane. False True 17. The reality of the lassroom is not objetive, and that False True eduation is a omplex issue requires ongoing study. 18. Despite the importane of ooperation between the False True supervisor and the teaher, but supervisor s rule must prevail. 19. Shools are enters of investigation and teahers shall take the responsibility for teahing exellene. False True 20. Teaher s self evaluation plays a prominent role in False True improving teahing. 21. Supervisor is a strong tool to improve teahing. Fal se True 22. Qualitative Methods to improve the quality of teahing False True 58

13 European Sientifi Journal June edition vol. 8, No.13 ISSN: (Print) e - ISSN are ompletely valid the same as the quantitative ones. 23. Supervisors help teahers in making hange. False True 24. Refletive dialogue is an integral part of the supervision proess. False True 25. Ativities of teahing improvement inlude training, False True researh projets work, and groups to resolve the problem, as they inlude traditional ativities of the development. 26. The key role of supervision is to ask questions aiming at False True testing teaher s praties in the lassroom. 27. When I do provide teahers with onstrutive ritiism, I False True expet them to take it seriously. 28. Experiened teahers who have a high effiieny should False True ontrol their professional development. 29. Supervisor must have a final judgment about what and how the teaher teahes. False True 30. Teahers must be enouraged to ahieve their False True eduational goals and to implement their deisions related to urriulum. 31. Teahers must be free to hoose what they want to do. False True 32. Teahers shall not obey the offiial regulations if they False True feel that suh regulations interfere with the interests of students. 33. Teahers are not given enough time to think about False True teahing methods. 34. Supervisors shall reate opportunities for teahers to False True provide them with personal and professional hoies, instead of working to shape their behaviors. 35. Supervisors shall listen arefully to the problems of False True teahers and their onerns, and provide ritial estimations and onstrutive ideas for hange. 36. Shools signifiantly Improve when fellowship riteria is offered by whih we ahieve ollaborative work between all members of the faulty. False True 59

14 European Sientifi Journal June edition vol. 8, No.13 ISSN: (Print) e - ISSN Supervisor s knowledge base Outperforms what the teaher knows. 38. Supervisors should be ative in the searh for ways to feed the inputs of teahing improvement from teahers, parents and students. 39. Most teahers do not need preise instrutions about what and how they do. 40. Supervisors are supposed to have the experiene and knowledge about teahing and learning more than teahers. False False False False True True True True Key soring 1. Beliefs: Bureaurati 1.true 2.true 3.false 4.false 5.true 6.true 7.true 8.true 9.true 10.false 11.false 12.true 13.false 14.true 15.true 16.true 17.false 18.true 19.false 20.false 21.true 22.false 23.true 24.false 25.false 26. false 27. true 28. false 29. true 30. false 31. false 32. false 33. true 34. false 35. true 36. false 37. true 38. false 39. false 40. true 2. Beliefs: Demorati 1. false 2. false 3.true 4.true 5.false 6.false 7.false 8.false 9.false 10.true 11.true 12.false 13.true 14.false 15.false 16.false 17.true 18.false 19.true 20.true 21.false 22.true 23.false 24.true 25.true 26. true 27. false 28. true 29. false 30. true 31. true 32. true 33. false 34. true 35. false 36. true 37. false 38. true 39. true 40. false 60