Educational supervision is considered by many authors and lawmakers, as an asset and an essential contribution to the growth and (re)qualification of school organizations, as well as to the continuous improvement of the educational service it provides. The school is shown as a learning organization which, grounded on its teaching and learning mission, develops inside it collaborative processes and monitoring mechanisms which aim a professional and an educative improvement of all who are involved in it: teachers and students. Thus, educational supervision should be seen as a continuous and systematic process of monitoring the teacher throughout his whole career, and not just only in the early training of future teachers. Therefore, it should be understood as an educational tool at the service of teachers throughout their career (lifelong training), along with the school organization, promoting within a reflective thinking and a dialoguing approach, among all educational stakeholders towards a learning school. We believe that this approach will enhance the personal and professional improvement of all educational touchstones , as well as to the improvement of the school organization, in an environment of qualification and development of all those who work in it and take part of it. All supervision processes require experienced supervisors, holding specific training and committed to their "mission" of knowing how to observe, monitor, guide, communicate, and assess all stages of the supervision process. By performing their purposes, they should apply the standard(s), the setting(s) and the supervision style(s) they realize as filling the needs and uniqueness of each teacher/school organization, always within an environment of action-thought that upholds learning and the improvement of the educational action of all the interlocutors. According to literature, every supervising action (including teachers’ performance assessment (ADD)﴿ should be applied within processes where supervision and appraisal go "side by side", making synergies and complement, in favour of development and improvement of the educational service that the organization provides (to the students and to all of its professionals). Based on the previous assumptions, we present, in a second phase, a critical and reflective analysis of our career, emphasizing the contribution of the educational supervision in our professional and personal growth. In this phase, we describe our arrival to public school, The starting off without initial teacher training (lonely me), as well as all the long training, the learning, the growth, the update and the assessment walk that has been developed until this moment (learning me). The presented data (literature and our personal witness) proves that supervision should be designed as an instrument of lifelong training, that enhances innovation, teachers autonomy and professional growth, based on learning that, despite having an individual side (self-thinking, self-assessment, self-training ...), should be focused in a context of collective sharing of know-hows, of practices, of life-experiences, thus evolving the promotion of a thinking school which holds equally thinking teachers. Teacher’s assessment must also be considered as another learning, improvement and professional growth process, where educational monitoring appears as a tool in service of that same improvement and professional growth. We consider that the current teacher’s assessment standards are essentially evaluative and classifying, as they do not involve educational supervision in benefit of public school’s improvement, change and quality.
| Date of Award | 2013 |
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| Original language | Portuguese |
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| Awarding Institution | - Universidade Católica Portuguesa
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| Supervisor | Célia Ribeiro (Supervisor) |
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