Supervisory Practices of Department Heads and Teachers' Performance: Towards A Proposed Enhancement Program

The study investigated the effects of department heads' supervisory practices on teachers’ performance in public secondary schools in the Schools Division of Tarlac Province. A descriptive-correlational quantitative design was used, with a standardized instrument serving as the primary data-gathering tool. To reduce bias, the five (5) statements in each indicator on supervisory practices were arranged at random. Informal interviews and documentary analysis were used to substantiate the primary instrument. The findings revealed that: (1) the department heads, as validated by themselves, by teachers, and by school heads, are generally performing very well among the domains of supervisory practices with grand means of 3.59, 3.57, and 3.51, respectively, and an overall grand mean of 3.56 which constituted a Proficient verbal description except for one, that is, Domain 3: Fostering a Culture of Continuous Improvement which constituted an Approaching Proficient verbal description; (2) the greater majority of teachers are performing within the Very Satisfactory level; and (3) supervisory practices are generally statistically significant to teachers' performance, with the exception of Domain 2: Strengthening Shared Accountability and KRA 3: Curriculum and Planning, which is statistically not significant because the ρ-value of 0.088 is greater than the 0.05 level of significance. Among the recommendations are: 1) Department heads are encouraged to take advantage of opportunities for research skill development, such as training workshops and conducting action and/or applied research; and 2) Recalibrate department heads' supervisory practices, particularly in classroom observation and appraisal of teachers using features of practice; and 3) Hold a Department Heads Summit to encourage open communication among department heads.