THE ADEQUACY OF SUPERVISION DURATION AND THE LEVEL OF HEAD TEACHERS' INVOLVEMENT IN STUDENT-TEACHERS' TEACHING PRACTICE: A CASE STUDY OF DELTA STATE UNIVERSITY, ABRAKA, NIGERIA.

Abstract

The study examined the time adequacy and level of involvement of head teachers during teaching practice.  The ex-post-facto design was employed for the study.  The population of the study was 10,000 student-teachers. The sample for the study was 1,200 student-teachers of the faculty of education, Delta State University, Abraka. The instrument for data collection was the questionnaire. Data were analyzed using mean score and standard deviation for research questions at 2.50 cut off point while hypotheses were tested using t-test. Findings revealed that student-teachers perceive the time allotted to the teaching practice supervision and level of head teachers’ involvement to be adequate. The study also revealed that significant difference exist between year 3 and 4 student-teachers’ perception when time adequacy was considered, the opposite was the case in terms of level of head teachers’ involvement. It was  recommended  among others that beyond adequate allocation of time for the teaching practice exercise, the training universities and faculties should ensure that the time allotted is judiciously utilized by the supervisors, head teachers of the respective schools, should prioritize meaningful engagement of the student teachers in both pre and post teaching conference and considering the core skill areas the student-teacher is expected to acquire necessary  practical skills,  a strong synergy should exist among the TP stakeholders, etc.

Keywords: supervision, duration adequacy, student-teachers, head teacher, teaching practice