Abstract
Purpose. The effective schools movement identified as a key component the leadership of principals in the instructional supervision process. Experts recommended that teachers be supervised according to individual differences. This study determined whether school principals selected a variety of techniques when presented with instructional settings that described individual differences among teachers. Procedure. One hundred twenty-two randomly-selected principals (83.0 percent) responded to an instrument developed that was adapted to the Situational Leadership II framework for this study. Analyses of the responses identified the predominant supervision style of principals. Whether principals had a repertoire of supervision styles was addressed through a flexibility score, with the level of effectiveness determined through the appropriateness of the styles selected. Responses were critiqued in relation to gender, school level, the number of teachers supervised, and the number of years of experience with instructional supervision. Findings. The major findings included: (1) the predominant supervision style of 94 percent of the principals was a Supporting technique; (2) the backup style at a 3:1 ratio was a Coaching approach; (3) 66 percent of the principals had to expand their repertoire of techniques by more than one style; and (4) the degree of flexibility and the level of effectiveness were at the low end of a Moderate Flexibility range. Conclusions. Principals do not identify the individual supervision needs of teachers. Further, they do not use a repertoire of styles in providing instructional supervision. With the dependency on one basic approach, teachers are not likely to receive constructive feedback from principals to strengthen their instructional practices. Thus, the expectation of educational reformers to improve student achievement by increasing teacher competency through the leadership of principals will not occur. Recommendations. Changes in the professional development programs provided to principals are essential in order to strengthen teacher performance through the instructional supervision of principals. Principals need to become more cognizant of individual teacher differences. Training and procedures must be broadened to improve the level of effectiveness in the supervision of instruction provided by principals, especially in light of the increasing number of new teachers.