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Educational Management

Notes (3) Studying the Teaching-Learning Situation : As stated earlier modern supervision is concerned
with the total teaching-learning situation, its ultimate purpose being to bring about all round
improvement in the learning programme and activities. For this, it is indispensable that
supervision should first survey the present state of the situation, which includes the pupils,
teachers, class-rooms, the curriculum and materials of instruction as well as the administrative
factors such as funds, equipment, time tables, evaluation of pupils, their progress reports and
records, etc. In other words, all the four important elements, namely the learners, teachers,
curriculum and the socio-physical environment, have to be systematically studies. Supervision
has to find out whether the growth and achievement of the learners are satisfactory in the light
of the aims and objectives cooperatively set up by all persons concerned.
In the past, the supervisor’s job was to visit the class-rooms, rate the teachers and teach them on
the job. The purpose was to ensure the growth of children by imparting to them information
and knowledge. It is now realised that growth has to be interpreted not only as academic
training and skill but also as stimulation of interests, development of powers and capacities
through the learners’ cooperation to enable them to acquire a richer and a more abundant life.
Supervision has to study the situation in the light of these new demands.

In India, public participation has been confined to providing funds for education, or
indirect determination of policy through popular ministries or school boards. It is
now necessary to launch publicity campaigns to inform the community about the
latest professional thinking on education. This is necessary for carrying the public
with educational efforts and to win their support and contribution.

(4) Improving the Teaching-Learning Situation : Having studied the situation and having observed
it in operation supervision proceeds to take positive steps for its improvement. These steps
should be planned and undertaken with the cooperation of all the workers. It has to be realized
that learning is much more than mere memorising and in order to develop the learners’ interests,
capacities and habits and to enhance their achievement their active participation in the learning
process should be enlisted and their continuous growth should the individual differences of
the learners. “Effective guidance of the learning activity depends upon a knowledge by the
teachers of the characteristics and backgrounds of each pupil.”
Teachers possess knowledge and necessary professional training but these are not enough. There
is constant need of their on-the-job improvement by keeping them abreast of the current
researches and developments in educational theory and practice. The ever-going social changes
make it all the more imperative to reform educational technology. Supervision should be
regarded as a necessary step in this direction and as a continuation of their pre-service training
and guiding them to do a better job. “Teacher growth is promoted through the kind of faculty
organisation that encourages teachers to exert leadership by stating their problems, by devising
ways of seeking solutions, by participating in decision-making and by accepting responsibility
for the outcome.... For this, we must maintain a permissive climate in which creativity is valued
and diversity of opinion is recognized as an asset.”
The curriculum too, has to be constantly revised on basis of experimental testing of material. It
should be life-centred, that is to say, related to the nature and needs of the learners and factors
in their current family and community life. “A programme of curriculum improvement to be
successful must bring about many important changes within persons and within elements
constituting the setting for learning.”

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