SuperVision and Instructional Leadership: A Developmental Approach, Sixth Edition

by Carl D. Glickman, Stephen P. Gordon, Jovita M. Ross-Gordon

This classic market leading text in instructional leadership and supervision continues to challenge the conventional purposes, practices, structure, and language of successful supervision. The text's emphases on school culture, teachers as adult learners, developmental leadership, democratic education, and collegial supervision have helped to redefine the meaning of supervision and instructional leadership for both scholars and practitioners. Building on the success of previous editions, the sixth edition now addresses hot issues such as school improvements, constructivist teaching, professional development, Chaos Theory, and state mandated standards.

Genres: Education, Leadership, Nonfiction, Grad School, Teaching, School

528 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is by and far the best book on educational leadership and instructional improvement I have read to date. It shatters long establish paradigms and challenges us to develop a culture of change that really results in success of our students to be active participants in a democractic society. Highly recommended reading!

[Michael Loveless · Rating 3 out of 5]

SuperVision and Instructional Leadership is a textbook. It has the strengths and weaknesses of a textbook. It's long and comprehensive. The authors go into great detail about how to work with other teachers, including specific tasks and philosophies. The book talks about tangential issues like selecting curriculum, promoting school-wide change, professional learning communities, promoting social justice and democracy, interacting with the community, and pedagogy. At the end of each chapter the authors include exercises and assignments that a professor using this textbook could assign to the graduate students in the course using it. There is also a bibliography at the end of each chapter, and a shorter list of recommended readings.

As a teacher with 34 years of experience, I read the book to learn how I could better help the student teachers I work with, the members of my department that I lead and observe, and any other teachers in my school as the opportunity arises. I thought this book would be a good overview and foundation for future reading and could serve as a reference. I was not disappointed. Predictably, the author's world view is different than my own. As a Christian, I'm a big believer in human sinfulness, moral absolutes, and Truth with a capital T. The authors promote a philosophy of allowing students to pursue their own path, because there is no one right path. There unstated assumption seems to be that democratically run schools have the power to usher in an age of peace and harmony. I think there is some value in these ideas, but I disagree with their basic premises.

This book is no page turner, but if you'd like to know more about supervision and instructional leadership, this book is probably worth the slog.

[James Kittredge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good...

Compulsory deduction of one star for the capitalization of that fucking V.

Had to read it for grad school. It's fine. I like that it's the first text I've read that actually breaks down teachers' competencies and mentoring needs based on their relative level of professional development. I like that it recognizes no one, single approach is going to work for supporting the development of every teacher. I like that it places the principal/administrator in a support/service role, rather than a purely supervisory one. I like the emphasis the authors place on metacognition and self-reflection as a key part of professional growth.

I don't like that, like virtually every other educational leadership text I've read, the authors don't seem to have a sense of how to give practical, concrete prescriptions for implementing their big ideas. I've been supervising teachers for years at this point, and being on the ground, in classroom observations and post-observation conferences was a FAAAAAAAR better teacher than anything contained in this book.

Granted, at this point in my degree program, I'm a little jaded. All of these leadership texts feel like some variety of educational onanism. This one is definitely not the worst - I even took notes and implemented some of the ideas contained in it when supervising a couple of my teachers. That said, I rented the book and can't imagine that I will be re-renting or purchasing it in the future. Experience really is the best teacher in this arena.

[Ellon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent teaching book. Some good concepts about supervision, although many seem hard to implement in real life. I do have to roll my eyes a bit that the authors went with SuperVision (that stupid capitalized v is so arrogant!)

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this book for anyone involved in Instructional leadership and supervision. Excellent overview of what the evaluation model for classrooms and teachers should be like. Observations based on teacher development for student benefit. Phenomenal concepts presented here.

[Tom Denker · Rating 1 out of 5]

Required reading for grad school. Read it if assigned, otherwise, steer clear.

[Tanya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd say this book is a must-read for those in schools-- educators and administrators, alike. Some of it is common sense but bears repeating, some of it will challenge your previously-held conceptions of what supervision is, and some of it will enlighten you. All of it will make you a better leader as well as a better "follower".

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great book to learn from. It has clear explanations and more graphics than you could ever need. While not a book I would have picked up just for fun, it is a book I am glad to have read and will likely refer back to in the future.

[McKay · Rating 4 out of 5]

As my good friend wrote in the front of the copy I borrowed from him, "this book changed my life!" (Yeah right Aaron!) However, I must say that I enjoyed this book. It is very informative and is a great resource for those looking to go into school administration.

[Erin McDonnell-Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of the better books I've read for my doctorate program. The authors are advocates for teacher involvement at all levels of supervisory behavior, including seeking teacher input and including teachers in decision making.

[Garret Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great guide to educational leadership, but it is still a text book.

[Kevin Shrum]

Obviously something I have to read for class.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Only one chapter in but not a difficult read. This is part of my Supervision and Professional Development course.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

who am I kidding, I didn't read this crap....what I did browse looked OK

[Master]

sasAS

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good for a grad book - had relevant information

[Supervision education]

i want read this book

[Brian · Rating 1 out of 5]

My wife had to shell out $150 books for this snoozer, and her brand new copy was missing fifty pages! (a bunch were duplicates of previous pages). What a rip off.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent textbook on leadership.

[Abbie]

Very useful information, but does not take any of the stress away of being an administrator!

[Larissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

ed leadership required reading

[Anthony A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of very good information in this book for any future administrators.

[Marina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book while working on my dissertation. This is a good resource on coaching in education.

[Jatmiko]

collaborative approach

[Erin]

grad school :(