A descriptive study on the styles of supervisors in pre-observation conferences

The universality and importance of the practicum where student teachers have thechance to practice teaching in school settings cannot be underestimated. Supervisors are one ofthe key figures in the development of student teachers in this process. The interactions ofsupervisors and student teachers have always been a concern for researchers. This study aims atdetecting the styles of a novice and an experienced supervisor in pre-observation conferences,finding similarities and differences between their styles, the effect of styles on lesson plans andsupervisors? perceptions of their styles.The data were collected by audio-recording of pre-observation conferences of twosupervisors (each supervising 6 student teachers), by collecting lesson plans of student teachersand by carrying out a structured interview.Having analyzed the data, it was found that the novice and the experienced supervisormostly used behaviors such as clarifying, reflecting and directing. It was seen that the mostlyapplied styles were Directive Informational, Directive Control and Collaborative styles. Thedifferences included the length of the conferences, the variety of behaviors applied, thenumber of behaviors and the use of certain behaviors more than the other categories. Thelesson plans of student teachers revealed that the behavior that caused the change wasdirecting. The interview session showed that the perceptions of the supervisors on theirsupervisory behaviors were different from their actual behaviors in the conferences. Anumber of implications were drawn from the study for pre-service teacher education,teaching practicum and the training of supervisors in the final chapter.