An Assessment into The Effectiveness of Using Supervisory Practices in Teaching Secondary Schools in Bindura District, Mashonaland Central Province.

Abstract: Zimbabwean schools face a lot of problems related to the twin concepts of poor classroom instruction and low student achievement. Developing countries face common problems in providing sufficient education of high quality to their learners. Typically, these challenges break down to matters of instructional supervision and teaching behaviours. The supervisory practices have been there but, they were not being effectively used by the supervisors. Most of the supervisors, if not all tended to exploit the surprise classroom visit approach in the supervision of teachers. Such a method has been labeled a ‘witch hunting exercise’ as most of the teachers were found wanting. The study was therefore, designed to assess the effectiveness of supervisory practices in the teaching and learning, basing on secondary schools in Bindura District, Mashonaland Central Province, Zimbabwe. Questionnaires and interviews were administered to the target population which comprised all teachers and school heads in the Zimbabwean schools. The researchers found out that supervision has not been a success due to the various challenges associated with its implementation. The study recommends that supervision practices should not be used settle scores between the supervisor and the supervisee, but it should be employed as a developmental tool for the benefit of the education system. The study further revealed that teachers had negative attitude towards instructional supervision that heads of schools engage in. The government should avail timeously all the necessary resources for capacity building of its teachers so that implementation of the supervision tools in teaching and learning can be a success.