Tracing Professional Development through Supervision: A Longitudinal Study

Teacher supervision as a dynamic and interactive career track which is in need of further investigation has recently attracted researchers’ attention. A substantial body of research on this issue shows that the teachers attitudes towards ELT classroom supervision are much more developmental than judgmental. Accordingly, teacher supervision is considered as a mutually beneficial process that provides an opportunity for teachers to reflect on their teaching practices and activities. In fact, in order to shed more light on this issue, the focus of this study which is longitudinal in nature is to track possible transformation in teaching performance of 12 English teachers (4 males and 8 females) under three-year supervision at public high schools in Shiraz, Iran. Observation and interview as two appropriate methods of collecting qualitative data were used in this study. Then, the process of codifying and analyzing the data led to the emergence of relevant themes. The findings indicated that supervision resulted in various changes at certain degrees giving rise to the teachers professional development. Other factors which had the significant impact on teachers professional development such as teaching experience on teachers’ performance were, also, taken into account.