2335

Annette Sassi

Educational Administration Quarterly

The University Council for Educational Administration

2000

36

4

553-584

Standards-basedinstructionalreformhasbeenoccurringinallmajorschoolsubjects. However, administrators’ supervisory practices have generally not taken account of subject-matter content but have focused primarily on pedagogical process. This article addresseshowadministratorscanbettersupportstandards-basedinstructionbyshifting theirapproachestosupervisiontoattendtotheintersectionofprocessandcontent.The article reports on a study that looked at what administrators thought significant when viewingthesamevideotapeofafifth-grademathematicslessonatthebeginningandend ofaprofessionaldevelopmentseminaronsupervision.Itdescribesthedifferentinterpretationsofthesameeventsatthesetwotimestoillustratetheemergenceofnewprinciples toguidetheexerciseofadministrators’professionaljudgmentinclassroomobservation and supervision. The article concludes that there is a need to bring adequate subject-matterknowledgetotheprocessofsupervisionandsuggestsseveralpossibledirections for achieving this shift.