Shifting approaches to supervision: The case of mathematics supervision

Standards-based instructional reform has been occurring in all major school subjects. However administrators' supervisory practices have generally nor taken account of subject-matter content bur have focused primarily on peda gogical process. This article addresses how administrators can better suppo rt standards-based instruction by shifting their approaches to supervision to attend to the intersection of process and content. The article reports o n a study that looked at what administrators thought significant when viewi ng the same videotape of a fifth-grade mathematics lesson at the beginning and end of a professional development seminar on supervision. It describes the different interpretations of the same events at these two times to illu strate the emergence of new principles to guide the exercise of administrat ors' professional judgment in classroom observation and supervision. The ar ticle concludes that there is a need to bring adequate subject-matter knowl edge to the process of supervision and suggests several possible directions for achieving this shift.