The given clinical supervision will primarily focus on supervisor and teacher interactions within three essential phases of observational measures. The educator, Ms. L, is a proactive user of integrated lessons, where she puts a major emphasis on engagement and comprehension. In the pre-observation phase, the teacher accentuated her approach to utilize the given method in the lesson on mutations.
The observation stage revealed that she mostly adhered to the stated paradigms, but there was a lack of dialogue and ideas exchange. The post-observation part is focused on guiding the educator in a self-directed way. Therefore, Ms. L showed an outstanding teacher performance with a little exception on the use of dialogue, which was highlighted through self-directed feedback.
Pre-Observation
In the pre-observation stage, the emphasis is put on the teacher’s preliminary explanation of the lesson, which is going to be taught. One should note that name of the educator is Ms. L, and the subject is Living Environment Science for 8th-grade students. There are 32 learners in total, and the unit is Genetics and Heredity, with the specific lesson being accentuated on mutations. One of the traditional but urgent tasks of education is the formation of a holistic picture of the world among students.
According to the teacher, integration in the learning process performs the function of combining diverse knowledge into a holistic scientific concept of the world. Establishment and assimilation in the process of cognition of relationships and interdependences between individual elements of experience from various disciplines contribute to the deepening and expansion of knowledge (Yadav et al., 2016).
In connection with the practice of the teacher, this leads to the formation of students’ skills to generalize and systematize information, develop systems thinking. The idea of the pre-observation stage acquires particular relevance in the context of the implementation of the education of genetics since the process of forming general and professional competencies is interdisciplinary.
According to the teacher, in vocational education, there is the concept of a combined lesson, which implies the simultaneous mastery of theoretical knowledge and practical skills and abilities. This lesson can be taught by a master and teacher of professional disciplines or only by a master of industrial training. Ms. L believes that integrated lessons are most effective in certain cases.
For example, this can be important when detecting duplication of the same material in curricula and textbooks or when studying generalized inter-scientific categories, laws, principles covering different aspects of human life and activity, and technological processes. It may also be necessary when identifying contradictions in the description and interpretation of the same phenomena, events, facts in different sciences, academic disciplines (Yadav et al., 2016).
According to the teacher, it is important to demonstrate a wider field of manifestation of the phenomenon being studied, which goes beyond the studied discipline, and the use of the technology of problem and project learning. With a limit on the time to learn a topic and a desire, one needs to use ready-made content from a related or parallel discipline.
Observation
In the observation phase, the direct and precise evaluation and problem identification take place, which is not reliant on the teacher’s position. The peculiarities of the integrated lessons of this teacher are that the subject of study and analysis in an integrated task is multifaceted objects, information about the essence of which is contained in various academic disciplines, the material of such lessons shows the unity of processes in the world around them, allows students to see the relationship between different sciences.
It requires the content of integrated classes includes not only the main material studied from other disciplines but also new content, which is created on the basis of understanding and generalization of this material by students. The ultimate goal of the lesson on mutation is to apply knowledge in an unfamiliar, non-standard situation, put forward new hypotheses, and put theoretical knowledge into practice, during which the integrity of the surrounding world is understood, the creative abilities of students are formed.
The components of the educational process, such as goals, principles, content, methods, and means of teaching, were integrated into this lesson. Integrated lessons can combine the range of a wide variety of disciplines while preserving the teaching methods of the leading field or integrate the teaching methods of different disciplines while maintaining the content of only one specialization.
The object of the implementation of the content in the lesson of mutation was general concepts, general ideas, problems of various modifications, generalized methods of action, and techniques of a generalized nature. These components from different disciplines, combined in one lesson, became the backbone. Around them, educational material was collected and brought into a new system. The system-forming factor is the main one in the organization of an integrated lesson, and the methodology and technology of the class depended on it.
The main objectives of this lesson were the systematization and generalization of knowledge of mutation, and the identification of cause-and-effect relationships, teaching techniques, and methods of transferring knowledge from one subject area to another. The development of intellectual skills such as synthesis, generalization, juxtaposition, and establishment of interdisciplinary and universal connections was observed. Integrated lessons are also conducted with the aim of deeper penetration into the essence of the topic being studied, increasing the interest of students in learning a holistic, synthesized perception of the studied issues on this topic.
Post-Observation
In the post-observation part, the critical element is to provide feedback on the basis of the previous phases. Among the different teaching methods, the dialogue was not used most often. Discussion can occur both between teachers who consider a certain problem or phenomenon from different positions and between teachers and students who bring new facts from life, ask about the incomprehensible, and are involved in solving the problem. In the form of a dialogue, one can consider the performances of students with messages on individual issues, which they prepare independently.
Outstanding efficiency is provided by the use of various integrated tasks in an integrated lesson alongside adult development framework understanding, the peculiarity of which is the synthesis of knowledge and skills from different scientific fields, other academic disciplines around the study of one issue, the solution of one problem.
As a rule, integrated tasks are developed as interdisciplinary, inter-cycle, or connecting theory and practice, theory, and personal experience of students. One of the types of integrated studies can be multidisciplinary projects involving the use of knowledge in two or more disciplines, as well as meta-subject projects carried out at the intersection of knowledge areas and going beyond the studied fields.
Supervisor: Greetings, Ms. L. How did you like the experience of a supervisor being present during your class?
Teacher: Hello! I was expecting that I would be more stressed about it, but I was actually calm and relaxed as during the usual days.
Supervisor: I must say that I did not fully believe that you could implement an integrative lesson style for such an intricate lesson on mutations, but I was surprised that you adhered to your pre-observation words.
Teacher: I sincerely appreciate your feedback because I try hard to increase student engagement and comprehension during the classes, and it can be complicated to achieve for this type of subjects, such as genetics.
Supervisor: Since you are a highly experienced and skilled educator, I would like to ask you whether or not you could describe to me the ways you could improve these integrative classes.
Teacher: So, I do not think I need to add more in-class activities, and I also do not need to increase the lecture segment, but I think I spend less time on student interaction.
Supervisor: How could you improve the student interaction aspect?
Teacher: I think it is better to stick to a conventional format of Q&A or in-class conversation.
Supervisor: Could not agree more! What do you think of combining these two into a simpler dialogue at the end of the lessons?
Teacher: Yes, the simple dialogue would be helpful in both improving student interaction and evaluating comprehension. Thank you for your assistance!
Supervisor: My pleasure.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is important to point out that the provided analysis is separated into three key elements, where each of them possesses the sole purpose of clinical supervision. In the pre-observation stage, Ms. L accentuated the use of integrated lesson style, where she mostly adhered to her words during the following phase. However, the post-observation part illuminated the problem, where the teacher did not use dialogue to increase engagement, and the corrective measure was based on self-directed technique.
Reference
Yadav, P. P., Chaudhary, M., Patel, J., Shah, A., & Kantharia, N. D. (2016). Effectiveness of integrated teaching module in pharmacology among medical undergraduates. International Journal of Applied & Basic Medical Research, 6(3), 215-219. Web.