MOOC on Supervision

INTRODUCTION

Unfortunately, supervision is not a common, diffused practice in education. Educators are a part of the helping professions that have a fundamental importance for people wellbeing and development. Educators are at high risk of burnout and – as well as other helping professions such as counselors, coaches, psychologists – they are the main tool of their work. Supervision can provide the adequate support to educators for their professional development, case managements and prevention of burnout.

Educators are not islands. They work in team within a specific context defined by the organisation they are in. That is why we decided to talk about supervision in general and in its 3 main forms: individual, team/group and organisation.

In this MOOC you are going to find different videos that explain these forms and several excercises/checklists for self assessment and reflection.

The main aim of this MOOC is to underline the importance of  supervision and to encourage the adult educators’ community, composed by the individual professionals and organisations, to embrace this practice as a regular professional support in their job.

  • Click Here

WHAT IS SUPERVISION IN EDUCATION

It is a reflective tool to support professionals in their growth, develop competences, recognize limits and opportunities and to prevent burnout. The three main functions of supervision are: educational, reflection on practice and supporting.

Supervision can be helpful in any work or job situations to recognize and become aware of the context, how it functions, the resources and to find the most suitable individual, team or organisation solutions. It is based on counselling serving the assurance and development of the quality of communication and cooperation in a professional context.

INDIVIDUAL SUPERVISION

It is a dyadic form of supervision, one supervisor and one supervisee. The approaches differ according to frequency, interval and number of sessions. Sometimes only one session may take place; other approaches strictly define a minimum of sessions and intervals.

TEAM AND GROUP SUPERVISION

Group supervision is made by a group of people who are coming from different organizations and/or from similar or different professions and professional fields. There are two main approaches to group supervision:

  1. the groups are small (four to six participants) in order to give each participant the opportunity to supply on their own topics. 
  2. aims at working with the group process and the group resources, which allows work with bigger groups

Team supervision comprises a group of people linked by a common purpose. Teams are especially appropriate for conducting tasks that are highly complex and have many inter-dependent subtasks. Supervision focuses on team relationships, communication boundaries, team roles, power relations and competition, the atmosphere in the team etc. 

ORGANISATIONS SUPERVISION

Organistion supervision objective is organizational development. It is a specific form of organization consulting which involves the stakeholders and employees in the process of development. In organisation supervision the emphasis is on reflecting the relationship between the team and the wider organizational environment, on illuminating power positions, and on institutional and subjective understanding of roles and tasks. This organizational supervision approach contributes to organizational culture.