APPLETON SERIES IN SUPERVISION AND TEACHING EDITED BY A. S. BARR AND WILLIAM H. BURTON VISITING THE TEACHER THE APPLETON SERIES IN SUPERVISION and TEACHING EDITED BY A. S. BARR Associate Professor of Education in the University of Wisconsin; Formerly Assistant Director in Charge of Supervision in the Detroit Public Schools. WILLIAM H. BURTON Professor of Education in the University of Cincinnati; Formerly Director of Training Schools in the State Teachers College, Winona, Minnesota; Author of "Supervision and the Improvement of Teaching." VISITING THE TEACHER AT WORK By C. J. ANDERSON, Assistant State Superintendent of Public Instruction of Wisconsin, A. S. BARR, and MAYBELL G. BUSH, Supervisor of Elementary Grades in the Wisconsin State Department of Public Instruction. SUPERVISION OF INSTRUCTION By A. S. BARR and WILLIAM H. BURTON. THE ORGANIZATION OF SUPERVISORS By FRED C. AYER, Director of Research in the Seattle Public Schools, and A. S. BARR. In preparation. Other Volumes to Follow AT WORK CASE STUDIES OF DIRECTED TEACHING BY C. J. ANDERSON ASSISTANT STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF A. S. BARR ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF OF MAYBELL G. BUSH SUPERVISOR OF ELEMENTARY GRADES IN THE WISCONSIN Wahr 9-28 26 13724 a cop. EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION Supervision is essentially a coöperative enterprise. Such an enterprise demands a unification and coördination of the efforts of the many different individuals engaged in different parts of the whole task. This implies and demands expert leadership. Leadership is difficult enough in any activity, but is doubly so when the group led is made up of individuals whose social status is the same as that of the leader. Furthermore, the teaching group is possessed of traditions and training that make all the more necessary the type of leadership that is in fact coöperative. The problem of unifying and coördinating through expert leadership and at the same time inspiring and motivating those who are being led come to a sharp focus at the point of actual contact between leader and led supervisor and teacher. There are few problems in the field of supervision fraught with greater possibilities for good and at the same time beset with greater difficulties than that of the constructive criticism of teaching. In the first place, many supervisors do not seem to know what to look for, that is, they do not know how to study the work of a teacher. Many do not know how to marshal the facts in diagnosing the teaching situation. Many do not know what to say to the teacher, or how to say it. On the other hand, of course, there are many supervisors who seem to have the knack of doing this, even though they are unable to analyze the process for the benefit of others. There is also a small but growing group of |