ABSTRACT
This study investigated the extent of supervision of instruction as carried out in Federal Government Colleges. The main purpose of the study was to investigate the extent of supervision of instruction in Federal Government Colleges in Imo and Enugu States of South East Zone, Nigeria. The study employed a descriptive survey design guided by five research questions and two null hypotheses. A sample of 245 respondents out of total population of 452 respondents was used for the study. Out of 415 teachers, 37 supervisors and four Federal Government Colleges, 208 teachers and all the entire 37 supervisors were drawn and used as sample through stratified random sampling technique in all the four Federal Government Colleges in the area of the study. A structured questionnaire on the extent of Supervision of Instruction in Federal Government Colleges (ESOIFGC) was used to collect data for the study. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the five research questions, while t – test statistics was adopted to test the two null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The result of the study among others revealed that supervision of instruction is carried out to a great extent in Federal Government Colleges. However, the findings indicated that teachers perceive supervision of instruction as involving monitoring and assisting teachers to improve instruction as well as making teaching and learning purpose better for the students while internal and external supervision of instruction are carried out to a great extent in Federal Government Colleges. The findings also revealed imposing personal ideas on teachers by the supervisors, teachers’ refusal to co-operate with supervisors, appointment of non – experts as supervisors, parents’ negligence to provide their children with basic instructional materials, students coming late to classes and non attendance to classes by the teachers as the factors which hinder supervision of instruction in Federal Government Colleges. Meanwhile, the measures for improving supervision of instruction were also determined as revealed in the study. The study among others recommended that supervisors should always seek the opinions of teachers while trying to solve teaching and learning problems, teachers should always embrace supervision of instruction and government should appoint officials with many years of experience in teaching and with greater experience above any average teacher as supervisors. The study further recommended that parents should provide their children with basic instructional materials; group effort should be encouraged among students in the classroom while teachers should be assisted by the supervisors to help themselves improve instructional activities in colleges.
