Development of a curriculum in supervision for A.C.T. Tafe

  • Patricia Cameron

    Student thesis: Master's Thesis

    Abstract

    It had been apparent for some time that the supervision course taught by ACT TAFE (based on the 1970 NSW curriculum) was not meeting the training needs of ACT supervisors. This study is a detailed account of how the new curriculum in supervision was developed. The first section is a literature survey directed toward the most relevant problems concerning supervision: the duties and responsibilities of supervisors and their training. The literature shows how the perception of a supervisor has changed from that of a craftsman in charge of men in an assembly plant to th~t of a first-line or sub- manager, technical specialist or workgroup coordinator working with men and women in white collar occupations. Training research was surveyed in the areas of training needs assessment, curriculum, management development and evaluation. From these and further studies specifically on supervision courses in TAFE (the only post-secondary provider of training in this area), it was concluded that its piecemeal and haphazardly developed courses were unlikely to fulfil supervisors’ training needs or gain the acceptance of employers. The second part of the field study is a survey of the opinions of ACT supervision students, supervisors and managers on their training needs in supervision. The techniques used were structured interviews with students and a postal questionnaire to managers and supervisors in the public and private sectors. Finally, the curriculum was formulated using results from the two previous sections.· Although the response rate from the postal survey was low, the results were nevertheless useful, confirming the .data obtained from past students. In the final analysis, three factors contributed almost equally to the design of the curriculum: ideas and findings in the literature, the surveys, and my own experience as a supervisor, manager and teacher.
    Date of Award1985
    Original languageEnglish

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