Efficacy of Supervision System for Research-Based Professional Internship at Schools for Five-Year Program Agriculture Teachers

Abstract

     This action research aimed to assess the effectiveness of the supervision system in research-based professional internship for five-year program agriculture teachers. The study is a continuation of the research project "Model development for Research-Based Professional Internship for Five-year program agriculture teachers". The research-based supervision system was developed and applied in 3 consecutive phases of student teachers' teaching and research: 1) development of action research on learning and teaching, 2) learning assessment and research conclusion, and 3) presentation of research findings. The school network of this project consisted of 8 schools, 16 cooperative teachers, 9 university supervisors, and 21 student teachers. Data collection techniques and instruments consisted of a) professional internship logbooks as a means of reflection and supervision, b) student teacher questionnaire on the satisfaction to practice in school and classroom research, c) student teacher questionnaire on professional attitude, and d) evaluation form for poster presentation of the student teachers' research projects. At the end, a reflection seminar was conducted with all participants. Effectiveness of the research-based supervision system was achieved with quantitative as well as qualitative analyses. The findings are concluded as follows. 1) Through continuous guidance, student teachers successfullystudent teachers' research projects were evaluated and found to be at good to high levels in 3 aspects: poster quality, presentation skill, and research reflection. 2) the student teachers' feedback on professional internship was satisfying. They demonstrated their achievement on teaching and highly satisfied with the supervision system, especially on classroom research supervision. 3) The student teachers, cooperative teachers, school administrators, and university supervisors reflected that the research-based supervision system was effective and can be applied for the five-year program of agriculture teachers. Most importantly, communication must be reiterated in the supervision system so that all concerned parties understand more clearly the procedures involved.