Date of Award

5-1-1984

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Communication Sciences & Disorders

Abstract

The general purposes of this study were to determine specific characteristics of supervisors of university clinical practicum, to survey their attitudes toward engaging in particular supervisory activities, and to examine the relationships between these characteristics and attitudes.

One hundred fifty-two supervisors of university clinical practicum (89.4 percent of the questionnaires mailed out) completed and returned the questionnaires.

The results of this study revealed that the typical supervisor of university clinical practicum is a female, thirty-eight years of age, who has held her current title of assistant professor for 4.6 years. She is not employed in a tenure-track position and is not tenured. She has had 7.8 years of full-time experience in providing direct clinical services in the public school setting. She is currently involved and has had eight years of experience in the supervision of university clinical practicum. She has had no coursework, but has had practical training in clinical supervision, holds the degree of M.A. or M.S. (or the equivalent) and is certified by the American Speech-Language- Hearing Association in the area of speech-language pathology.

An overall positive attitude was shown by the responding supervisors of university clinical practicum toward the supervisory activities that were rated. However, respondents were found to have more positive attitudes toward activities involved in the feedback conference phase of the clinical supervision process than toward activities involved in the observation phase.

A statistically significant relationship was found to exist between total attitudinal scores for activities involved in the observation phase of the clinical supervision process and the following subject variables: 1) age; 2) number of years of experience in the clinical supervision of university clinical practicum; and 3) highest academic degree held. There was also a significant relationship between the total attitudinal scores of activities involved in the feedback conference phase of the clinical supervision process and the type of education received relative to clinical supervision.

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