Supervisory practices as perceived by teachers and supervisors in Riyadh schools, Saudi Arabia

The purpose of this study is to investigate the actual and preferred perceptions of teachers and supervisors of the supervisory practices that usually occurred in Riyadh schools, Saudi Arabia.; The sample of this study includes 149 teachers and 45 supervisors randomly selected from different schools in Riyadh.; Data are collected through the use of a two-part questionnaire developed specifically for this study. The first part is about the demographical information. It also includes an open-ended question. The second part contained 42 Likert scale items.; Repeated Measures test is used to find the differences between the groups and between the two types of perceptions (actual and preferred). Teachers and supervisors differ significantly on both the actual perceptions scale and the preferred perceptions scale. The test also shows that the actual and preferred perceptions of the participants differ significantly. However, the test shows that there is no significant interaction between the occupation and the perception. The supervisors' perceptions were higher than those of the teachers.; The study also explores the participants' perceptions of the different areas of the supervisory practices: instruction, communication, leadership, staff development, evaluation, and classroom visitation. The results of the different areas are consistent with the overall scale. The only exception is the area of evaluation, where there is no significant difference between teachers and supervisors, and the perceptions of the actual are higher than the preferred.; The researcher recommends that the gap between the actual and preferred perceptions and the gap between the perceptions of teachers and supervisors should be put under scrutiny to trace the possible reasons for that incongruence. The researcher also recommends that the Saudi Ministry of Education implement the differentiated supervision model to better serve the different needs of teacher in Saudi schools.