Perception of teachers and school directors on teaching advice in the classroom

The support to the professorship in the classroom is a strategy of professional development strongly promotes by the Chilean Ministry of Education and represents one of the main modalities of pedagogical advice within the educational centres. The aim of the present research was to know the perception of the professorship and the principals about the pedagogical support in the classroom and its influence on the improvement professional development. 160 teachers and 120 school leadership from 60 primary and secondary schools of the Temuco city, region of the Araucania participated in this research. The research has a descriptive scope and it used a mixed of methodology. The information gathering techniques were an assessment questionnaire of the support to the professorship composed by three dimensions: (1) Professional skills, (2) Collaborative learning, and (3) Educational practices. Additionally, discussion groups were developed with a random sample of participants. The results show significant differences in the assessment of the leadership and teachers attribute to the pedagogical support. The school leadership, on their part possess a high valuation of the strategy, recognizing it as a contribution for the development of capacities and teaching collaboration. Meanwhile, the professorship perceives the accompaniment as a monitoring and control mechanism for their performance that contributes little to the reflection and improvement of their practices. It concludes the need to move towards more collaborative and democratic approaches of support in the classroom, where the leadership team and teachers jointly build located models of teacher's professional development with a strong focus on improving student learning opportunities.