د.رحمة بنت عبدالله بن سليمان الهشامي

Current research aimed to examine the effectiveness of a program to develop the professional competencies for Arabic language teachers' female supervisors (senior teachers) in Sultanate of Oman in the light of contemporary trends, the problem have been identified in the following questions: 1 – What are the necessary supervisory competencies of female Arabic language teachers' supervisors in Sultanate of Oman? 2 - What are the necessary training requirements needed to develop these supervisory competencies of female Arabic language teachers' supervisors in Sultanate of Oman? 3 - What is the proposed training program to develop the supervisory competencies of female Arabic language teachers' supervisors? 4 - What is the significant effect of this training program in developing those competencies of female Arabic language teachers' supervisors? In this study, the researcher used the descriptive and the experimental approaches. Furthermore the study was applied on a study sample consisted of (30) female Arabic language teachers' supervisors in Muscat. The researcher accumulated the data and results using a set of tools which were prepared by the researcher such as: a list of professional competencies required for female Arabic language teachers' supervisors, observation card, knowledge proficiency test, and a training program consisted of modules. After the reliability and the validity of the study tools were established, these tools were applied on the sample of the study during the second semester of the academic year 2007/2008 to the end of the second semester of the academic year 2008/2009. The researcher has reached the following conclusions: 1.Results obtained through the observation card showed that these supervisors could not reach the accuracy limit of (75%) determined by the researcher in twelve competencies. These competencies are as follow according to the average accuracy they reached in descending order : conducting field research, building training programs to develop different kinds of teachers' thinking skills, identifying the teachers training needs, analyzing the classroom interaction, using the appropriate specification when producing educational publications, evaluating the school curriculum, taking the right decisions at the proper time, analyzing the content of the curriculum, following up the training programs and evaluating them well, evaluating the various Sides of the educational process, planning for the teachers professional development, evaluating their own performance. 2. The researcher designed a training program includes modules for the least competencies used by the Arabic language senior teacher's while performing their role and these are (conducting field research, building training programs to develop different kinds of teachers' thinking skills, identifying the teachers training needs, analyzing the classroom interaction, using the appropriate specification when producing educational publication. Regarding the other seven competencies, a suggested training program was put to develop these competencies. After the application of the program designed to develop the Arabic language teachers supervisors' competencies, the researcher reached the following results: A) There are statistically significant differences at the level of (α = 0,001) between the pre and post proficiency test in five competencies included in this program in favor of post test. B) There are statistically significant differences at the level of (α = 0,001) in the supervisors performance pre and post application of the observation card in the five competencies in favor of the post application attributed to the program. In light of these results, the researcher presented a number of recommendations including:- 1. Building training programs including using educational modules to develop the seven professional competencies which are not covered in this study. 2. Easing the Arabic language teachers' supervisors burdens so that they can follow-up their professional growth and they can achieve their objectives. 3. Providing the supervisor with the appropriate training and which must focus the most important supervisory competencies before they start their work in the educational field as supervisors. 4. Giving the supervisor some freedom in decision-making to solve the problems they face in order to reduce the interference of the school principal. The researcher has set a number of suggestions for future studies and research: 1. Investigating the problems that the Arabic language teachers' supervisors face and which cannot be solved by training. 2. Future research is needed to study the effectiveness of a program based on self-learning to develop the professional competence of the supervisors in the cycle one of basic education schools in Sultanate of Oman. 3. Designing and preparing some training programs to develop the Arabic language supervisors' competencies that include modern methods of training such as programmed education, distance training and studying the effectiveness of these programs. 4. Building a program to develop the administrative, humanitarian, and social competencies of Arabic language teachers' supervisors in Sultanate of Oman.