Each supervisor and supervisee may have individual learning and supervision styles:
Healthcare Settings tend to be
‘learner-focused’
Supervisees may* be accustomed to ‘expert-focused’ supervision
- Supervisees are independent and self-directed
- The supervision relationship is more informal
- Activity planning is collaborative
- Uses experiential teaching (e.g., hands-on practice) and independent study
- Often relies on supervisee’s self-assessment
- Supervisees are dependent on supervisor
- Supervision relationship is formal and hierarchical
- Activity planning is conducted by the supervisor
- Uses transmittal teaching techniques (e.g., lectures, assigned readings)
- Supervisor evaluates supervisee
*Dependent on the learning culture in their place of study
Differences in the learning and supervisory styles of the supervisee and supervisor may result in misunderstandings or misinterpretations of behaviours:
A learner-focused supervisor may perceive an expert-focused supervisee as:
An expert-focused supervisee may view a learner-focused supervisor as:
- Lacking motivation to learn
- example: being reluctant to provide a professional opinion,
- Lacking initiative or requiring micro-management
- example: requiring detailed instructions, and/or
- Having poor critical thinking skills
- example: unwilling to ask critical questions.
- Lacking professional knowledge
- example: asking for input or opinions,
- Behaving unprofessionally
- example: using plain language, and/or
- A poor teacher
- example: failing to provide detailed instructions.
NOTE: The reverse situation, i.e., an expert-focused supervisor and learner-focused supervisee is also possible and also requires careful navigation of the different supervisory styles.
It is important to recognize the potential for misunderstandings, misinterpretations, and even conflict to occur, and to recognize when they may be occurring.