Needs Assessment of Internal Supervision in Secondary Schools under the Office of Basic Education Commission

The purpose of this research was to study the need assessment of internal supervision in secondary schools under the jurisdiction of the Office of Basic Education Commission, Thailand. A total of 944 teachers participated in the survey using multistage random sampling. The five scopes of internal supervision were investigated, namely, academic in curriculum development, development of learning process, evaluation and comparison of grades transfer, development of innovative media and digital technology, and educational supervision using a 43-items questionnaire. The need assessment results showed that the development of innovative media and digital technology (PNImodified=0.373) is the most essential scope of internal supervision according to respondents’ perceptions. This is followed by the development of the learning process (PNImodified=0.267), educational supervision (PNImodified=0.262), and evaluation and comparison of grades transfer (PNImodified=0.257). The least capacity scope is academic in curriculum development (PNImodified=0.246). The overall results imply that supervisors or school principals should attempt to ensure that internal supervisions are regularly operated to improve the teaching and learning process by paying more attention to the scope of development of innovative media and digital technology without ignoring the other four scopes. 


Introduction
Educational supervision is considered as a deliberate attempt targeted towards achieving methods of enhancing the consequence of each educational institution (Adu, Akinloye, & Olaoye, 2014). Effective school supervision offers significant and permanent supports and inspiration in order to enhance teachers' instructional practices (Glanz, 2021). Therefore, Glanz emphasized the importance of educational supervision on raising standards and promoting curricular offerings to raise academic achievement as the national movement towards standards-based education thus educational supervision has been a long-established educational reform. Furthermore, Alumode and Awulor-Hephzibah (2020) emphasized the importance of supervisors to have a clear understanding of what they want in supervision and how they can go about in achieving the purposes of internal supervision.
Since teachers are the dominant character and inhabit a vantage position in the educational sector, the success of any educational reform to a very large extent depends on teachers (Alumode & Awulor-Hephzibah, 2020). Therefore, the most critical purpose for effective supervision in secondary schools is to guarantee that individuals within the school system accomplish the obligations for which they are planned; to advance the performance of teachers so that they can contribute to the fullest accomplishment of the system's aims; to identify the resources of the secondary school; to stipulate a plan for teacher upliftment and to get the "quality" of the secondary school and recognize some of its instantaneous needs (Hazi, 2020). Even though internal supervision practice has mirrored in regard to education and curriculum, little attention has been paid specifically to the needs of assessment scopes. Therefore, Glanz (2021) highlighted the nature of internal supervision as a scientific inquiry specifically to supervisory theories and practices that have gained attention and legitimacy amidst the prevailing standards-based educational environment. Chakma (2020) defined educational supervision as a creative and dynamic professional technical assistance to enhance the overall teaching and learning process in particular and whole education in general. Two types of supervision are identified by Johns (1998), namely internal and external supervision. Furthermore, Alumode and Awulor-Hephzibah (2020) explained internal supervision as the internal checks and balances that can be conducted from time to time by the school administrators and/or whoever is assigned to do so. On the other hand, external supervision is conducted by the representatives of the Ministry of Education who visit the schools from time to time to supervise learning activities (Alumode & Awulor-Hephzibah, 2020). It is quite obvious that internal supervision and classroom management are very essential for the accomplishment of goals stated in the Thailand National Policy of Education (Office of the Basic Education Commission, 2019).
According to Beran (2015), a need assessment is a systematic process for determining and addressing needs, or gaps between current conditions and desired conditions, and so-called needs. Subsequently, the discrepancy between the current conditions and desired condition must be measured to appropriately identify the need and it is then used for the development of internal supervision case that builds the foundation for determining the aims and serve as inputs for a better and quality teaching and learning (Beran, 2015). According to Glanz (2021), we need to continue to do research to establish a 'solid base' of teaching practice to verify from time to time the relevancy of the supervisory scopes. Glanz further indicated that it is critical for establishing such a base that requiring us to conduct need assessments.
Based on the above literature review, the research was then conceptualized the key variable, namely internal supervision into five scopes, namely, academic in curriculum development, development of learning process, evaluation and comparison of grades transfer, development of innovative media and digital technology, and educational supervision. The five scopes have been proposed by Thailand Basic Education Commission (Office of the Basic Education Commission, 2019). This is followed by aiming to explore the need assessments of each scope of the internal supervision.

Research Design and Instrument
A survey research design was employed utilizing a questionnaire as an instrument to gather data. The quantitative method was the key approach used to examine the need assessments of internal supervision in terms of the five scopes, namely, academic in curriculum development, development of learning process, evaluation and comparison of grades transfer, development of innovative media and digital technology, and educational supervision. The questionnaire was comprised of 43 items to investigate the needs of the five scopes for internal supervision.
The survey instrument was managed in the Thai language to confirm that the respondents could understand all the items. Section A of the instrument consists of four items, was designed to collect the demographic background of the respondents which encompassed information relating to their backgrounds such as their gender, age, years of experience, and highest academic qualification. Section B to G was the need assessment specifically designed to gauge the needs of teachers in terms of five scopes in the internal supervision as follows: Academic in curriculum development (7 items), development of learning process (8 items), evaluation and comparison of grades transfer (8 items), development of innovative media and digital technology (8 items), and educational supervision (8 items), giving a total of 39 items.

Population and Samples
The researchers would like to draw conclusion from a population consisted of 2358 teachers from 42 secondary schools under the jurisdiction of the Office of Basic Education Commission in Thailand in the academic year 2019. A sample size of 944 teachers was selected using multistage random sampling. The sample size was determined in accordance with Taro Yamane's formula at a 95 percent confidence level (Yamane, 1967).

Pilot Study, Data Collection, and Data Analysis
Before the researchers started to collect data, the questionnaire was sent to two experts in the field of educational administration for feedbacks and comments to validate the contents. The researchers made necessary modifications according to the two experts' feedbacks. The pilot testing of the questionnaire was then conducted on 30 teachers who were not the samples of the actual study, but they have the same background and structure as the samples of this research. The questionnaire was found reliable and good to use as the Cronbach alpha value was 0.971.
The initial phase of data collection was planned to explore the need assessments of the internal supervision. PNI modification calculation was used to measure the gap of need assessment between the current situation compared with the desired situation. The indication of the need assessment factors is based on the PNI value of at least .30, the need factors are more crucial when their number is higher than .30. The obtained data commands the effective approaches needed for the development of internal supervision as follows: PNI modified = (1-D)/D.
Besides, descriptive statistics such as mean score and standard deviation were used to summarize the collected data. To support comprehension, the researchers analyzed the mean scores into lists so that we could put the mean ier.ideasspread.org International Educational Research Vol. 4, No. 1;2021 score in order. This can help us interpreted the lowest and highest mean scores quickly in a group of ordinal variables. Subsequently, the standard deviation was used to analyze the data because standard deviation is the most useful index of variability. Standard deviation could tell us the variability of a distribution.

Results
The results of this research are demonstrated in corresponding to the research aim as indicated above. A total of 1000 questionnaires were sent to 42 secondary schools throughout Thailand and 994 questionnaires have been successfully collected after several times of follow-ups, giving a response rate of 99.4 percent.

General Profile of Samples
These 994 respondents are mostly females (60.7%). Although the majority of respondents are more than 50 years old (35.5%) but most of them are having less working experience. For example, 44.9 percent of them are having less than 10 years of experience. On the other hand, a total of 402 (42.6%) and 505 (53.5%) of them had their highest academic qualification as a bachelor's and a master's degree respectively, giving a total of 96.1 percent. Only 3.9 percent of them obtained a doctoral degree. Table 1 demonstrates the distribution of the samples and their demographic background.

Need Assessment for Internal Supervision
The interpretation of the suitability of each scope of the internal supervision was assessed according to Boomchom's (2014) identification as shown in Table 2. The results of the need assessments for internal supervision indicated that the development of innovative media and digital technology is the essential scope of internal supervision.

Need Assessments of Academic in Curriculum Development
The academic in curriculum development scope of internal supervision was explored in detail as portrayed in Table  4. The greatest gap between the current condition and desirable condition in terms of academic in curriculum development demonstrated that school has to supervise, monitor, and evaluate curriculum implementation and that evaluation must be conducted continually in the curriculum developmental process. Table 4 illustrates the seven gaps in descending order between the current conditions and the desirable conditions for the scope of academic in curriculum development.

Need Assessment of Development of Learning Process
The next scope of internal supervision was the development of the learning process. The greatest gap between the current condition and desirable condition in the development of the learning process indicated that teachers have ier.ideasspread.org International Educational Research Vol. 4, No. 1;2021 to analyze the curriculum and study student learning behavior. Table 5 demonstrates the eight gaps in descending order between the current conditions and the desirable conditions for the development of the learning process.

Need Assessments of Evaluation and Comparison of Grades Transfer
The following scope of internal supervision to discuss was evaluation and comparison of grades transfer. Table 6 illustrates the eight greatest gaps between the current conditions and the desirable conditions for evaluation and comparison of grades transfer.

Need Assessments of Development of Innovative Media and Digital Technology
The subsequent scope of internal supervision to debate was the development of innovative media and digital technology. Table 7 shows the eight greatest gaps between the current conditions and the desirable conditions for the development of innovative media and digital technology.

Need Assessments of Educational Supervision
The last scope of internal supervision to deliberate was educational supervision. Table 8 displays the eight greatest gaps between the current conditions and the desirable conditions for educational supervision.

Discussion
The main purpose of this research was to explore the need assessments on scopes of internal supervision, namely, academic in curriculum development, development of learning process, evaluation and comparison of grades transfer, development of innovative media and digital technology, and educational supervision. The PNI modified results revealed that the development of innovative media and digital technology was found to have the greatest gap between the current conditions and desirable conditions. This is followed by the development of the learning process, educational supervision, and evaluation and comparison of grades transfer. The least gap was performed by academic in curriculum development. This implies that school principals or supervisors have to give more priority to the scope development of innovative media and digital technology because this scope is particularly important during the COVID-19 pandemic has completely disrupted the normal patterns and schedules of the secondary school system.
However, the scope of academic in curriculum development seemed to be the narrowest gap among the five scopes of internal supervision because most of the schools have already set the objectives according to core curriculum and related documents to prepare lesson plans as their routine job. In conclusion, internal supervision should be regarded as one of the important leadership roles performed by school principals or supervisors with supervisory skills and whose performance is geared towards the optimum achievement of stated school goals.