It appears that supervisors invest great effort
during their professional careers to avoid the
cognitive dissonance between their pedagogical
beliefs, to which they are committed from early
childhood, and the difficult reality at school.
Supervisors frequently use explanations of forgetfulness,
or inattention to explain why they did not
answer a question regarding behaviour problems
raised by student teachers or a cooperating teacher
during feedback sessions. They also ‘do not
remember’ or ‘do not see and do not hear’
behaviour problems. The explanation for this,
provided by Nisbett and Ross (1980) and Roehler,
Duffy, Hermann, Conelly, and Johnson (1988) is
that there is a tendency to convert conflicting
evidence in order to support existing beliefs by
using any available cognitive means, because the
process involves unconscious or semi-conscious
emotional factors, as well as cognitive factors.