Istilah supervisi berasal dari dua kata, yaitu “super” dan “vision”. Dalam Webster’s New World Dictionary istilah super berarti “higher in rank or position than, superior to (superintendent), a greater or better than others” (1991:1343) sedangkan kata vision berarti “the ability to perceive something not actually visible, as through mental acuteness or keen foresight (1991:1492).