Microteaching
Concepts
Micro-teaching is a training technique whereby the teacher reviews a
videotape of the lesson after each session, in order to conduct a
"post-mortem". Teachers find out what has worked, which aspects have
fallen short, and what needs to be done to enhance their teaching technique.
Invented in the mid-1960s at Stanford University by Dr. Dwight W. Allen,
micro-teaching has been used with success for several decades now, as a way to
help teachers acquire new skills. The department of Teacher education in the
NCERT designed a project to study the effectiveness of Microteaching in 1975 in
collaboration with the Centre of Advanced Study in Education (CASE) Baroda.
DEFINITIONS OF MICRO- TEACHING
Micro-teaching has been defined in a number of ways.
Some selected definitions are given below:
n “Microteaching is a scaled down teaching encounter in class size and
time
- D.W.Allen(1966)
- D.W.Allen(1966)
n
“Microteaching is a scaled down
teaching encounter in which a teacher teaches a small unit to a group of five
pupils for a small period of 5 to 20 minutes”
- L.C. Singh (1977)
- L.C. Singh (1977)
- Micro-teaching is defined as a system of
controlled practice that makes it possible to concentrate on specified teaching
behaviour and to practices teaching under controlled conditions.
- Micro-teaching is a teacher education
technique which allows teachers to apply clearly defined teaching skills to
carefully prepared lessons in a planned series of 5-10 minutes encounter with a
small group of real students, often with an opportunity to observe the result
on video-tape.
- Micro-teaching is a scaled down teaching
encounter in which a teacher teaches a small unit to a group of five pupils for
a small period of 5-20 minutes. Such a situation offers a helpful setting for
an experienced or inexperienced teacher to acquire new teaching skills and to
refine old ones.
Objectives of Microteaching
• To enable teacher trainees to learn and assimilate new teaching skills under controlled conditions.
• To enable teacher trainees to master a number of teaching skills.
• To enable teacher trainees to gain confidence in teaching.
Characteristic of Microteaching
• Microteaching is a highly individualized training device
• Microteaching is an experiment in the field of teacher education which has been incorporated in the practice teaching schedule
• It is a student teaching skill training technique and not a teaching technique or method
• Microteaching is micro in the sense that it scale down the complexities of real teaching
• Practicing one skill at a time
• Reducing the class size to 5 – 10 pupil
• Reducing the duration of lesson to 5 – 10 minutes
• Limiting the content to a single concept
• immediate feedback helps in improving, fixing and motivating learning
• The student are providing immediate feedback in terms of peer group feedback, tape recorded/CCTV
• Microteaching advocates the choice and practice of one skill at a time
Steps of Micro-teachingThe Micro-teaching programme involves the following steps:
Step I Particular skill to be practiced is explained to the teacher trainees in terms of the purpose and components of the skill with suitable examples.
Step II The teacher trainer gives the demonstration of the skill in Micro-teaching in simulated conditions to the teacher trainees.
Step III The teacher trainee plans a short lesson plan on the basis of the demonstrated skill for his/her practice.
Step IV The teacher trainee teaches the lesson to a small group of pupils. His lesson is supervised by the supervisor and peers.
Step V On the basis of the observation of a lesson, the supervisor gives feedback to the teacher trainee. The supervisor reinforces the instances of effective use of the skill and draws attention of the teacher trainee to the points where he could not do well.
Step VI In the light of the feed-back given by the supervisor, the teacher trainee replans the lesson plan in order to use the skill in more effective manner in the second trial.
Step VII The revised lesson is taught to another comparable group of pupils.
Step VIII The supervisor observes the re-teach lesson and gives re-feed back to the teacher trainee with convincing arguments and reasons.
Step IX The ‘teach – re-teach’ cycle may be repeated several times till adequate mastery level is achieved.
Micro-teaching Cycle
The six steps generally involved in micro-teaching cycle are Plan , Teach , Feedback
• To enable teacher trainees to learn and assimilate new teaching skills under controlled conditions.
• To enable teacher trainees to master a number of teaching skills.
• To enable teacher trainees to gain confidence in teaching.
Characteristic of Microteaching
• Microteaching is a highly individualized training device
• Microteaching is an experiment in the field of teacher education which has been incorporated in the practice teaching schedule
• It is a student teaching skill training technique and not a teaching technique or method
• Microteaching is micro in the sense that it scale down the complexities of real teaching
• Practicing one skill at a time
• Reducing the class size to 5 – 10 pupil
• Reducing the duration of lesson to 5 – 10 minutes
• Limiting the content to a single concept
• immediate feedback helps in improving, fixing and motivating learning
• The student are providing immediate feedback in terms of peer group feedback, tape recorded/CCTV
• Microteaching advocates the choice and practice of one skill at a time
Steps of Micro-teachingThe Micro-teaching programme involves the following steps:
Step I Particular skill to be practiced is explained to the teacher trainees in terms of the purpose and components of the skill with suitable examples.
Step II The teacher trainer gives the demonstration of the skill in Micro-teaching in simulated conditions to the teacher trainees.
Step III The teacher trainee plans a short lesson plan on the basis of the demonstrated skill for his/her practice.
Step IV The teacher trainee teaches the lesson to a small group of pupils. His lesson is supervised by the supervisor and peers.
Step V On the basis of the observation of a lesson, the supervisor gives feedback to the teacher trainee. The supervisor reinforces the instances of effective use of the skill and draws attention of the teacher trainee to the points where he could not do well.
Step VI In the light of the feed-back given by the supervisor, the teacher trainee replans the lesson plan in order to use the skill in more effective manner in the second trial.
Step VII The revised lesson is taught to another comparable group of pupils.
Step VIII The supervisor observes the re-teach lesson and gives re-feed back to the teacher trainee with convincing arguments and reasons.
Step IX The ‘teach – re-teach’ cycle may be repeated several times till adequate mastery level is achieved.
Micro-teaching Cycle
The six steps generally involved in micro-teaching cycle are Plan , Teach , Feedback
Replan , Reteach , Refeedback. There can be variations as per
requirement of the objective of practice session. These steps are
diagrammatically represented in the following figure :
Diagramatic representation of a Micro-teaching Cycle
Plan : This involves the selection of the topic and related content of such a nature in which the use of components of the skill under practice may be made easily and conveniently. The topic is analyzed into different activities of the teacher and the pupils. The activities are planned in such a logical sequence where maximum application of the components of a skill is possible.
Teach : This involves the attempts of the teacher trainee to use the components of the skill in suitable situations coming up in the process of teaching-learning as per his/her planning of activitieó. If the situation is different and not as visualized(in the planning of tTe activities, the teacher should modify his/her behaviour ás per the demand of the situation in the Wlass. He should have the courage and confidence to handle the situation arising in the class effectively.
Feedback : This term refers to giving information to the teacher trainee about his performance. The information includes the points of strength as well as weakness relating to his/her performance. This helps the teacher trainee to improve upon his/her performance in the desired direction.
Re-plan : The teacher trainee replans his lesson incorporating the points of strength and removing the points not skillfully handled during teaching in the previous attempt either on the same topic or on another topic suiting to the teacher trainee for improvement.
Re-teach : This involves teaching to the same group of pupils if the topic is changed or to a different group of pupils if the topic is the same. This is done to remove boredom or monotony of the pupil. The teacher trainee teaches the class with renewed courage and confidence to perform better than the previous attempt.
Re-feedback : This is the most important component of Micro-teaching for behaviour modification of teacher trainee in the desired direction in each and every skill practice.
Diagramatic representation of a Micro-teaching Cycle
Plan : This involves the selection of the topic and related content of such a nature in which the use of components of the skill under practice may be made easily and conveniently. The topic is analyzed into different activities of the teacher and the pupils. The activities are planned in such a logical sequence where maximum application of the components of a skill is possible.
Teach : This involves the attempts of the teacher trainee to use the components of the skill in suitable situations coming up in the process of teaching-learning as per his/her planning of activitieó. If the situation is different and not as visualized(in the planning of tTe activities, the teacher should modify his/her behaviour ás per the demand of the situation in the Wlass. He should have the courage and confidence to handle the situation arising in the class effectively.
Feedback : This term refers to giving information to the teacher trainee about his performance. The information includes the points of strength as well as weakness relating to his/her performance. This helps the teacher trainee to improve upon his/her performance in the desired direction.
Re-plan : The teacher trainee replans his lesson incorporating the points of strength and removing the points not skillfully handled during teaching in the previous attempt either on the same topic or on another topic suiting to the teacher trainee for improvement.
Re-teach : This involves teaching to the same group of pupils if the topic is changed or to a different group of pupils if the topic is the same. This is done to remove boredom or monotony of the pupil. The teacher trainee teaches the class with renewed courage and confidence to perform better than the previous attempt.
Re-feedback : This is the most important component of Micro-teaching for behaviour modification of teacher trainee in the desired direction in each and every skill practice.
Time duration for the microteaching is;o Teach : 6 Minutes.
o Feedback : 6 Minutes.
o Re-Plan :12 Minutes.
o Re-Teach : 6 Minutes.
o Re-Feedback : 6 Minutes.
Phases of Micro-teachingThere are three phases of the Micro-teaching procedure which you have studied in the previous section of this Unit. They are :
1. Knowledge Acquisition Phase.
2. Skill Acquisition Phase.
3. Transfer Phase of Micro-teaching.
1. Knowledge Acquisition Phase (Pre-Active Phase)
It includes the activities such as;
Ø Provide knowledge about teaching skills.
Ø Observe the demonstration of teaching skill.
Ø Analyze and discuss the demonstration of the teaching skill.
2. Skill Acquisition Phase (Inter-active Phase)It includes the activities such as;
Ø Planning and preparation of micro lesson for a skill.
Ø Practicing the skill.
Ø Evaluation of the practiced skill (Feedback).
Ø Re-plan , Re-teach and re-feedback till the desired level of skill is achieved.
3. Transfer Phase (Post –Active Phase)
Ø Giving opportunity to use the mastered skill in normal class room teaching.
Ø Integrate the different skill practiced
Merits of Microteaching• It helps to develop and master important teaching skills.
• It helps to accomplish specific teacher competencies.
• It caters the need of individual differences in the teacher training.
• It is more effective in modifying teacher behaviour.
• It is an individualized training technique.
• It employs real teaching situation for developing skills.
• It reduces the complexity of teaching process as it is a scaled down teaching.
• It helps to get deeper knowledge regarding the art of teaching.
Limitations of Microteaching• It is skill oriented; Content not emphasized.
• A large number of trainees cannot be given the opportunity for re-teaching and re-planning.
• It is very time consuming technique.
• It requires special classroom setting.
• It covers only a few specific skills.
• It deviates from normal classroom teaching.
• It may raise administrative problem while arranging micro lessons
• It helps to accomplish specific teacher competencies.
• It caters the need of individual differences in the teacher training.
• It is more effective in modifying teacher behaviour.
• It is an individualized training technique.
• It employs real teaching situation for developing skills.
• It reduces the complexity of teaching process as it is a scaled down teaching.
• It helps to get deeper knowledge regarding the art of teaching.
Limitations of Microteaching• It is skill oriented; Content not emphasized.
• A large number of trainees cannot be given the opportunity for re-teaching and re-planning.
• It is very time consuming technique.
• It requires special classroom setting.
• It covers only a few specific skills.
• It deviates from normal classroom teaching.
• It may raise administrative problem while arranging micro lessons
