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A brief
overview of Micro-teaching
In cricket, a batsman can play
various kinds of shots. But for becoming skilled in those shots he or she has
to practice a lot to become skilled. We can take the example of great batsman
Sachin Tendulkar. He once was attacked on the leg side by left-hand spinners.
Hence he practiced a particular short known as the pedal sweep in net
practice for long hours. The result was he able to overcome the barrier he
was facing against the left-armed spinner. The same is true for teaching.
Teaching is not an easy job. A teacher has to do many things simultaneously
while teaching in the classroom. He has to draw a diagram on the blackboard.
At the same time, he has to make his students attentive toward him, and also
at the same time he has to reinforce them as per the requirement. So we can
say teaching is a complex job various skills have to be performed together.
What if we practice those skills separately in a controlled situation? Like
Sachin Tendulkar practiced that particular short for long hours. That we
basically do in micro-teaching. Here we separate those skills which are an
integral part of classroom teaching and practice separately in a controlled
environment.
If someone wants to learn to swim she
may not go for Ocean but rather prefers a swimming pool that is not so deep. What
is the reason behind it? The simple reason is to reduce the difficulty, risk
associated, and complexity. The same is true for micro-teaching. It reduces
the complexity of teaching.
The
term micro-teaching was first coined by D. W. Allen in 1963 at Stanford University. It was invented during an experimental
project on the identification of teachers' skills in the progress. It is a teacher training technique for
acquiring teaching skills. It is also one of the most contemporary
innovations in a teacher education program which aim to modify teachers’
behavior according to specific objectives. Here the emphasis is given to a
specific teaching skill. It is known that each teaching skill is a set of
related teaching behavior. It is worth mentioning that the development of such
teaching skills further will facilitate students learning. Therefore a teacher should be trained in
all teaching skills for developing the ability to effectively teach.
Micro-teaching is giving the opportunity for training this skill one by one
as it is scaled down technique in terms of skill, content, number of students
to be taught, and time. Micro-teaching allows practicing any skill
independently and interacting with other skills in a familiar environment. The effectiveness of teachers could be increased by providing them training to be
skilled in those specific skills one by one and integrating all skills
systematically. Micro-teaching can be termed as the laboratory technique in
which the complexity of classroom teaching is simplified.
In micro-teaching, the main
focus is on making the prospective teachers skilled in that particular skill,
say, blackboard writing skill. Here the focus is not on the learning of the
learners. The learners could be thought of as the experimental group of an
experiment. One question may arise: what is the need for micro-teaching?
First of all, teaching is an act. A teacher performs where the classroom can
be thought of as the stage. So for making this performance better a teacher
needs to practice the skills. This will make him a good performer i.e.
an effective teacher. All of us are not teachers by birth. Actually, the number
of such teachers is very less. But we need a huge number of teachers who need
to take care of the future citizen of this country as well as this world. So
we have to make teachers. And for that micro teaching is the finest tool in
teacher education.
Definition of Micro-teaching:
Allen, D.W (1966):
Micro-teaching is a scaled-down teaching encounter in class size and class
time.
Allen, D.W. and
Eve, A.W. (1968): Micro-teaching is
defined as a system of controlled practice that makes it possible to concentrate
on specified teaching behavior and to practice teaching under controlled
conditions.
Passi, B.
K.(1976): Microteaching
is a training technique that
requires student-teachers to teach a single
concept using specified
teaching skills to a small
number of pupils in a short
duration of time.
From the above-mentioned definitions, the following
characteristics of micro-teaching can be derived. These are,
Characteristics of Micro-teaching:
·
It is a
teacher training technique and not a
method of teaching.
·
it is
micro in the sense that it scales
down the complexities of real teaching-
1. Small portion of content/single concept at a time
is taken
2. Only one skill at a time is practiced.
3. Number of students is 5 to 6.
4. Duration of each micro-lesson is 5-7 minutes
·
Feedback is provided to the teacher immediately after the completion of the
teaching
·
Videotape and CCTV can be used- makes the observation more objective
·
It is a highly individualized training
technique
·
High degree of control in practicing a skill
·
It
involves teaching the real lessons to real
students
·
There is provision for improvement through re-planning,re-teach, and re-evaluation
Components of Micro-teaching
The definition and characteristics may further help us to identify the
components of micro-teaching.
These
are as follows,
·
The
student-teacher- The student who gets
the training of teaching skills is known as student- teacher
·
The
pupils: They
are part of the techniques. They are being taught the micro-lesson by the
student-teacher. They may be real or
peers can act as (simulated micro-teaching).
·
The micro
lesson: the short content or one concept is taken for micro-teaching
·
Teaching
skills: the
specific skill identified for micro-teaching like the ‘skill of introducing the
lesson.’
·
Time: time is an important
component in micro-teaching. It needs to be short i.e. about 5-7 minutes and
not more than that.
·
Feedback devices-
Providing feedback is essential to bring changes in the behavior of the
students. Feedback can be provided through videotape or feedback
questionnaires
Phases of Micro-teaching
Generally, micro-teaching is structured in three
phases.
These are,
1.
Knowledge Acquisition Phase
2.
Skill Acquisition phase
3.
Transfer Phase
§ Knowledge Acquisition Phase Here student-teacher tries to get
the knowledge of the skill to be practiced. He reads relevant literature concerning the skill (theoretical
knowledge), and observes a demonstration lesson
given by the teacher-educator (practical knowledge).
§
Skill Acquisition Phase
It is also known as the practicing
phase. Student-teacher is given opportunities in real classroom situations, but scaled down, to practice the
same behavior or skill.
§ Transfer Phase
Here the student-teacher
integrates the different skills. Instead of the artificial situation, he/she teaches in a real
classroom for 30-35 minutes to 30-40 students.
The procedure adopted in Micro-teaching (steps)
1.
General discussion about micro-teaching:student-teacher reads related
literature. The teacher educator explains the different teaching skills
involved to student-teachers.
2.
Selection of skill: Out of various teaching skills, one skill for
mastery purpose is selected. Full details of that skill are given to student-teachers.
3.
Demonstration of skill: Teacher-educator demonstrates a
micro-lesson on that particular skill.
4.
Demonstration lesson is followed by a discussion: in which the student-teacher discusses it and seeks all types of clarifications.
5.
Preparation of micro-lesson: The student-teacher prepares a
micro lesson plan on that skill selected, by consulting his/her supervisor.
6.
Execution of micro-lesson: The student-teacher teaches the
lesson to a small group of students. The lesson is observed by the supervisor
(teacher educator); if possible video recording could be done.
7.
Feedback: Immediately after the lesson, feedback is
provided for improvement.
8.
Re-planning: On the basis of the feedback, the student-teacher
re-plans the lesson under the guidance of a supervisor.
9.
Re-teaching: The re-planned lesson is re-taught to another
small group of students.
10. Re-feedback: After the completion of the
lesson, again feedback is given and thus improvement in teaching is made.
The above discussion help to derive the following
diagram which is known as the micro-teaching cycle.
Hence it can
be seen that the teaching time is 6
minutes followed by the feedback and discussion with the teacher-educator 6
minutes. Further 12 minutes could be given for re-planning and hence 6
minutes for re-teaching. Again teacher-educator will provide his/her feedback
for 6 minutes approximately. Now if the teacher-educator feels that the
student-teacher can achieve the mastery over the teaching skill the process
is closed else the cycle will continue. The following flowchart will help to
understand it.
The difference between micro-teaching and
classroom/traditional teaching
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Micro-teaching
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Classroom/traditional
teaching
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Class size
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the class
comprises small groups students of 5-10 numbers
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the class
comprises 30-40 students
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Teaching skill
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One
specific teaching skill is taken for teaching.
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All
the teaching skills are used in an integrated way.
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Duration
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The duration of teaching time is 5-10 minutes
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The duration of teaching time is 40-50 minutes
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Feedback
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Student-teacher
gets immediate feedback for the supervisor
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There
is no such scope for getting immediate feedback
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Controlling
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Teaching
is performed under controlled situation
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There
are no such controlling situations that exist in traditional teaching.
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Difficulty level
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It
is a comparatively simple process as it is scaled down technique in terms of skills, content, time, and class size.
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It
is a comparatively more complex process than micro-teaching.
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Role
of supervisor
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The supervisor role is very crucial in micro-teaching
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The supervisor role is vague in traditional teaching.
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Conclusion:
Though it is
time-consuming and required proper infrastructure it is one of the best ways
to make teacher-students skilled in teaching skills and hence become
effective teacher.
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