MICRO TEACHING

MICRO TEACHING

Prepared by

SABARISH-P

M.Sc., M.Ed.,NET

Lecturer in Physical Science, Arafa Institute for Teacher Education

Attur, Thrissur.

INTRODUCTION

Micro teaching technique was first adopted at Stanford University, USA in 1961 by Dwight W. Allen and his co-workers and is now followed in many countries with modified and improved techniques.It is a training procedure for teacher preparation aimed at simplifying the complexities of the regular teaching process.Micro teaching is a scaled down sample of teaching in whivh a teacher teaches a small unit to a small group of 5-10 pupils for a small period of 5 to 10 minutes.Such a situation offers a helpful setting for a teacher to acquire new teaching skills and to refine old ones. Micro teaching is a new design for teacher training , which provides trainees with feedback about their performance immediately after completion of lessons.

DEFINITIONS OF MICRO TEACHING

•      Micro-teaching is a scaled down teaching encounter in class size and class time –Allen (1966)

•      Micro-teaching is a trainer education technique which allows the teacher to apply well defined teaching skills to a carefully prepared lesson in a planned series of five to ten minutes’ encounter with a small group of real classroom students often with a opportunity to observe the performance on videotape –Buch (1968)

OBJECTIVES OF MICRO TEAHING

•      To enable teacher trainees to learn and assimilate new teaching skills under controlled conditions.

•      To enable teacher trainees to gain confidence in teaching and to master a number of skills by dealing with a small group of pupils.

CHARACTERISTICS OF MICRO TEACHING

•      It is a real teaching but focuses on developing teaching skills.

•      It is a scaled-down teaching

       i.            Which reduces the class size to five or ten pupils.

     ii.            Which reduces the duration of period to five-ten minutes.

  iii.            Which reduces the content.

  iv.            Which reduces the teaching complexities.

•      It provides feedback for trainer’s performance.

•      It is a training device to prepare effective teachers.

STEPS IN MICRO TEACHING

•      Defining the skill in terms of specific teaching behaviour.

•      Demonstration of the skill by the teacher educator.

•      Preparation of the lesson plan by the teacher trainee.

•      Teaching of the lesson plan by the teacher trainee.

•      Providing immediate feedback.

•      Arranging re-planning, re-teaching and re-feedback sessions.

•      Repetition of plan, teach, feedback, re-plan, re-teach and re-feedback cycle till the skill is acquired.

PHASES OF MICRO TEACHING

•      Knowledge Acquisition Phase

a)Observing demonstration of the skill.

b)Analysing it and discussing about the demonstration.

•      Skill Acquisition Phase

a)Preparing micro lesson involving the skill.

b)Practising teaching skill while teaching.

•      Transfer Phase

  Evaluating performance through feedback, replan, re-teach and transfer of skill to actual class       teachings in macro sessions.

TEACHING SKILLS

Teaching skill is a set of related overt behaviours of the teacher (verbal and non verbal) which are observable, definable, measurable, demonstratable and refinable through practice.

   According to B.K. Passi (1976), Teaching skills are a group of teaching acts or behaviours intended to facilitate pupil’s learning directly or indirectly.

Some of the teaching skills are extensively used in routine teaching by all teachers.These skills are known as Core teaching skills.Many experts in this field have listed the following skills as Core teaching skills.

•      Skill of Introducing a lesson.

•      Skill of Stimulus Variation.

•      Skill of Explaining.

•      Skill of Illustrating with Examples.

•      Skill of using Blackboard.

•      Skill of Probing questions.

•      Skill of Questioning.

•      Skill of Reinforcement.

1.     SKILL OF INTRODUCING A LESSON

When a teacher introduces a lesson , he gives a brief introduction about the lesson inorder to pre-dispose the pupil’s minds to it.This has to serve two main functions, namely refreshing and ensuring the pre requisites and motivating the pupils to learn the new lesson.

COMPONENTS OF THE SKILL

Desirable behaviours

a)     Use of previous knowledge/pre-requisites- To satisfy the maxim of teaching from known to unknown , the teacher has to judiciously decide upon the pre-requisites that will be essential for properly presenting the new learning material.

b)    Use of Appropriate devices- Many devises such as lecturing, describing, narrating, illustrating, storytelling, role playing analogy, demonstration, audio-visual materials, experimentation/demonstrations, etc.are used for motivating pupils and to gradually lead them to the new learning material.

Undesirable behaviour

a)     Lack of continuity.

b)    Uttering irrelevant statements and questions.

2.     SKILL OF STIMULUS VARIATION

It involves deliberate change of stimuli presented by the teacher for the purpose of drawing, stimulating and maintaining the attention of the learners throughout the class.

COMPONENTS OF THE SKILL

•      Teacher movements- Meaningful, purposeful movements with pedagogical function.

•      Teacher gestures- Gestures are movements of the parts of the body, used for expressing emotions, size, shape, direction etc. and also for directing attention.

•      Change in Speech pattern- Change in volume, tone or speed of verbal communication for attracting attention.

•      Change in interaction style- Teacher-class interaction, teacher-pupil interaction and pupil-pupil interaction should be there.

•      Focussing- Drawing attention to specific aspects to be stressed, by verbal or gestural focusing,

•       Pausing- Deliberate use of silence during talk.

•      Oral-Visual Switching.- Change of sensory channel from verbal to visual and vice versa.

3.     SKILL OF EXPLAINING

Explaining is the skill by which teacher can clearly bring out the exact meaning of a concept or an idea and also can arrive at relationships among various concepts.

COMPONENTS OF THE SKILL

Desirable behaviours

·        Use of beginning statements- For drawing and maintaining attention and making the students mentally ready for learning give them some clues of explanation.

·        Use of Explaining links- Words and phrases which increase the effectiveness of explanation should be used.For eg. As a result of, Therefore, In order to, Because, Due to etc.

·        Use of mediators- Presentation of various mediators in the form of examples, diagrams etc. should be used to make explanation lucid and meaningful to the pupils.

·        Use of concluding statements- The purpose of it is to present a consolidated pricture of what has been explained.

·        Questions to test pupil’s understanding- In the course of explanation, frequently questions should be asked which will help the teacher get immediate feedback from the pupils.

Undesirable behaviour

·        Use of irrelevant statements.

·        Lack of continuity.

·        Lack of fluency.

·        Using inappropriate vocabulary.

·        Use of vague words and phrases

·        Deviating from the main points.

4.     SILL OF ILLUSTRATING WITH EXAMPLES

This is the skill for timely use of examples for the purpose of making an idea , concept or principle lucid.

COMPONENTS OF THE SKILL

•      Formulating simple examples.

•      Formulating relevant examples.

•      Formulating Interesting examples.

•      Use of appropriate media for examples.

•      Use of Inductive-deductive approach for examples.

5.     SKILL OF USING BLACKBOARD

Blackboard is the most widely used of all visual aids.It is one of the quickest and easiest means of illustrating an important point.

COMPONENTS OF THE SKILL

•      Legibility of handwriting- Maximum ease in reading what is written on the blackboard even for the students sitting on the back bench should be ensured.

v Distinct difference between letters.

v Adequate spacing between letters.

v Adequate spacing between words.

v Slant of letters nearly vertical.

v All small letters of the same size.

v All capital letters of the same size.

v Size of the letters large enough to be read.

v Thickness of the line uniform.

•      Neatness in blackboard work.

v Adequate spacing between lines.

v Lines parallel to the base of the board.

v No overwriting.

v Focussing the relevant matter.

•      Organisation of blackboard work.

v Systematic planning of the space.

v Spacing to exhibit the sequence of the items being presented.

v Adjustment of the space for presenting related items in totality.

•      Appropriateness of  blackboard work.

v Continuity in points.

v Points brief(Brevity).

v Appropriate presentation of illustrations and diagrams.

v Proper use of colour chalk.

v Underlining the important points to be stressed.

6.     SKILL OF FLUENCY IN QUESTIONING

Successful teaching is highly dependent on questioning.The rate of meaningful questions put per unit time by the teacher is called fluency of questioning.

COMPONENTS OF THE SKILL

a)     Structure- Structure of the question is the technique of formulation of questions.The following aspects have to be taken care of while framing questions.

       i.            Grammmatical correctness

     ii.            Conciseness

  iii.            Relevance

  iv.            Specificity

b)Process- The process of asking questions involves more than one aspect

       i.            Speed

     ii.            Voice

  iii.            Pause

  iv.            Style

c)Product – Product is the answer expected of the question.

    7.  SKILL OF PROBING QUESTIONS

This is the skill required in applying the technique of effectively dealingwith student responses for going deep into their knowledge.

COMPONENTS OF THE SKILL

•      Prompting- When there is no response or incorrect response teacher gives hints or clues for leading the pupil to the desired correct response.

•      Seeking further information- teacher should ask subsidiary questions inorder to seek further information.

•      Refocusing- When the pupil give correct response, the teacher relates their responses with something already taught.

•      Increasing critical awareness- Teacher asks why and how of a correct response for increasing critical awareness in pupils.

•      Re-direction – Asking the same question to another pupil for increasing pupil participation.

8.     SKILL OF REINFORCING

Reinforcement is the major condition for effective learning.Hence the teacher has to master the skill for adopting appropriate atratergies for reinforcing the learners.

COMPONENTS OF THE SKILL

•      Positive verbal reinforcement- Students can be motivated through verbal expressions like Good, Right, Fine, Well done, Excellent, Carry on, Go ahead etc

•      Positive Non-verbal reinforcement- Nodding the head, Smiling, Patting, friendly look etc.

•      Negative verbal reinforcement- Words like wrong, incorrect, No etc.

•      Negative non-verbal reinforcement- Staring, looking angrily, shaking the head etc.

UNDESIRABLE BEHAVIOUR

•      Denial of Reinforcement

•      Inappropriate use of reinforcement

ADVANTAGES OF MICRO TEACHING

•      Teacher trainees trained through micro- teaching are found to perform better

•      Employs real teaching for the purpose of developing skills.

•      Teacher trainees are made aware of the various skills of which teaching is composed.

•      It is economical in terms of time and money.

•      It helps to gain deeper knowledge due to feed back ,re-plan and re-teach cycles.

•      Lessens the complexities of normal classroom teaching.

•      It is motivational.

•      It is scientific.

•      It helps in modifying teacher behaviour.

LIMITATIONS OF MICRO TEACHING

•      Skill oriented rather than content

•      Scope is narrow

•      Requires competent teacher educator

•      Tends to reduce creativity of teacher

•      Time consuming

•      Micro-teaching alone may not be adequate.

•      Carried on only in a controlled situation

INTEGRATION OF SKILLS

Having armed the teacher trainees with a battery of teaching subskills , the next stage is the integration of those sub skills into the major skill.A deliberate programme of integration of sub skill is called Link Practice or Link Lessons.There are many methods for link practice.One of the method is that after practicing three sub skills separately, the trainee may combine all the three sub skills in a lesson of ten minutes.He then practices another three sub skills separately and links them.He then combines all the six sub skills in a single lesson of 15 minutes.And so on till all the sub skills are combined in a macro lesson of 40 minutes and teaching a full class.

CONCLUSION

Teaching is a very complex process beyond the capabilities of the teacher trainee at the beginning of the course.Micro teaching simplifies the teacher training process so thatbthe trainee can easily master the teaching skills.It is advantageous as it links theory and practice in education.In micro teching the trainee is able to see the relevance of psychology for the teaching process.Its difference from conventional teaching is that the trainee is provided with a detailed feed back about his teaching.Anyway in training programme micro teaching has a great importance.