MICRO TEACHING

Micro teaching is a form of instructional training where small groups of peers observe each other teaching, provide feedback, and engage in discussion with the goal of improving one another’s instructional abilities. Micro teaching provides an opportunity to develop your instructional skills in a positive, learner-centered environment.

The  micro teaching sessions are designed to: 

• strengthen your approach to teaching; 

• identify your personal strengths and areas for improvement;
• encourage an empathic understanding of students as learners; 
• enhance your understanding for a variety of effective teaching styles; 
• improve your ability to provide and receive effective feedback.
• Steps of Micro-teaching 
  
  
  ASSUMPTIONS OF MICRO-TEACHING
  From the foregoing discussion about the concept of micro-teaching you might have thought of the assumption on which it is based. Let us pinpoint them :
  • Teaching is a complex process but can be analysed into simple skills.
  • Teaching skills can be practiced one by one upto mastery level under specific and simplified situation.
  • Appropriate feed back if systematically given proves very significant for obtaining mastery level in each skill.
  • When all skills have been mastered taken one by one, they can be integrated for real classroom teaching.
  • The skill training can be conveniently transferred from simulated teaching situation to actual classroom teaching situation.
  
  
  
  
  The Micro-teaching programme involves the following steps :
  Step I Particular skill to be practised 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.
  
  
  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 analysed 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 are 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 activities. If the situation is different and not as visualised in the planing of the activities, the  teacher should modify his/her behaviour as per the demand of the situation in the class. 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 modifiction of teacher trainee in the desired direction in each and every skill practice.
  1. Rationale of Micro-teaching Procedure
  The steps of the Micro-teaching procedure are based on the sequence involved in behaviour modification formulated by McDonald. The steps are :
  Step I : This involves stating the behaviour in operational terms.
  Step II : This refers to fixing of the criteria for measuring behaviours.
  Step III : In this step the entry behaviour of the individual is measured to know the point of initial start.
  Step IV : This involves the actual treatment of behaviour modification.
  Step V : The post-treatment measures of changed behaviour are obtained. The difference between the measures of pre and post treatments indicates the extent of behaviour modification. The cycle is repeated till desired level of behaviour is obtained.
  In the Micro-teaching cycle, the same steps are involved. Firstly the teacher trainee knows the behaviours (components of skill) to be practiced. Secondly he practices such a behaviour during teach session. Thirdly he gets the feedback on the basis of the observation of his performance made by the supervisor. Finally the teacher trainee improves upon his/her behaviour (performance) as desired.
  1.5.4 Phases of Micro-teaching
  There 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.
  Let us discuss these phases one by one.
  Knowledge Acquisition Phase :  In this phase the teacher trainee learns about the skill and its components through discussion, illustrations and demonstration of the skill given by the expert. He learns about the purpose of the skill and the condition under which it proves useful in the teaching-learning process. His/Her analysis of the skill into components leading to various types of behaviours which is to be practised. The teacher trainee tries to gain a lot about the skill from the demonstration given by the expert . He discusses and clarifies each and every aspect of the skill.
  Skill Acquisition Phase :   On the basis of the demonstration presented by the expert, the teacher trainee plans a micro-lesson, lesson for practising the demonstrated skill. He practices the teaching skill through the Micro-teaching cycle and continues his efforts till he attains mastery level. The feed-back component of micro-teaching contributes significantly towards the mastery level acquisition of the skill. On the basis of the performance of teacher trainee in teaching, the feed back is provided for the purpose of change in behaviour of the teacher trainee in the desired direction.
  Transfer Phase of Micro-teaching :  After attaining mastery level and command over each of the skills, the teacher trainee integrates all these skills and transfer to actual classroom teaching is done during this transfer phase.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  S.No.	Skill	Components
  1.	Probing Questions	Prompting, seeking further information, redirection, focusing, increasing critical awareness.
  2.	Explaining	Clarity, continuity, relevance to content using beginning and concluding statements, covering essential points.
  3.	Illustrating with examples	Simple, relevant and interesting examples appropriate media, use of inducts, deductive approach.
  4.	Stimulus variation	Body movements, gestures, change in speech pattern, change in interaction style, pausing, focusing, oral-visual switching.
  5.	Reinforcement	Use of praise words and statements, accepting and using pupils’ idea, repeating and rephrasing, extra vertical cues, use of pleasant and approving gestures and expressions, writing pupils’ answer on the black board.
  6.	Classroom Management	Call pupils bynames, Makenorms of classroom behaviour, attending behaviour reinforced, clarity of direction, check non-attending behaviour, keep pupils in Eye Span, check inappropriate behaviour immediately.
  7.	Use of blackboard	Legible, neat and adequate with reference to content covered.