Micro Teaching - outline

CONCEPT OF MICRO-TEACHING 

Micro-teaching is a teacher training technique which helps the teacher trainee to master the teaching skills. It requires the teacher trainee

1. to teach a single concept of content

1. using a specified teaching skill

1. for a short time

1. to a very small member of pupils

1. Knowledge Acquisition Phase.

1. Skill Acquisition Phase.

1. Transfer Phase of Micro-teaching.

In this way the teacher trainee practises the teaching skill in terms of definable, observable, measurable and controlable form with repeated cycles till he attains mastery in the use of skill.

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.

Steps of Micro-teaching 

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.

Micro-teaching Cycle

The six steps generally involved in micro-teaching cycle are

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.

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 :

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.

TEACHING IS ..........

Teaching is 

Teaching means many different things, that teaching act varies from person to person and from situation to situation. (Bar, 1961)

The behaviour or activities of persons as they go about doing whatever is required of teachers, particularly those activities which are concerned with the guidance or direction of learning of others.

(Ryan, 1965)

Teaching is the arrangement of contingencies of reinforcement under which students learn. They learn without teaching in their natural environment, but teachers arrange special contingencies which expedite learning and hastening the appearance of behaviour which would otherwise be acquired slowly or making scene of the appearance of behaviour which might otherwise never occur.

(B.F. Skinner. 1968)

Teaching as an act of interpersonal influence aimed at changing the ways in which other persons can or will behave.

(N.L. Gage, 1963)

The minimum requirement of any training programme is that it should enable the trainee to acquire the basis skills and competencies of a good teacher.

(Challenge of Education, A Policy Perspective 1986,

 National Commission on Teachers)

Teachers’ performance is most critical in-put in the field of education ……….

(Challenge of Education, A Policy Perspective 1986,

  National Commission on Teachers)

The teacher training too is not planned and organised to develop the spirit of inquiry, initiative, scientific temper, manual-dexterity, conceptual clarity and linguistic skills for effective speaking and writing which teachers are expected to impart to their students. Adequate attention is also not given to develop communication skills which is critical to the function of the teachers …….

(Challenge of Education, A Policy Perspective 1986,  

National Commission on Teachers)

It may not be wrong to say that in such defective practical and theoretically overloaded teacher education programme, the trainee remains almost at the same level in his teaching competence even after training ……

(R.C. Das and associates, 1980, NCERT)

From the definitions of teaching given  it is evident that teaching is a very complex activity. However it can be roughly concluded that teaching activity :

• is imparting knowledge or skill.

• it involves doing all things that may lead to learning.

• it is a social act of influence. 

From all these components of teaching we can say that there is no specific and universally accepted definition of teaching and teacher effectiveness.

Communication as a process and it elements

Elements of Communication

COMMUNICATION- The process of human beings responding to the symbolic behavior of other persons.

-First Characteristic of Definition: Communication is a “Process.”  

Communication is “Process” several reasons:

1.We do not communicate to other people, we communicate with other people.  

To understand difference, we first need to talk about the components of communication: 

-Sender, Receiver… 

-Message Encoding, Message Decoding… 

-Psychological Noise, Physiological Noise

-Communication Channels, 

-AND Communication Environment.

Sender-The person or persons responsible for creating a message to be sent.

Ex. A teacher gives a lecture 

      

      A parent a child an instruction to follow 

      

     

…All these people are sending messages.

Receiver- The person or persons who are receiving the created messages.

Ex. An student  receives the teachers lecture 

      

      The students are  the recipient of the teacher  lecture…

      

      Communication Channel- The medium a receiver uses to send his or her message.  

**Channels may be verbal or nonverbal**

Ex. Speech is a channel… 

      

      Writing is a channel… 

       Non-verbal gestures are channels… 

       Voice Tones are channels…And so on.

Encoding- When a sender attempts to replicate his or her internal thoughts or feelings into some kind of external message medium for the sake of transmitting those thoughts or feelings to another person or persons.

   

It’s easy to tell if sender(teacher ) encodes message poorly because he or she say things like: 

“That’s not what I meant to say,” or… 

“That’s not what I mean,” or… 

“What I really wanted to say was…” and so forth. 

If teacher  is a skilled “encoder,” we call him or her “articulate,” “well spoken,” or even “eloquent.”  

And research has shown that good speakers are considered more trustworthy, intelligent, competent, and personable than poor speakers…

…even if speaker’s are saying exact same thing.

Obviously, there isn’t always a relationship between speaking well & intelligence & competency…

This phenomena -known as Halo Effect- refers to the fact that if people identify you as skilled in one area……They often will assume you are skilled in other areas as well.

Message Decoding- Occurs when the receiver attempts to ascertain the meaning of the sender’s message.

And figuring out what other people “mean” isn’t easy.

I’m sure all of us had times when we’ve had others become frustrated w/ us because we didn’t understand what they meant…

I’m sure we’ve all became frustrated w/ other people when they didn’t understand what we meant.

**There are several factors that prevent human beings from decoding other’s messages effectively…

Noise- Any force that interferes with effective communication.

Three types: External noise, physiological noise, psychological noise.

External Noise- Refers to any physical phenomenon that might impair a receiver’s ability to decode a message.  

Physiological Noise- Involves biological factors in the receiver or sender that interfere with accurate reception.

Psychological Noise- Involves mental forces within a receiver or sender that might inhibit his or her ability to either encode or decode a message correctly.

Ex. If a receiver suffers from low-self esteem, might interpret a sincere compliment as sarcastic or condescending even though it wasn’t.  

Environment- Fields of experience or cultural backgrounds that influence the way communicators encode and decode messages.

Now lets  defined components of communication…Let’s get back to our definition of communication as a “process”

Essentially, defining communication as process means communication does not work linearly but circularly instead.

Communication in Interpersonal situations involves sending and receiving messages at the same time.

Ex. While I’m lecturing, you’re giving me nonverbal feedback about your opinion of the lecture: 

Yawning, stretching, sleeping, nodding off, doodling in your notebook, etc.   

teachers both sending and receiving messages at the same time!

Sometimes we consciously plan our communication…sometimes we don’t.  

Misunderstandings occur when we assume all communication is planned.  

Ex. If one of you yawns or nods off, you might be intentionally acting rudely… 

…Or maybe you’re trying to be good listener, but are tired because you were up all night studying for another test.  

If I jump to a conclusion about the reason for your yawning, I may end up unjustly punishing you in participation points department.

Sometimes our own unconscious communication has negative consequences for ourselves and the person we’re communicating with.  

Ex. If your supervisor is instructing you and you fold your arms…

…He or she may interpret the arm folding as an act of defiance and become more stern in future when interacting with you…  

…So you weren’t trying to be defiant, but your unconscious communication  gave impression that you were.

The important lesson here is that most people assume messages are easily created and easily interpreted…but this is just not the case.  

When we’re decoding each other’s messages… 

…We have to remember that many factors are continually influencing our ability and intent when we’re encoding and decoding messages.

Miscommunication, resentment, anger and hostility often result in relationships when communicators unaware of influence factors have.

Bottom line: If you remember that communication is process… 

…You’ll communicate more effectively because you’ll be aware of many factors involved in any given communication event: 

You’ll be less likely to assume, less likely to rush judgment… 

…More likely tailor your message to your audience correctly, 

More likely to correctly encode and decode other’s messages. 

                                                                                                                            

Second aspect of our definition is that this class deals with HUMAN COMMUNICATION only.

                                                                                                                           

Third, COMMUNICATION is “Symbolic.”

Symbols- Are things used to stand for or represent something else.  

Symbols not limited to words; symbols include nonverbal displays or objects.

Ex. “Red light” symbolizes an order to “Stop.”

      

       Colors “red, white, and blue” symbolize patriotism.

       

       Wearing “Oakland Raiders Gear” symbolizes you can’t read and 

        probably abuse drugs…

*So symbols are anything that stands for something else.