MICRO TEACHING

           Micro teaching was developed in the early and mid-1960 by Dwight Allen and his colleagues at the Stanford teacher education programme. The Stanford model emphasized a teach, review and reflect, re-teach approach, using actual school students as authentic audiences.

A micro lesson is an opportunity to present a samples snapshot‖ of what/how you teach and to get some feedback from colleagues about how it was received. The microteaching cycle starts with planning. In order to reduce the complexities involved in teaching, the student teacher is asked to plan a micro lesson‖ i.e. a short lesson for 5-10 minutes which he will teach in front of a micro class‖ i.e. necessary.

DEFINITIONS OF MICRO- TEACHING

Micro-teaching has been defined in a number of ways. Some selected definitions are given below.

ü Micro-teaching is a scaled down teaching encounter in class size and class time.

ü 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.

ü 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.

ü 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.

THE BEGGININGS OF MICRO- TEACHING

Stanford University developed Microteaching in 1963 as a part of an experimental program. It was viewed as feasible in making student- teachers aware of the realities of teaching.

It also served as a measurable tool in identifying teaching skills prior to actual teaching.

PURPOSES OF MICRO- TEACHING

There are two purposes of Microteaching: (a) for student- teachers to develop teaching skills under controlled conditions without risking the learning of the pupils, and (b) for their techniques.

PHASES OF MICRO-TEACHING

1.    Knowledge acquisition phase:

In this phase, the student teacher attempt to acquire knowledge about the skill- it’s rational, its role in class room and its component behaviours. For this he/she reads relevant literature. He/she  also observes demonstration lesson-mode of presentation of the skill. The student teacher gets theoretical as well as practical knowledge of the skill.

       I.            Skill acquisition phase:

 On the basis of the model presented to the student-teacher, he prepares a micro-lesson and practices the skill and carries out the micro-teaching cycle. There are two components of this phase:

(a)  Feedback

(b)  micro-teaching settings.

Micro-teaching settings include conditions like the size of the micro-class, duration of the micro-lesson, supervisor, types of students etc

Transfer phase

 Here the student-teacher integrates the different skills. In place of artificial situation, he teaches in the real classroom and tries to integrate all the skills.

Micro teaching Cycle

The above diagram gives us an outlook about Micro teaching process. The cycle continues up to the extent when a trainee will able to master a specific skill.

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 applications 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 planning 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 replants his lesson incorporating the points of strength and removing the points not skilfully 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.

ADVANTAGES OF MICROTEACHING

Microteaching has several advantages. It focuses on sharpening and developing specific teaching skills and eliminating errors. It enables understanding of behaviours important in classroom teacher. It enables projection of model instructional skills. It provides expert supervision and a constructive feedback and above all if provides for repeated practice without adverse consequences to the teacher or his students.

In our daily life, the busy schedule tends us to invite more problems and we get caught in situation by one way or another. If these problems are not attended properly; these tend to tease you on every step. They say if you are not a part of solution than you are a part of problem. However the significance lies in the solution of the problem, no matter what procedure one adopts to acquire the solution.

PREPARATION OF MICRO TEACHING

To prepare a short lesson for a small group of learner. Your lesson can be excerpted from the beginning, middle or end of one course lesson and you will be able to explain this in setting up your lesson and as part of your application or instruction form.

TEACHING SKILLS

Teaching skill is a set of related overt behaviours of the teacher (verbal and non-verbal) which are observable, definable, measurable, demonstrable and definable 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 Reinforcement.

SKILL OF INTRODUCING A LESSON

When a teacher introduces a lesson, he gives a brief introduction about the lesson in order 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

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.

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

·        Lack of continuity.

·        Uttering irrelevant statements and questions.

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.

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

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

o   Use of Explaining links- Words and phrases which increase the effectiveness of explanation should be used.Foreg. As a result of, Therefore, in order to, Because, Due to etc.

o   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.

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

o   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 behaviours

·        Use of irrelevant statements.

·        Lack of continuity.

·        Lack of fluency.

·        Using inappropriate vocabulary.

·        Use of vague words and phrases and Deviating from the main points.

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.

·        Distinct difference between letters.

·        Adequate spacing between letters.

·        Adequate spacing between words.

·        Slant of letters nearly vertical.

·        All small letters of the same size.

·        All capital letters of the same size.

·        Size of the letters large enough to be read.

·        Thickness of the line uniform.

Neatness in blackboard work

·        Adequate spacing between lines.

·        Lines parallel to the base of the board.

·        No overwriting.

·        Focussing the relevant matter.

Organisation of blackboard work

·        Systematic planning of the space.

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

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

Appropriateness of blackboard work

·        Continuity in points.

·        Points brief (Brevity).

·        Appropriate presentation of illustrations and diagrams.

·        Proper use of colour chalk.

·        Underlining the important points to be stressed.

SKILL OF PROBING QUESTIONS

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

COMPONENTS OF THE SKILL

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

o   Seeking further information- teacher should ask subsidiary questions in order to seek further information.

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

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

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

SKILL OF REINFORMENT

Reinforcement is the major condition for effective learning. Hence the teacher has to master the skill for adopting appropriate strategies 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 sub skills, 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 methods 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 the entire sub skills are combined in a macro lesson of 40 minutes and teaching a full class.

Link practice or integration of skills can be done in two ways;

1.     Integration in parts

                                    3 or 4 teaching skills are integrated and transferred them into a lesson of 15-20 minutes duration. And again 3 or 4 skills are integrated and are transferred all the skills to one lesson.

2.     Integration as a whole

Student teacher integrates all the individual teaching skills by taking them as a whole and prepares a macro lesson then transferred them into a real teaching situation.

 SET INDUCTION

The lesson begins with a series of hands-on experiments – “make your own magic” – to pique the students’ interest in the subject. The material designated “students’ material” above is distributed to each pair of students, together with “Worksheet 1” which looks like a quiz, but is mostly blank except for spaces to fill in their names and class. The (fake) “quiz” element would help to capture the students’ attention. The students are told to inflate the long balloons and try two experiments: run the balloon over their partners’ hair and note that it can make his/her hair stand. Next, try to stick the rubbed side of the balloon against the wall it will seemingly defying the laws of gravity.

The students will then be told to tear up “Worksheet 1” into small pieces of paper, a guideline for the size of which will be shown on the OHP. This will provide kinaesthetic learners a chance for hands-on activity and greater involvement in their own learning. Students will place their small pieces of paper on the table and rub their provided plastic rulers with the cloth. By bringing the ruler near the pieces of paper, students would observe that the ruler “magically” attracts the pieces of paper to itself, seemingly defying gravity.

At this point, ask the students what kind of forces they know about other than gravity, and introduce the term “static electricity” to begin the topic. Further hooks into the topic can be provided with some real-life static electricity examples, such as thunderstorm clouds and anecdotes of static shock (though the latter is not as applicable in this country).

LESSON CLOSURE

Students will be asked to recall what they have learnt during the lesson before being presented with a brief summary, serving to address the content and process learning outcomes of the lesson. They will be told to complete their worksheets. These worksheets will serve as indicators of successful learning, hence one of the worksheets is a simple concept map of what they have learnt in this class that can be completed and discussed in class to clarify any alternative conceptions.

              As the topic is only to be concluded in the next lesson (this lesson plan has not covered electric fields and the hazards of static electricity), the students will be shown a picture of a petrol-transporting truck, and will be asked to think about why such trucks usually have a metal chain dangling from the metal body of the truck to the ground.