Micro Teaching - Meaning, Definition & Importance

The current popular practice of teaching in which teachers are allowed to enhance their teaching skills by improving simple tasks is termed Microteaching. It helps to enhance the real-time teaching experiences of teachers. Microteaching which involves the skills of presentation and reinforcement helps novice teachers to learn how to teach students or the art of teaching at ease. Thus, the importance of Microteaching can’t be ignored.

Microteaching has been used in various fields impactfully such as life sciences, health sciences etc. The Medical Council of India has been introducing changes in medical curricula and this raises the need for special training to make the role of medical teachers important. There arises a need also to monitor the skills of teachers for their constant growth in performance.

Though Microteaching has limitations which can easily be minimized by implementing Microteaching at the departmental level.

What is Micro Teaching?

Micro-teaching meaning is not only the transfer of knowledge from teachers to students and others. It is a complex process which facilitates the process of learning. Teachers are of different levels and the quality of their teaching is measured by measuring the level of understanding of students from their teaching. The classrooms can never convert into a platform for gaining primary teaching skills. It becomes more challenging in the case of training medical teachers as they require specific teaching skills in medical education programs.

Teaching skills to teach can be gained through technical training in a more structured and cheaper way. The introduction of microteaching has made a way simpler for teachers to get training in a specific field.

There is a need to incorporate the teaching of microteaching more frequently and also with minimum available facilities.

Definition of Micro Teaching

The objective of Microteaching is to teach teachers techniques for learning teaching skills. With this teaching, real teaching situations are put forward to take their advantage for developing skills and getting deeper knowledge about the art of teaching and how to teach.

Dwight W. Allen and his co-workers first adopted the concept of Micro-teaching in 1961. It is a contribution of Stanford University. Simply, Microteaching helps to introduce a simplified way to reduce the complexities of the teaching process. General and rigid settings can not make teaching which is a complete process easy but with well-defined components, it can be practised, taught and evaluated. There are a lot of verbal and non-verbal acts in teaching. The concept of Microteaching shows that teaching includes various skills. A teacher will be efficient in teaching only when they acquire specific skills. Practice can make these teaching skills effective.

The concept of Microteaching stresses practising teaching under controlled conditions with specific teaching behaviours. It automatically improvises the behaviour of the teacher and makes the teaching-learning process more effective. While following Microteaching, one should not put it in real teaching as it is a scale-down sample of teaching. For example, a driver never allows their learner to drive on the highway on his first driving lesson. Start with a less-risky situation because if the learners make a mistake, it does not harm anyone. Thus, it is required to break down the complex act of teaching into simpler components, so that it can be managed properly.

Microteaching learning emphasizes only one particular skill which is ‘how to teach’ rather than ‘what to teach. This skill is practised, attempted, and developed during the entire learning session.

It offers to teach the practice to teachers where the normal complexities are reduced as,

Length of the lesson.
Number of students
Scope of the lesson
Class time

Objectives of Micro-Teaching

Micro-teaching meaning is an extremely productive term used in enhancing the teaching skills of a teacher and somewhat the learners too. The purpose of micro-teaching can be better understood from the below-referenced points.

It focuses on specific teaching ways and gives valuable chances to practice teaching under controlled conditions.
Through micro-teaching, the way of behaving of the teacher as well as the student is modified, and the teaching-learning process turns out to be more viable through skill training.
To prepare the teacher to occupy ongoing classes with certainty.
It helps in developing the information, skills, and capacities of the teachers.
Through this teachers get prompt criticism of their performances which can be worked upon for additional enhancements.
As this is a kind of test for the teachers it won’t endanger students if the teacher neglects to perform well.

Pros and Cons of Micro Teaching

No matter how beneficial it might look, there are dependably certain drawbacks other than the positive effect it has. Such downsides, benefits, and importance of micro-teaching have been talked about below which will make the idea of Micro teaching more clear in the minds of the learners.

Pros of Micro Teaching

Micro teaching, any place carried out, emphatically affects the teachers as well as the students who have taken part simultaneously, similar has been examined underneath.

Micro teaching is executed on a limited scale which brings about less consumption in total and is hence exceptionally practical.
Helps in developing systematic illustration plans by the teachers for understudies.
Micro teaching supports the level of trust in the teacher in dealing with ongoing students and class situations which instilled a feeling of uplifting perspective among the teachers to accomplish improved results.
Micro teaching is centered around a predetermined number of students specifically 4-5 thus the emphasis is fundamentally on building a superior learning climate.
Microteaching goes about as a character development tool for teachers.
Microteaching helps in planning the illustration appropriately.

Cons of Micro Teaching

The shortcomings of microteaching are:

Because of the absence of real class feeling there is no personalization in dealing with the students.
This for the most part overlooks the student’s social-close-to-home development with the teacher.
The time term probably won’t be sufficient to pass judgment on the genuine capability of the teacher.
This strategy is very tedious.
Personalization is unimaginable as this is certainly not a long-lasting set-up.

Significance of Developing Micro Teaching Skills

Do you have any idea about what developing micro-teaching skills could have on your excursion towards greatness in teaching? In this part, we will affect these skills Micro teaching can have on the learning climate. We will also comprehend the multifaceted advantages they bring to both you and your students.

Why do Teachers Need Micro-teaching Skills?

Microteaching skills are fundamental tools in your teaching toolkit. They’re similar to those little changes you make to catch your students’ consideration. Have you seen how a little change in your teaching style can illuminate the whole classroom? That is the force of micro-teaching skills at work. They help in making those changes that will simply get the job done for you in your teaching.

You know how when you work on something, similar to a game or an instrument, you get better at it? It’s something similar to teaching. When you truly centre around improving specific skills, you work on each time. Thus, the entire classroom feels more invigorated and fun. It resembles everybody’s in the same boat, working together towards a similar objective.

Developing these skills is an excursion of individual and professional development for you as a teacher. They keep you versatile and prepared to handle the steadily evolving difficulties of teaching.

Presently, we should think about the students. When you utilize Micro teaching skills, you make learning more available and pleasant for them. Have you perceived how students light up when they ‘get’ something? That is the wizardry of viable teaching through micro-teaching skills.

Isn’t it fascinating how enhancing your teaching strategies with micro-teaching skills can have a far-reaching influence? They benefit your students as well as advance your own teaching experience

Features Of Microteaching

There are the following features of Microteaching:

Micro-Element

The concept of Microteaching is clear: it helps reduce the complexities of teaching and makes it easier for teachers. The complexities arise in times of teaching, during the lesson, and the subject matter and they can be overcome by concentrating on the training process.

Teachers can get training in specifically one skill as well. Before attempting the performance of complicated tasks, teachers should master the task’s components.

Teaching Skills and Teaching Strategies

There are many skills decided by researchers which represent the tasks, procedures and strategies of teaching many subjects at different levels. These skills may be classified as:

Pre-Instructional Skill: consists of writing instructional objectives, sequencing and organizing knowledge for achieving specific appropriate content, goals, proper organization, selection of proper audio-visual aids and others.

Instructional skills: Consist of probing questions, reinforcing pupil participation, introducing a lesson, skills explaining and illustrating, reinforcement, diagnosing pupil’s difficulties and others.

Post-Instructional skills: Post-Instructional skills consist of writing tests, performing tests, interpreting students, planning remedial measures and others.

The feedback Element

Supervisors give feedback keeping the present system in mind after analysing the teaching competency of the trainees. Feedback is dependent on reliable and authentic sources of Microteaching.

Teachers give oral feedback.
The participating peer groups fill observation schedules.
Right feedback is given by audio-tape recording.
But the most accurate feedback is given by Video-tape recording.

Safe Practice Ground

The classroom features are also available in the micro-teaching laboratory.

Micro Teaching Skills

Different types of micro-teaching skills are as follows:

Introduction of Skills
Skills of Explaining
Skills of Probing Questions
Skills of Blackboard Writing

Now you have to know the Micro-teaching skills, but we go in deeper and let you know about them.

Introduction of Skills

The Micro-teaching skills of introduction involved using precious knowledge and also telling them exactly what they can expect from a lesson. Teachers can use interesting or engaging words to get their students. Teachers can maximise the use of students’ previous knowledge and give relevance of Micro-Teaching to teachers’ education of statements.

Skills of Explaining

Teachers need to learn microteaching skills of explaining to make students understand concepts and ideas properly and explain well to make a topic or lesson effective. They should give examples by highlighting relationships among different ideas.

Skills of Probing Questions

The Skills of Probing Questions help put meaningful, specific, clear, relevant and precise questions to students and get a better understanding. This skill is used to test the understanding and knowledge of students.

Skills of Blackboard Writing

The Skill of Blackboard Writing is used to draw attention and used to bring about clarity to concepts. It is also used to shift focus, grab attention and help add variety to a lesson.

The Teaching Models

By using teaching models, a tape, a film, or a demonstration by the supervisor, the learners of teaching skills can study the desired patterns of behaviour.

The following programmes can be found in Microteaching:

In teaching a specific teaching behaviour, a particular skill is taught to pupils.
To sharpen the particular skill, the teachers are given a demonstration lesson.
Students are taught a pre-decided model on a suitable topic relating to the particular skill that they want to master.
By using an audiotape or videotape recorder, students get instant feedback. The supervisor helps students to observe and analyze the lesson. The feedback session by the peer group is called a ‘critique session”
The comments of the supervisor direct the teacher to re-plan or restructure the same lesson to sharpen the skill.
Once, the pupils revised the lesson, it was re-taught to them.
Then again feedback is given to them which is called the ‘re-feedback session’.

Conclusion

The skills of Microteaching help pupil-teachers improve their teaching. By learning new skills of a particular teaching, the complex teaching processes can be simplified. The importance of Microteaching can’t be ignored as it is beneficial for teaching certain fields which require special teaching skills.

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Micro Teaching – Meaning, Definition & Importance