Micro-teaching

Microteaching is a kind of real teaching reduced in time, number of students and range of
activities. It provides teachers with ample opportunities to explore and reflect on their own
and others’ teaching styles and to acquire new teaching techniques.
Micro teaching was first introduced at Stanford University, USA in 1963.
Microteaching, has since then, been refined and applied not only in teacher training but also
business, nursing and the army. Research in India and other developing countries have
shown that conventional micro teaching methods help to improve teaching competencies.
The teacher in the class room uses several techniques and procedures to bring about
effective learning in his /her students, these activities include introducing, demonstrating,
explaining or questioning. The teacher could make use of non-verbal behaviours such as
smiling, gesturing and nodding these group of activities are called teaching skills. The
teacher trainee is introduced to a wide range of teaching skills. Microteaching allows the
teacher trainee to practice any one skill on his/her own, and then combine it with others
when it has been mastered.
Microteaching has been defined in several ways
D. W. Allen (1966): Microteaching is a scaled down teaching encounter in class size and
time.
Passi, B.K(1976) writes that ―the most important point in microteaching is that teaching is
practiced in terms of definable, observable, measurable and controllable teaching skills‖
A composite definition of microteaching technique would thus be
Microteaching is a teacher training technique involving a specific teaching behaviour/skill
for short duration of 5 to 6 minutes for a small class comprising 5 or 6 fellow teacher
trainees/peer group on a single concept of subject matter.

Characteristics of Microteaching
The characteristics of microteaching are as follows:

 Microteaching is an experiment in the field of teacher education, which has been

incorporated in the practice teaching schedule.
 Microteaching is a highly individualized training device.
 It is a student teaching skill training technique and not a teaching technique or
method.
 The main objective of the microteaching session is to provide participants with an
environment for practice-based teaching, to instil self-evaluative skills.
 Microteaching is a scaled down teaching encounter, which reduces the complexities
of real teaching such as:
o practising one skill at a time
o reducing the class size to 5–10 students
o reducing duration of the lesson to 5–20 minutes

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 o limiting the content to a single concept
 Students are provided with immediate feedback that helps in improving and
motivating learning.

Assumptions of Microteaching
Some of the important assumptions underlying the process of microteaching are as follows:
 Teaching is a complex process, but can be analysed into simple skills.
 Teaching skills can be practised one by one up to a level of mastery, under specific
and simplified situation.
 Appropriate feedback, if systematically given, proves very significant in mastering
each skill.
 When all skills have been mastered, they can be integrated for real classroom teaching.
 Skill training can be conveniently transferred from simulated teaching situation to actual
classroom teaching situation.

Phases of Microteaching Procedure

Microteaching involves the following three phases as suggested by Cliff and others (1976):
(i) Knowledge acquisition phase: In this phase, the student-teacher familiarizes himself
with the component of teaching skill, which he is to practice. For this he learns the skill,
its rationale, its component behaviour and its role in the classroom. This can be done
by reading the relevant literature, observing demonstrations, and analysing the skill. All
these activities are directed to the modelling component of microteaching. Modelling
can be defined as the mode of presentation of the skill.
(ii) Skill acquisition phase: On the basis of the model presented, a student- teacher
plans a micro-lesson for practising the demonstrated teaching skill and carries out
microteaching till he acquires the desired level of mastery. This phase includes two
components—feedback and microteaching setting. On the basis of classroom
performance of the student-teacher, feedback is provided in order to modify the
classroom performance. The setting component covers conditions like size of the micro
class, duration of micro class, and type of supervision.
(iii)Transfer phase of microteaching: Here, the student-teacher undertakes exercises for
smoother transition from microteaching situation to real classroom situation. The
component of this phase is integration of component teaching skills.

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 Microteaching Cycle
The six steps generally involved in microteaching cycle are:
(i)plan, (ii) teach, (iii) feedback, (iv) re-plan, (v) re-teach and (vi) re-feedback.
There can be variations as per the requirement of the objective of practice session.

ing
Plan
Teach

OTES
Re-Feedback
Feedback

Re-Teach Re-Plan

Microteaching Cycle
1. Plan: This involves 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 analyzed into different activities of the teacher and the
students. Activities are planned in a logical sequence where maximum application of
the components of a skill is possible.
2. Teach: This involves the attempts made by the teacher trainee to use components of
the skill in suitable situations, occurring in the process of teaching. If the situation is
different and not as visualized, the teacher should modify his behaviour as per the
demand of the situation in the class. The teacher should have the courage and
confidence to handle the situation arising in the class effectively.
3. Feedback: This term refers to giving information to the teacher-trainee about his
performance. The information includes strength as well as weaknesses related to his
performance. This helps the teacher-trainee to improve upon his performance in the
desired direction.
4. Re-plan: The teacher-trainee re-plans his lesson, incorporating the points of
strength, and removing the points not skillfully handled in the previous attempt.
5. Re-teach: This involves teaching the same group of students, if the topic is changed,
or a different group of students, if the topic is the same. This is done to remove
boredom or monotony of the student. The teacher-trainee teaches the class with
renewed courage and confidence to perform better than the previous attempt.
6. Re-feedback: This is the most important component of microteaching for behavior
modification of teacher-trainee in each and every skill practice.

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Indian Model of Microteaching
After several years of research and experimentation in microteaching, National Council of
Educational Reseach and Training (NCERT) concluded that microteaching can be practised
effectively in India without using any hardware, since symbolic and live modelling and verbal
feedback have been found to be quite effective. Further, it is not necessary to use school
students for microteaching; peers can act as students which has also been found to be very
effective in bringing about improvement in the skill of teaching. NCERT has proposed the
Indian model of microteaching, which has the following salient features:

 The mode of presentation of theory and modelling is generally done through written
material, lectures, demonstrations and discussions and not through electronic
gadgets like VCR, audio-tapes and films. Teacher educators give model lessons on
various teaching skills. However, with the increased availability and use of video-
camera, new technology in the use of CD for modelling and feedback purposes has
been suggested.
 Live observers are used to observe teaching and for providing immediate feedback
to student-teachers. Teacher educator and peers participate in feedback sessions.
 College-based teaching practice is organized under simulated conditions. Peers are
used as students instead of real students. Training in role playing is given to student-
teachers.
 The microteaching laboratory can function with minimum facilities according to the
available space, material and equipment.
 The duration of microteaching cycle is:
Teach : 6 Minutes
Feedback : 6 Minutes
Re-plan : 12 Minutes
Re-teach : 6 Minutes

Re-feedback : 6 Minutes

 Two half cycle lessons are also practised instead of one full cycle. The Indian model has
been successfully tried out, and is being used in many universities and teacher
education institutions in the country.

Microteaching Skills
The major premise underlying the concept of microteaching is that the complex teaching act
can be split into component skills; each simple, well – defined and limited. These skills can
be identified, practiced, evaluated, controlled and acquired through training.
Characteristics of A Teaching Skills
1. A teaching skill is a set of strictly overt or observable behaviours

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2. Purely cognitive skills such as problem solving is not considered as teaching skill
3. Teaching skills have three basic components, viz perception, cognition, and action
4. Teaching skills have three dimensions
i) Non-verbal behaviour
ii) Openness, and
iii) Nature of moves in teaching to which the skill belongs Openness, Non-verbal
behaviour, Nature of moves
A large number of skills have been identified. Allen and associates (1967), at Stanford
University identified a set of 14 skills of teaching. In India, B. K. Passi and associates (1974)
working at the Centre for Advanced Studies in Education at M. S. University, Baroda,
identified 21 skills of teaching.

Skills of Teaching Used in Microteaching

Some of the important skills of teaching have been explained below.

Skill of stimulus variation

The main aim of teaching is to bring a desirable change in behavior of students. A teacher
should always try to make lessons more effective. For this, he should use various methods
and techniques. He should present multiple stimuli just to gain the attention of students. In
these stimuli, the teacher should himself function as a stimulus, in the form of gestures,
movement of the body, change in pitch of voice, change in interaction style, pausing and
sequencing of different aids of teaching. All these aspects act as stimuli in the class. The use
of these stimuli during teaching is known as ‘skill of stimuli variation’.
Following are the main component of stimulus variation skill:

 Body movements: Body movements of the teacher play an important role in the
class. Body movements should be in balance because their excessive use may
distract students and similarly less body movement will make the teacher look like a
dull statue.
 Gesture: Gestures play a very important role in making the lesson effective. These
include facial expression like laughing, raising eyebrows, emotions, some other
gestures like movement of eyes, nodding, movement of hands also play a significant
role in drawing the attention of students.
 Change in pitch of voice: The students feel boredom due to the teacher’s speech at
the same pitch, and they also get distracted from the lesson being taught. Thus, the
teacher should bring about a change in his voice. Too high or too low pitch should be
avoided. Important points should be stressed by changing the pitch of voice.
 Focusing: It is very important to stress on some specific points or events. This
process of focusing includes verbal focusing, gesture focusing and oral-gesture
focusing. Verbal focusing draws the attention of student by using and repeating

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 certain words. Gesture focusing draws their attention by pointing fingers at written
words or pictures. In some situations, the teacher uses both of them simultaneously.
 Change in the style of interaction: In a classroom, interaction between students and
teacher is a must otherwise the classroom environment will become monotonous.
But this interaction should be different. It can be between a teacher and the whole
class, a teacher and a student or between students. All these types of interactions
can be arranged by teachers. A teacher should ask questions in an interactive
manner so that his class becomes more interesting and effective.
 Change in teaching aids: Different types of teaching aids should be used by the
teacher while teaching. This will maintain the concentration of students towards the
teacher. He should also use audio and visual aids alternatively.
 Pause: The teacher should continue talking in class endlessly. There should be
regular pauses during the process of explanation in the class. If the teacher speaks
continuously, students would get bored. Hence, pauses are important to gain
continuous attention of students.
Thus, we can easily generalize that skill of stimulus variation plays a significant role in
teaching, and is utilized by the teacher to make his teaching effective as well as interesting.

Skill of explaining
Explaining concepts is very important in classroom teaching. Hence, a teacher has to learn
the skill of explaining in order to make students understand many ideas, concepts or
principles that need explanation. Explanation is nothing but a few interrelated appropriate
statements.
The skill of explanation can be developed by using the following components:

 Appropriate statement: During a lecture, the statements used should be

appropriate. The beginning statements prepare the student mentally to receive the
explanation. On the other hand, concluding statements are made after the end of
explanation. Both are important and should be appropriate.
 Explaining links: Explaining links in the form of words and phrases are meant for
establishing continuity of statements used for explaining a concept, phenomena or
principle. Some of these are: hence, therefore, since, because, as a result of, due to
 Covering essential points: The explanation given for understanding a given concept
or principle should be as complete as possible. The completeness is determined by
the scope of concept or principle as specified in the instructional objectives. It should
cover all essential points leading to a clear understanding of the desired concept or
principle.
 Fluency in language: For explaining, the teacher should speak fluently. The fluency
should be such that a student may listen and understand the ideas of the teacher
easily.
 Testing the student: While explaining, questions should be put across to students for
their clarity and understanding.
Precautions for skill of explaining are as follows:
o The explanation should not include irrelevant statements.

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 o It should be in simple language which students can easily understand.
o It should be in a proper sequence.
o The teacher should not stammer; his language should be fluent and continuous.
o Use of inappropriate vocabulary, vague words and phrases should be avoided.

Skill of reinforcement
Reinforcement denotes an event that influences the probability of a response to a stimulus
being produced under similar conditions. It belongs to the psychology of learning. It is of
two types: positive and negative. Use of positive reinforcement contributes towards
strengthening the desirable response or behaviour and use of negative reinforcement
contributes towards eliminating undesirable responses.
Following are the main components of skill of reinforcement:

 Positive verbal reinforcement: The teacher uses the accepting statements in order
to make the learning of the students permanent such as ‘I understand what you
mean’, ‘you should express yourself’. In this way, the suggestions of student and use
of encouraging language are supported.
 Positive non-verbal reinforcement: Sometimes, the teacher uses non-verbal cues to
encourage students in the class such as smiling, nodding, listening carefully, or
writing the correct answer given by a student on the blackboard. All these acts are
positive non-verbal reinforcements.
 Negative verbal reinforcement: Sometimes, it is necessary to remove some stimuli
in order to make the learning permanent. Words like: ‘wrong’, ‘absurd’ or ‘I do not
like your statements’ may look like criticism to the student.
 Negative non-verbal reinforcement: On some occasions, a teacher uses negative
non-verbal reinforcements like angry glares, threat of a slap. Such negative non-
verbal reinforcements too should be avoided.
Precautions for skill of reinforcement are as follows:
o Same words or statements should not be repeated again and again. There should be
a variety of words.
o Excessive use of reinforcement should be avoided. It may remove its effectiveness.
o It should be used for all the students and not only for the intelligent ones.
o Appropriate words and statements should be used.
o While using reinforcement for one student, it should be kept in mind that other
student should not feel inferior because of the statement made.
Skill of questioning
The process of asking questions during classroom teaching is considered to be the most
important part of teaching. It makes students more thoughtful and they become able to
understand the depth of the subject. Various aspects are studied by asking questions. It
makes the student active and alert in the ongoing process of teaching. It also helps a teacher
in gaining knowledge about previous awareness and entry behaviour of students, their

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interest and attitude towards the subject, and the topic in hand. Adequate questioning skills
may help a teacher in effectively interacting with his students.
Following are the main components of the skill of questioning:

 Quality of questions: Questions can serve the required purpose only when they are
framed with care by the teacher. So the following points should be kept in mind
while asking questions:
o Relevant: The questions asked should be relevant to the topic being
taught. Irrelevant questions may confuse the students and hinder the
process of teaching-learning.
o Clarity: The questions should be asked in a simple and clear language.

o Specificity: The questions asked should be specific and to the point.

o Grammatically correct: The framed questions should be grammatically

correct, otherwise the students will not be able to understand them.

 Presenting questions in class: A teacher should try to ask questions in a clear and
audible voice, accent, tone and pitch. Moreover, the speed of asking questions
should not be too fast or too slow, and enough time should be given to the students
for answering.
 Involvement of all students: Questions should be addressed to all students in a
class, rather than one individual student. A teacher should include all students for
answering questions so that all of them are attentive and alert during the class.
 Behavior of teacher: The behavior of the teacher should be natural while asking
questions. There should be patience and sweetness in the voice and style of asking
questions.
 Prompting: When a student expresses his inability to answer a question, the teacher
can give clues to help him recall what he learnt.
In this way, proper art of asking question along with proper behaviour and presentation
can help teachers in learning and acquiring the skill of questioning for bringing effectiveness
to their classroom teaching. However, acquisition of this skill requires a lot of practice on
the part of the teacher through microteaching.
Precautions during the use the skill of questioning are as follows:
o Questions should not be irrelevant or confusing.

o A teacher should not ask questions to a handful of students.

o The teacher should wait patiently for a student to answer until he accepts that he
does not know the answer.
o While asking questions, the teacher should show pleasant behaviour.

o He should not criticize the student, if the given answer is wrong.

Skill of introducing the lesson

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This skill is concerned with the art of initiating the lesson. If the lesson starts properly, it
proceeds smoothly and the teacher is successful and effective. The utilization of previous
experience and maintenance of continuity in the main parts of introduction are the major
points to remember, while using introductory skills in teaching. Following are the main
components which are utilized in the skill of introduction:

 Use of previous knowledge: One cannot teach in vacuum. So before starting a

lesson, it is essential to know the previous knowledge of students. The new learning
is thus based on previous knowledge or experience acquired by students.
 Maintenance of continuity: Proper introduction requires continuity in ideas
presented to students. There should be a logical sequence between main parts of
the introduction. One activity by the teacher should lead the to other related one in
a chain of continuity creating the need to study the lesson.
 Objectives and aids: It is also necessary to select various teaching aids, keeping in
mind the objectives of the lesson. The student feels bored as a result of monotonous
teaching. Disinterest develops in the student. Aproper selection of audio-visual
devices creates life in the introduction of the lesson and the student begins to show
interest. The teacher can use various means like questioning, lecturing and
storytelling. However, selection of the method should be according to the maturity
level of students.
 Duration of introduction: The introduction of the lesson should neither be too long
nor too short. The duration of introduction should arouse the interest of students.
 Capability of teacher: The teacher should have the capability to create interest and
motivation in students, without which they shall not show interest in the lesson.
Skill of illustration with examples
This skill is mainly concerned with the selection of examples relevant to the concept.
Examples contribute significantly in the teaching–learning process and are helpful in
sustaining the attention of students.
Components of the skill of illustration with examples:

 Use of media for examples: These examples are conveyed to the students through
media. For illustration, basically two types of media are used: non-verbal and verbal.
Non-verbal media includes flowers, models, pictures, plant, and videos. On the other
hand, when a teacher explains everything verbally by making use of words and
thoughts, it is called ‘verbal medium’. It is used most commonly by teachers in
classrooms. The subject matter is made more interesting by giving examples of daily
life. The teacher may draw pictures on blackboard and then explain the concept
more clearly. Sometimes, a teacher may use the method of storytelling for making
the teaching–learning process more effective.
 Inductive-deductive approach: It is very important to understand the concept first
and then use it. While the former can be properly realized through inductive
approach, the deductive approach helps in the latter. The task of illustrating with
example requires the use of both approaches; hence a teacher should learn to use
both inductive and deductive approaches for development of the skill.

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  Proper examples: Various types of examples are used by teachers in classrooms, but
while using these examples some points should be kept in mind like:
o Examples should be relevant to the concept or principle being explained.

o Examples used should be simple, based on the student’s past experience

and according to the maturity level of students.
o An example should be interesting so that it could maintain the attention,
interest and curiosity of students for better understanding.
o Whether a teacher is giving interesting examples or not can be judged
through the overt behaviour of students and overall classroom
environment.
Precautions while using skill of illustration with examples:
o The objectives of the lesson being taught should be kept in mind while using
this skill.
o The illustration used should be related to the main concept or idea.

o The examples used should be according to the maturity level of students.

o Multiple media should be used for explaining the concept.

o Examples used by teacher should be interesting and motivating so that

students pay attention.

Advantages of Microteaching
Microteaching is very helpful for making the process of teaching more effective and
successful. Here are some advantages of microteaching:
 Microteaching it enables teachers to focus on certain areas of teaching and to view
them from different perspectives.
 Microteaching it increases training-effectiveness using a scaled down teaching
simulation environment, which reduces the complexities of normal classroom
teaching and eliminates the pressure resulting from real classroom settings.
 One major advantage of microteaching is the provision of immediate feedback to
bring improvement in the teacher’s behaviour.
 The main objective of microteaching session is to provide the participants with an
environment for practice-based teaching to instil self-evaluative skills.
 It caters to the need of individual differences in teacher training. Each trainee
develops teaching skills at his own pace.
 It employs real teaching situations for developing skills.

 Microteaching gives instructors an opportunity to be analysed by a small group

audience, and also to observe and comment on other people’s performances.

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  It is hardly a substitute for teaching practice, but it offers advantages such as close
supervision, manageable objectives established according to individual trainee
needs and progress, continuous feedback, an unprecedented opportunity for self-
evaluation, immediate guidance in areas of demonstrated deficiency and the
opportunity to repeat a lesson whenever desired.
 Through microteaching, teachers are able to pursue self-initiated, self-directed and
self-observed growth.
 It is a very useful method for both pre-service and in-service teacher education.

 Microteaching offers the advantages of both controlled laboratory environment

and realistic practical experience.
 A microteaching session is a chance to adopt new teaching and learning strategies.

 It is well suited to help teachers identify single concepts, and learn how to create
learning modules to build longer lessons.
 Microteaching can also be used in research work in various situations related to
teaching.

Disadvantages of Microteaching
The limitations of microteaching are as follows:
 It is skill-oriented rather than content-oriented. The main emphasis in this
technique is on learning teaching skills and content, which is an important part of
teaching-learning, is given adequate attention.
 It is performed in artificially controlled conditions.

 The main emphasis of microteaching is on mastery of one teaching skill at a time,

whereas actual teaching is a combination of many skills that operate
simultaneously.
 It is a time-consuming technique since one trainee practices a skill in about 35
minutes.
 An effective microteaching technique requires tape records, video tapes and
closed-circuit cameras. Thus, it is costly for Indian schools.
 For successful implementation, microteaching requires competent and suitably
trained teacher educators.
 Microteaching alone is not sufficient to attain perfection in teaching. It needs to be
supplemented and integrated with other teaching techniques.
 It cannot be a substitute for real classroom lesson.

References:

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https://www.tripurauniv.ac.in/Content/pdf/StudyMaterialsDetail/MA%20Education%201st
%20Semester/EDCN-704C-Educational%20Technology.pdf

https://ddceutkal.ac.in/Syllabus/MA_Education/PAPER_10.pdf

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