1. AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH TO
TEACHING
Adapted from Surobhi Dutta

2. KWARA STATE UNIVERSITY, MALETE, NIGERIA
The University for Community
Development

3.  General Introduction
 Origin and Development of Micro-Teaching
 Goals of Micro-Teaching
 General Objective of Micro-Teaching
 Meaning and Definition of Micro-Teaching
 Objectives of Micro-Teaching
 Characteristics of Micro-Teaching
 Steps of Micro-Teaching
 Merits of Micro-Teaching
 Limitations of Micro-Teaching
 General Format
 Presenter Information & Session
 Audience Participation
 Sharing Feedback & Criticism
 Micro-Teaching Feedback Form
 Observers’ Comments on the Teaching Session
 Participants’ Reply to Observers’ Feedback

5.  Microteaching is a scaled-down, simulated teaching encounter
designed for the training of both pre-service or in-service
teachers.
 It has been used worldwide since its invention at Stanford
University
 Its purpose is to provide teachers with the opportunity for the safe
practice of an enlarged cluster of teaching skills while learning
how to develop simple, single-concept lessons in any teaching
subject.
 Microteaching helps teachers improve both content and methods
of teaching and develop specific teaching skills such as
questioning, the use of examples and simple artefacts to make
lessons more interesting, effective reinforcement techniques, and
introducing and closing lessons effectively.
 Immediate, focused feedback and encouragement, combined with
the opportunity to practice the suggested improvements in the
same training session, are the foundations of the microteaching
protocol.

6.  The use of microteaching within teacher education is seen as
an on-campus way of introducing pre-service teachers to the
complexities of teaching and as a bridge that connects theory
to practice (Pringle, Dawson, & Adams, 2003).
 Throughout the years, various components have been
changed or added to the format of on-campus microteaching
performances.
 Feedback for microteaching performances derived from
videotape playback and clinical supervisors have been slowly
replaced by oral and written feedback from course instructors
and pre-service teacher candidates, especially with the
financial and time constraints in many teacher education
programs (Kpanja, 2001).
 Presentations take about 15 minutes each (including
presentation, feedback and transition time).

8.  The idea of micro-teaching originated for the first
time at Stanford University in USA in the late 1950s
by Dwight W. Allen, Robert Bush, and Kim Romney. .
 They were assigned the development of testing and
evaluation tools to measure the attainment of
teaching skills.
 This lead to the development of a systematic and
accurate method of giving feedback to the teacher
trainee.
 All the steps of micro-teaching technique :Teach-
Feedback-Replan-Reteach-Refeedback were
formulated.

9.  To encourage participants to think more specifically
about the goals of their teaching in terms of how
students will learn the information presented. This
involves thinking about teaching style as well as
content.
 To give participants specific suggestions regarding how
their teaching styles are perceived by others both
within and from outside specific disciplines.
 To provide an opportunity to observe and evaluate
other styles of teaching and to learn how to share
observations constructively with others.

10.  The main objective of the micro-teaching
session is to provide the participants with an
environment for practice-based teaching to
instil self-evaluative skills.

12.  Micro teaching is a procedure in which a student
teacher practices teaching with a reduced number
of pupils in a reduced period of time with
emphasis on a narrow and specific teaching skill.
Microteaching is a scaled- down teaching
encounter in class size and time- D.W.Allen(1966)
 Microteaching is defined as a system of controlled
practice that makes it possible to concentrate on
specified teaching behaviour and to practice
teaching under controlled conditions. - D.W. Allen
& A.W.Eve (1968)

13.  To enable teacher trainees to learn and
assimilate new teaching skills under
controlled conditions.
 To enable teacher trainees to master a
number of teaching skills.
 To enable teacher trainees to gain
confidence in teaching.

15.  Microteaching is a highly individualized training
device
 Microteaching is an experiment in the field of
teacher education which has been incorporated in
the teaching practice schedule
 It is a student teaching skill training technique and
not a teaching technique or method
 Microteaching is micro in the sense that it scale
down the complexities of real teaching
 Practising one skill at a time
 Reducing the class size to 5-10 pupils
 Reducing the duration of lesson to 5-10 minutes
 Limiting the content to a single concept

16.  Immediate feedback helps in improving, fixing
and motivating learning
 The students are provided immediate feedback
in terms of peer group feedback, tape
recorded/CCTV and Video
 Microteaching advocates the choice and practice
of one skill at a time
 These sessions are usually conducted with a
small group (5~ 10 presenters) from within a
department. If there are fewer than three
presenters from a department, their session will
be combined with that of another department.

18. 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.

19.  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/Her 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/she
could not do well.

21.  Step VI- In the light of the feed-back given by
the supervisor, the teacher trainee re-plans 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

23.  It helps to develop and master important teaching
skills.
 It helps to accomplish specific teacher
competencies.
 It caters for individual differences of prospective
teachers in their training.
 It is more effective in modifying teacher behaviour.
 It is an individualized training technique.
 It employs real teaching situation for developing
skills.
 It reduces the complexity of teaching process as it is
a scaled down teaching.
 It helps to get deeper knowledge regarding the art
of teaching.

25.  It is skill oriented; Content not emphasized.
 A large number of trainees cannot be given the opportunity
for re-teaching and re-planning.
 It is a time consuming technique.
 It requires special classroom setting.
 It covers only a few specific skills.
 It deviates from normal classroom teaching.
 It may raise administrative problem while arranging micro
lessons

26.  A scribe is appointed for each presentation.
 A participant then gives a five-minute
presentation, followed by ten minutes of feedback
from the audience.
 The scribe records the audience feedback, using
the Micro-Teaching Group Session Feedback Sheet.
 The scribe gives the completed Feedback Sheet to
the presenter for his/her own reference.

27.  • Each participant prepares a five-minute mini-lecture on any
topic.
 The content is not crucial for this process. In fact, it is preferable
to make a presentation of something outside the field, as
colleagues can find themselves responding more vigorously to the
content than to the effectiveness of communication.
 If a department prefers presentation of discipline-specific
material, then the presence of KWASU COE staff ensures that some
of the feedback replicates the possible responses of non-
specialists.
 It is recommended that the time limit will be enforced to make
sure that all participants have sufficient time.
 Participants with audio-visual aids (e.g. overheads, LCD
projectors.) must make their own arrangements with the Course
Lecturer.

29.  Each participant should plan to begin the presentation
with an explicit statement of goals for the presentation
and the objectives by which they plan to achieve those
goals. These goals can be written on a board, distributed
on sheets for the audience, displayed on an overhead or
slide, or stated at the beginning of the presentation.
 Each presenter should consider:
 the style as well as the content of your presentation.
 the methodology of your presentation
 special strategies you may need to accommodate students
who are not experts in your discipline.

30.  Group members are expected to participate
actively in other’s presentations.
 They should write down any comments they
would like to make during the feedback period.
 Their comments should focus on evaluating how
well the goals articulated by the presenter at
the beginning of the talk have been fulfilled.
 Group members can also comment on other
aspects of the presentation that they may deem
important.

32.  " Own" your messages
State your reactions with "I" rather than "you" as audience reactions vary. By
owning your own reactions, you allow for the possibility of different
responses. (You might invite other reactions as well).
Examples: "I appreciated the way you connected your speech to last week's
class discussion."
"I was confused when you said.... because..."
 Be specific and concrete.
While it might be nice to know that someone liked my introduction, it doesn't
tell me very much. Instead, one could say, for example, "I liked the concrete
illustrations of the theory X.", "I liked the way you included your own
background and interest in the introduction."
 Focus on presentation behaviour, not on personality characteristics and
judgments.
For example, say "I would have liked more eye contact" rather than "It's clear
you're really not interested in us since you never look at us."
 Also, limit comments to behaviours that are changeable. Distracting gestures
can be brought under control. Calling attention to a stutter, however, is
probably not helpful in a public setting.

33.  • Distinguish between observations, inferences, and judgments.
All of these have some role in evaluation but they are quite
different.
 Observations have to do with what we see and hear; inferences and
conclusions we reach based on those observations and judgments and/or
evaluative response.
 Listeners observe differently, and, more important, draw different
inferences and judgments from what they see and hear. Therefore, start
by reporting your observations and then explain what you inferred from
them.
 Speakers can hear a great deal of feedback on observations. Inferences
and judgments are better received when the observations they are based
on are clear. For example, “I noticed that you made eye contact with the
students, which made me feel that you were genuinely trying to engage
their attention”.
 • Balance positive and negative comments.
Try to emphasize the positive aspects of a presentation which the
presenter can build upon constructively in the future to improve
his/her style.
 • Invite feedback from a variety of listeners.

34.  Question for the participant before the session
1. Are there any specific aspects of the teaching session that you
would like the observers to focus on?
2. What is the anticipated context for this teaching session (course
type, year level, class size)? What changes, if any, would you make
to the room to best suit the class context?
 Question for the participant after the session
1. What are your reflections on the teaching session?
 Observers’ ideas in response to the participant’s input on
Questions1 & 2

36.  Notes:
1. Were the expected learning outcomes (ELOs) for the
session clear? Did the session directly address the
ELOs?
2. How did the presentation style support the development
of ideas, the relationships among those ideas, and
their significance?
3. Was engagement demonstrated, and in what ways?
4. How was the review and closing?
5. Was assessment used to examine the extent to which
the expected learning outcomes had been achieved?

37.  Notes:
Key recommendations
 1. What is the single most important thing that
the participant can do to make the next session
even better?
 2. What have I learnt from this experience that
that is worthwhile?