Micro-Teaching Technique

Micro teaching techniques constitute an area whereby teachers in training learning to acquire the rudiments of teaching in the classroom. It is preparation as to what they must master when they go to the field to do teaching practice under the supervision of professionals. It is indeed a preparation for the challenges that await the teacher in his or her future carrier as an educator.

At the end of this article, you should be able to:

Describe the use of micro-teaching technique in Social Studies

Read through this unit, take note of the salient points as you read.

From the beginning, read the unit thoroughly as systematically arranged. Attempt all the activities stated.

Strictly adhere to the rules

Micro-Teaching Technique

This is a laboratory training procedure geared towards simplification of the complexities of regular teaching-learning process. It is also miniature teaching scaled down in terms of class size, time, task or content and skill(Cliff 1973). However, in practice, micro-teaching follows a teach-critique-reteach procedure which involves the following:

The supervisor demonstrates the skill to be practiced. This may be live demonstration of the skill or a video presentation of the skill which has been prerecorded for the purpose.

The group members select a topic(s) from a list and prepare the lesson of five to ten minutes, in which they will practice the particular skill that was demonstrated

The teacher trainee then has the opportunity to practice and evaluate his use of the skills. Practice takes the form of a ten-minute micro-teaching session in which five to ten pupils are involved. When real students are used, the other trainee teachers act as observers and evaluators. When the trainee are used a pupils they play the role of the pupils at the same time observe and evaluate the lesson objectively together with the supervisor.

The progress of the session and the performance of the "teacher" are evaluated. There are many possible ways of doing this. These include observations and comments by the other trainee teachers, support by note made on pre-prepared evaluation checklists or a video recording of the performance which can be analyzed by all, including the performer being evaluated.

If the trainee's performance is not up to the expected standard, he redefines his use of the skills through additional practice, pre-plans the lesson, emphasizing those skills in which his self-evaluation revealed his performance to be most inadequate. Then he re-teaches the lesson with another group of pupils and evaluates his second recorded performance.

Finally, when the supervisor judges that the separate basic skills considered important are sufficiently well mastered and integrated; the trainees continue their practice in supervised real-life classroom situations.

A closer analysis of the sic procedural steps in a micro-teaching session provides three essential phases in sequential order thus:

Modeling, Practice, Feedback

Modeling

Modeling has been described as a three-step process. First, the learner observes a model teaching episode where particular skills are demonstrated, second, the learner attempts to shape his own behaviors after those of the model; and third, the learner receives feedback on his performance. In the above procedure, modeling taken to mean watching of a live, written audiotapes, videotaped or filmed teaching episode which provides a short but clear example of a specific teaching skill to be acquired.

Generally speaking, there are several types of models. However, three of them gain more attention of practitioners and reseachers in education. They are:

The use of any of these models in micro-teaching will depend on a number of factors. It may be necessary to consider such factors like the skill to be developed, cost of production or procurement, and motivational value among others. Indeed, studies of a number of researchers lend considerable support to the use of perceptual models in mich-teaching. For example, Turney et al. (1973) found the use of videotaped or perceptual models much more effective than symbolic models. The approach one is recommending to modern teacher trainers is the use of combination of perceptual and symbolic models to ensure optimum learning and rewarding micro-teaching experience.

The manner in which models are presented is considered important if they are to produce desire effects. The following are list as acceptable manner of model presentation.

Inform student about the skill to be watched and acquired
Make students aware of the instances of the skill or its components during the model's presentation
Show/present the model in a number of times perhaps several days to enhance its lasting effect.
Allow the student teachers to practice the skill in a similar teaching context to that of the model
Encourage the use of the combination of teacher models and student models for more desirable effect.

This is the act of demonstrating in practical sense the skill being demonstrated in the video or the film medium. The trainee should be given the opportunity to practice what he has seen; learning by doing has been the basic principle on which the teaching learning laboratory is based. After all, we often hear the saying "Practice makes for perfection".

Feed-Back

Feedback is micro-teaching is information a student received concerning his attempts to imitate certain patterns of teaching. The built-in feed back mechanism in micro-teaching acquaints the trainee with the success or otherwise of his performance and enables him to evaluate and to improve his teaching behavior. Electronic media gadgets that can be used to facilitate effective feedback is a vital aspect of micro-teaching. The feedback through which ever medium should be geared towards assisting the trainees to analyze and improve his teaching.