ST AUGUSTINE COLLEGE OF EDUCATION

IN AFFILIATION WITH UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN,

PROFESSIONAL DIPLOMA IN EDUCATION
NAME: UZODINMA EZINNE FRANCES
MATRIC NO: SACOED/PDE/23/0398
COURSE CODE: PDE 5108
COURE TITLE: SUBJECT METHODOLOGY (SCIENCE
METHOD)
ASSIGNMENT: DISCUSS ON MICROTEACHING.
LECTURER: MRS IFUNNAYA IGBOANUGO
 INTRODUCTION.
You may be wondering what should be the major difference between micro-
teaching and teaching practice. Well, both are student-teachers’ intern program
designed as a combined training and diagnostic tool for teacher education. But
micro-teaching is distinct because of the opportunity which it provides to both
teachers and would be teachers for immediate and individual diagnostic
evaluation of performance by colleagues, supervisors, or lecturers and
participatory student-teachers. It is for measuring progress in specific teaching
techniques. You can see that it is both in-service and pre-service. You can also
notice that micro teaching adds relevance improvement and quality to teacher-
training procedures. It has the merit of bringing theoretical discussions to trial. It
acts as a vehicle for research on the teaching-learning process and teacher
behavior, thereby giving us new insight into teacher-training and other areas for
further studies. We do feel that you will not take this manual as conceptual
framework for a micro-teaching exercise but as a concern for the improvement of
the quality of your instruction to control your practice in teaching.

INTRODUCTION TO MICRO-TEACHING
The economic growth and prosperity of any nation are dependent upon the
development of human resources of that nation. It is significant to note that the
development of the man-power resources refers to the competencies and the
level to which these competencies are imparted. The question in your mind may
be who are the ones to develop these competencies? The answer is not far away.
It is the teacher. It is not just any teacher; we need highly competent teachers to
impart these competencies. You have to understand that the teachers who
impart the competencies must have the capability to perform these tasks
efficiently and effectively. As a-would-be-teachers in this category, you need to
acquire the requisite competencies. This is why you need to be abreast of those
competencies which are essential for you to become a better teacher and how
these competencies are imparted. Microteaching as a teachers training
technique, was first developed by Dwight, Allen and his colleagues at Stanford
University in 1961 and named “Micro-Teaching” in 1963. Since then,
microteaching has been adopted by almost all teacher education institutions all
over the world as a powerful tool in teacher training, but you need to understand
that each institution develops the concept of micro-teaching in its own way.

CONCEPT AND INTRODUCTION TO MICRO-TEACHING

WHAT IS MICRO TEACHING?
This is a teacher training technique that helps trainee teachers to master their
teaching skills. It requires the teacher trainee:

1. To use specific teaching skills.

2. To teach a single concept.
3. To teach for a short time
4. To teach very small number of students.

Microteaching is a procedure in which a student- teacher or trainee teacher

practices teaching with a reduced number of students (5-10 students) in a
reduced period of time with an emphasis on a narrow and specific teaching skill.

DIFFERENT DEFINITIONS OF MICRO-TEACHING.

 D.W ALLEN (1996) - Microteaching is a scaled down teaching encounter in
class size and time.
 R.N BUSH (1968)- it is a teacher education technique which allows teachers
to apply clearly defined teaching skills to carefully prepared lessons in a
planned series of five to ten minutes to encounter with real students often
with an opportunity to observe the result on videotape.
 L C SINGH (1977) – it is a scaled- down teaching encounter in which a
teacher, a small unit to a group of 5 students for a small period of 5 to 20
minutes
 N.K JANGIRA AND AZIT SINGH (1982): Micro teaching is a training set for
the student-teacher where complexities of the normal class room are
 reduced by: limiting the content to a single concept, reducing the duration
of the lesson to 5-10 minutes, reducing the size of 5 to 10 pupils, etc.
 M.C ALLEESE AND UNWIN (1970): Micro teaching is most often applied to
the use of closed- circuit television to give immediate feedback to a trainee
teachers’ performance in a simplified environment.

CHARACTERISTICS OF MICRO-TEACHING
i) It is real, although the environment is constructed.
ii) It focuses on the training for the accomplishment of specific tasks or
skills (e.g. instructional skills).
iii) The duration of teaching, number of students and the content to be
taught are small.
iv) Precision of immediate feedback is made
v) There is facility for re-planning, re-teaching and re-evaluation.
vi) It places the teacher under the microscope.
vii) The problem of discipline is controlled or managed.

COMPONENTS OF MICRO-TEACHING COMPONENTS

The components of microteaching techniques include:

1.) The student –teacher: -As a would be teacher, you need to develop various
capacities, e.g. capacity for class management, capacity to maintain discipline,
etc.

2.) Feedback devices: -changes in the student behavior.

3.) Skill –ability to be an expert or do something well.

4.) Teaching skills:-these are teachers’ behaviors which are specially effective in
bringing about the desired changes in the students for example, skill of asking
questions, skill of writing on the board, etc.
MICROTEACHING CYCLE
A micro teaching cycle has six steps, namely:

1. Micro lesson plan (this may take up to 2 hours)

2. Teach (5 minutes)

3. Feedback (5 minutes)

4. Re-plan (10 minutes)

5. Re-teach with another group (5 minutes)

6. Re-feedback (5 minutes to approximately 30 minutes)

PLAN

6 2

RE-FEEDBACK TEACH

5 3

RE-TEACH FEEDBACK

RE-PLAN
SKILLS OF MICRO-TEACHING
Skills are said to be the expertness or the ability to do something very well. In this
section, you are going to see some of the major skills you need in order to teach
very well. In this module, you will learn them in details. You need to understand
that these skills you need in teaching are called teaching skills. They include a set
of teachers’ behaviors that are specially effective in bringing about the desired
changes in your students. These skills includes:

I. Introductory Skill

ii. Skill of probing questions

iii. Skill of explanation

iv. Skill of stimulus variation

v. Skill of writing on the board

vi. Skill of achieving closure

vii. Skill of reinforcement

viii. Skill of using teaching and learning aids.

PREPARING FOR MICRO-TEACHING

Like every other human endeavor, micro-teaching requires adequate preparation
and planning to achieve his/her set objectives. This is capable of reducing anxiety
in the teaching of the skills or concepts mapped out for teaching. Adequate
preparation will enhance personality development and instill self-confidence in
the teacher trainees. Thus, preparation of a micro-teaching is an aspect of lesson
planning which should be organized in a logical sequence. This is to ensure that
the content of the lesson is concise, relevant, and capable of covering the
specified duration of the lesson. It involves planning strategies that will ensure
the success or improvement in performance during teaching or presentation of
the lesson to students/learners. A micro-teaching plan may take two hours a day
to embark upon. In preparing for micro-teaching, there are some basic steps that
need to be taken to ensure a successful outing. These steps are briefly outlined
below:
 Choice of a topic/concept: Here, the skill to be taught in the micro-teaching
class is picked based on the curriculum and the scheme of work intended to
achieve the curriculum content s specified. Efforts should be made to
establish a link of previous knowledge with present topic. Outlining the
goals, aims and objectives: This is the step where the teacher trainee thinks
of the goals, aims and objectives of his/her lesson/presentation to be
achieved based on the topic of his/her lesson.
 Mapping out the lesson plan: This step incorporates the first two steps.
This is a guide to the teacher trainee, which the teacher trainee will handle
in order to present his/her lesson.
 Selection of learning experiences: This is where the teacher trainee thinks
of both overt and covert activities which the learners should perform to
achieve the lesson objectives.
 Development of lesson content: Here, the teacher trainee thinks of what
should form the content of what the learners should learn based on the
topic and the behavioral objectives set out to achieve the desired goal of
the lesson
 Division of content into smaller units: The teacher trainee here is expected
to think of dividing the content into smaller units to make teaching or
presentation easier. Here, he/she aligns the goals, aims and objectives of
the lesson to be taught in line with the curriculum and simplifies the
concept through different components.
 Selection of teaching methods: At this level of preparation, an appropriate
method of presenting or teaching the content is selected. Such methods
may include lecture method, discussion method, project method, play
method, guided inquiry method, etc. The choice of any of these methods
depends on the topic to be presented. At this point, he/she thinks of
organizing the learning experiences, content selection and selection of
methods sequentially.
 Materials to use in teaching: In order to be well prepared for micro-
teaching, the teacher should think of how to acquire and present the
 appropriate teaching aids or materials to use in teaching his/her lesson.
This is usually done in line with the topic, availability of the materials,
source of financing the materials, usability of the materials, skills in using
the materials and relevance of the materials to be acquired.
 Evolving the steps to be taken in lesson presentation: At this level of
preparation for micro-teaching, the teacher trainee should be able to map
out how he/she should present his/her lesson logically and rehearse the
steps to achieve a huge success during presentation. He/she maps out
preliminary questions and introduction. Class control or management
mechanism is also considered here while preparing for micro-teaching.
 Evaluation procedure: This is another area that a teacher trainee should be
prepared for before embarking on micro-teaching. Here, he/she thinks of
the evaluation procedure that will be used in assessing learners in his/her
lesson. He/she writes down some questions that should be asked either in-
between lesson or at the end of the lesson to ascertain if the objectives of
the lesson would be achieved.

STEPS OF MICRO-TEACHING
Micro-teaching is composed of four basic steps: briefing, preparation, teaching,
and feedback.
Step 1: Briefing: If a teacher trainee has never taken part in a microteaching
session, a supervisor or a senior teacher will explain its concept and purpose. The
supervisor will give a set of objectives for the trainee to accomplish, like
developing a particular skill such as asking questions or explaining. The senior
teacher may also give a short demonstration of a skill or go through topics like the
best practices in teaching. All this will allow the teacher trainee to make the
necessary preparations needed for the microteaching session.
Step 2: Preparation-The teacher trainee will make a short lesson plan good for 5-
10 minutes, depending on the length required by the supervisors. The lesson plan
must be crafted to the objectives laid out by the supervisor or to improve a
particular skill.
Step 3: Teaching –The teacher trainee will present the lesson plan to a small
group of students or fellow trainees while being supervised by a team of senior
teachers or educational experts. Occasionally, this supervisory team may also play
the role of students –asking the teacher trainee questions and actively involving
themselves in the lesson. While the lesson is going on, the supervisory team will
evaluate the trainee’s performance, the team will usually use standardized
evaluation forms to streamline the process. A video camera will also be running in
the background to record the entire teaching session. Observation during the
micro lesson is a learning experience.
Step 4: Feedback –The supervisory team will meet to discuss their evaluation of
the teacher trainee and whether or not the objectives of the microteaching
session have been met. While they are meeting, the trainee may be allowed to
review the footage of his or her presentation. When the supervisory team’s
meeting has concluded, they will then meet with the trainee to give their
feedback regarding the teacher trainee’s performance. The group should highlight
the trainee’s best practices or best use of a certain skill along with areas that need
to be improved. Concrete instances of the teacher trainee’s good and bad
practices should be mentioned, they can review the video together to re-watch
certain segments that highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the trainee. The
team will then give suggestions like how to improve teaching skills or ways to
handle different classroom situations. The trainee should also take this time to
ask any important questions or to clarify a number of points given by the
supervisory team.

Phases of Microteaching
There are three phases of the Micro-teaching procedure. They are:
1. Knowledge Acquisition Phase (Pre-Active Phase):It includes the activities
such as the teacher trainee
being provided with knowledge about teaching skills.
Being able to observe the demonstration of teaching skill, and
Being able to analyze and discuss the demonstration of the teaching skill.
In this phase the teacher trainee learns about the skill and its components
 through discussion, illustrations and demonstration of the skill given by the
expert. He/she learns about the purpose of the skill and the condition
under which it proves useful in the teaching-learning process. He/she
analyzes of the skill into components leading to various types of behaviors
which are to be practiced. The teacher trainee tries to gain a lot about the
skill from the demonstration given by the expert. He discusses and clarifies
each and every aspect of the skill.
2.Skill Acquisition Phase (Inter-active Phase): It includes the activities such as
the teacher trainee:
Planning and preparation of micro lesson for a skill.
Practicing the skill.
Evaluation of the practiced skill (Feedback).
Re-plan, Re-teach and re-feedback till the desired level of skill is achieved.
On the basis of the demonstration presented by the expert, the teacher trainee
plans a micro-lesson, lesson for practicing the demonstrated skill. He practices the
teaching skill through the Micro-teaching cycle and continues his efforts till he
attains mastery level. The feedback component of micro-teaching contributes
significantly towards the mastery level acquisition of the skill. On the basis of the
performance of teacher trainee in teaching, the feedback is provided for the
purpose of change in behavior of the teacher trainee in the desired direction.

3. Transfer Phase (Post-Active Phase):it involves:

Giving opportunity to use the mastered skill in normal class room teaching.
Integrate the different skill practiced after attaining mastery level and command
over each of the skills the teacher trainee integrates all these skills and transfer to
actual classroom teaching is done during this transfer phase. After attaining
mastery level and command over each of the skills, the teacher trainee integrates
all these skills and transfer to actual classroom.

Teaching Strategies/ Skills

Core Skills of Micro Teaching
Inherent in the process of microteaching is what is called the “component skills
approach”, i.e the activity of teaching as a whole is broke down for learning
purpose to its individual component skills. These individual skills which go to
make teaching are described below in no particular order of importance:
1. Set induction: The process of gaining pupil attention at the beginning of the
class. 2. Presentation skill: Having clear cut objectives, and an appropriate
planned sequence.
3. Probing Questions: Prompting, seeking further information, redirection,
focusing, increasing critical awareness, fluency in asking questions, passing
questions and adapting questions.
4. Explanation Skill: Clarity, continuity, relevance to content using beginning and
concluding statements, covering essential points.
5. Illustration Skill: Use of examples, simple, relevant and interesting examples
appropriate media, proper use of audio-visual aids, use of inducts, deductive
approach, explaining, narrating, giving appropriate illustrations and examples,
planned repetition where necessary.
6. Stimulus variation: Avoidance of boredom amongst students by gestures, body
movements, change in speech pattern, change in interaction style, pausing,
focusing, oral visual switching, changing sensory channels.
7.Reinforcement Skill: Use of praise words and statements, accepting and using
peoples’ ideas, repeating and rephrasing, use of pleasant and approving gestures
and expression, writing students’ answer on the board, recognizing pupil
difficulties, listening, encouraging pupil participation and response.
8. Classroom Management Skill: Call students by name, make norms of classroom
behavior, attending behavior reinforced, clarity of direction, check non-attending
behavior, keep students in Eye span, check inappropriate behavior immediately.
Response management.
9. Use of whiteboard: Legible, neat and adequate with reference to content
covered.
10. Non-verbal communication skill: use of nonverbal clues (body language)
11. Summary and Closure skill: method of concluding a teaching session so as to
bring out the relevance of what has been learnt, its connection with past learning
and its application to future learning.
PRINCIPLES OF MICRO-TEACHING
1. CAPABILITIES: capabilities of a learner must be considered when a decision
of what to teach is made. Here, the trainee is given the opportunity to
select a lesson content in an area of his greatest competence so that he can
feel at ease with the subject.
2. INTRINSIC MOTIVATION: the learner must be motivated intrinsically. Its
created through cognitive and effective discrepancy between his ideas, self-
concept as a teacher and his real teaching.
3. GOALS ARE TO BE REALISTICALLY SET: an attempt is made to modify the
modifiable behavior which the trainee wants to change.
4. ONE ELEMENT AT A TIME: in this principle, in any micro-teaching session, a
trainee practices one skill at a time and moves to the next one only after he
has achieved mastery over it.
5. ACTIVE PARTICIPATION: active participation by the students is necessary in
order to modify his behavior substantially. A trainee teacher engages
actively in practicing a skill in which he wants to be perfect
6. INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE: knowledge and information about one’s
performance helps the learner. According to this principle, in any micro-
teaching session, a trainee teacher is provided knowledge and information
about his or her own performance by the supervisor with or without the
help of audio and video tapes.
7. IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK: it informs the trainee teacher of their effective
practice. A trainee teacher is provided immediate feedback regarding his
performance thereby eliminating any chance of wrong practice.
8. EXPERIENCE IN VARIOUS SKILLS: in micro-teaching, students are provided
in various skills over a considerable length of time.

ADVANTAGES OF MICRO-TEACHING
1. It helps us in developing and mastering important teaching skills.
2. It is very effective in modifying the behavior of the teacher.
 3. It employs real teaching situations for developing skills.
4. It reduces the complexity of the teaching process.
5. It helps us in accomplishing specific teacher competencies
DISADVANTAGES OF MICRO- TEACHING
1. It is skills-oriented, that is it is not emphasized.
2. There is a special class-room setting required for micro-teaching.
3. Only a few specific skills are covered.
4. It is a time-consuming teaching technique.
5. It deviates from normal classroom teaching.

MICRO-TEACHING LABORATORY
Micro teaching is expected to be done in a microteaching laboratory
where the following should be provided:
Videotape
Camera
Electrical equipment
Technicians to tape the line-teaching
TV/Computer set
Video recorder/camcorder
Camera
Tapes for camera
Black or whiteboard, flipchart, pin board, markers with different
colors.

CONCLUSION
You have seen that micro teaching is a scaled down teacher training technique in
which you teach a small group of students usually between 5 to 10 in about 5 to 7
minutes. In this case, you are teaching only one skill. One basic assumption is that
this practice in this controlled and scaled-down situation gives you some benefits
over the traditional teaching. Its major objective is to improve the quality of
teaching as a profession. Micro-teaching gained its prominence when the school
of education at the Stanford University, California, USA first applied it as a
combined training and diagnostic tool in teacher intern programme in summer,
1961. In 1963, micro-teaching became an established programme for teacher
training as popularized and named by Allen and his group in the institution. It is a
five to ten minutes exercise with a small group of students who observe the
teaching and give their evaluation as a feedback to the presenter. The use of
peers is to enable them observe and critique the presentation as it is done by
their colleague. It is usually put in videos for teacher trainees to play and review
their performances. It increases the teaching performances of students and
improves learning by realistic applications of skills in teaching concepts. However,
time constraints make it impossible for all the skills to be practiced. Besides, the
size of students studying education in Nigeria is highly monumental and planning
to accommodate all of them is often difficult.

References/Further Readings:
Akiang, J. U. , Asinde, F. A. & Oko, E. E. (2009). Towards achieving
quality teacher education in the 21stcentury: A focus on the
Nigerian education system.Paper presented at the 4thannual
national conference of the Association of Nigerian Teachers
(ASSDONT), Makurdi, 6th-10thAugust.
Buba, P. B. (2013). Regenerating teacher education for self-reliance
and national development. Journal of Teacher Perspectives,
7(4), 840-849.Federal Republic of Nigeria (2004). National
policy
on education, Lagos: NERDC Press.
Ijanaku, M. O. (2013).
Promoting teacher education for poverty reduction and national
development. Journal of Teacher Perspectives, 7 (4), 760-
764.Okafor, F. C. (1991). Nigerian Teacher Education, Enugu:
Fourth Dimension Publishers.
Otsupius, I.A. (2014). Micro-Teaching: A technique for effective
teaching. African Research Review. 8 6(4), 183-197.
Remesh, A. (2013). Micro-teaching, an efficient technique for learning
effective teaching. Journal of Research in Medical Sciences,
18(2), 158-163