MICRO TEACHING DEFINITION Micro teaching as a teacher

MICRO TEACHING

DEFINITION Micro teaching as a teacher training procedure which reduces the teaching situation to simpler and more controlled encounter achieved by limiting the practice teaching to a specific skill and reducing teaching time and class size. - Clift and Others (1976)

A teacher education technique which allows teachers to apply well-defined teaching skills to a carefully prepared lesson in a planned series of five to ten minutes encounters with a small group of real classroom students, often with an opportunity to observe the performance on video tape. - Bush (1968)

ORGANISATIONAL PATTERN The student teacher gives a short lesson based on a single teacher skill (microlesson). This lesson is recorded and / or observed and followed by immediate feedback by the observer(s). The lesson is replanned in the light of feedback received and re taught. This is followed by refeedback from the same observer(s). This completes on microteaching cycle.

ADVANTAGES Integrating the components of the microteaching skills provides the following to the student teacher.

MEANING OF THE SKILL This skill involves writing objectives that are: 1. well – stated, 2. adequate with respect to learning outcomes 3. relevant to the content and 4. adequate with respect to the content outline.

EFFECTIVE IN MODIFYING TEACHING BEHAVIOUR It helps in decreasing the amount of teacher talk in the class discussion, increasing the number of times the teacher uses redirection, increasing the number of times the teacher uses prompting and increasing the percentage of total questions that call for higher pupil order cognitive responses.

SKILL OF INTRODUCING A LESSON When one introduces a stranger to you, your reactions towards him or your responses during the conversation between the stranger and you depend upon the introductory statements that are uttered about him.

DESCRIPTION OF THE SKILL OF INTRODUCING A LESSON The behaviors included, i. e. , the components of the skill of introducing a lesson are (i) Using previous knowledge (ii) Using appropriate devices (iii) Lacking in continuity and (iv) Uttering irrelevant statement.

A glossary of term used in the observation schedule is given below: PREVIOUS KNOWLEDGE: It refers to the already possessed knowledge of the pupils. APPROPRIATENESS OF A DEVICE: It refers to the suitability of the device to the maturity level, age level, grade level, interest, culture, and experience of pupils and to the unit to be taught.

LACK IN CONTINUITY: Refers to the instances where teacher’s statement or question is not related to the immediately preceding question or statement. IRRELEVANT STATEMENTS OR QUESTIONS: Include statements and questions not related to the aim of the lesson.

INSTRUCTION: Mark tallies for occurrence of instances against each of the components of the skill of introducing a lesson. COMPONENTS Statements and questions indicating the use of the previous knowledge Questions followed by correct pupil responses Instances of lack in continuity Statements and questions irrelevant to the aim of the lesson Devices used Appropriateness Device/s suggested to improve the effectiveness of introducing the lesson Comments (if any) : TALLIES

SKILL OF FLUENCY IN QUESTIONING You all know that questioning is an important teaching skill that a teacher must learn. One of the aspects of this skill is the ‘fluency in questioning’. By ‘fluency in questioning we mean the rate of meaningful questions put per unit of time. Now you may be curious to know what do we mean by meaningful questions. We can say those questions are meaningful which fit in with the issues to be considered under (i) structure, (ii) process and (iii) product.

INSTRUCTIONS: A table is given at the end of this schedule. Write the serial number of the question in column I: Evaluate each question from the point of view of (a) structure, (b) Process and enter symbolic remarks in other columns. The criteria for evaluating structure, process, etc. are given below. Column II: A list of criteria for a well-structured question and the corresponding code numbers are given below. When a question does not satisfy any of the criteria indicate it in column II by putting a cross (X) against the corresponding question.

Code S 1 S 2 S 3 S 4 - Criteria for well – structured question Grammatically correct Relevant Specific (Calls for a single correct response) Concise (Does not contain redundant words) Column III: A list of criteria for a question put in a proper process and the corresponding code numbers is given below. Code Criteria for proper process in a question P 1 Uttered with a proper speed and pause P 2 Suitable Voice

Column IV: The following points which decrease ‘fluency in questioning’ have to be noted in column IV. Code Factors affecting fluency RQ Repeated questions RR Repeated responses. Column V Write a tick mark to indicate a meaningful question in column V, if the question does not have any entries in other columns. Write a cross to indicate a question as not meaningful question.

Note: Skill of fluency in questioning is to increase the number of meaningful questions. COLUMN I SI. No. of the question COLUMN III Structure Comments (if any): Process COLUMN IV Repeated questions and Repeated Responses COLUMN V

SKILL OF EXPLANING Explaining can also be defined as an activity to bring about an understanding in someone about a concept, principle, etc. , that is, it is an activity to fill up a gap in someone’s understanding. When a person comes across a new phenomenon, he may relate it to the past experience. Explaining involves filling up the gap in his understanding of the new phenomenon by relating it to his past experience.

MEANING AND DESCRIPTION OF THE SKILL In order to understand the meaning of the skill of explaining, you now, think of various behaviours of the teacher that make explaining effective or ineffective.

INSTRUCTIONS: Mark the tallies for the occurrence of instances for each of the desirable and undesirable teacher behaviours. Under each of the questions to test pupils’ understanding put a tick mark. DESIRABLE BEHAVIORS Explaining links Beginning statement Questions to test pupils’ understanding Questions followed by correct pupil responses TALLIES

UNDESIRABLE BEHAVIOURS Irrelevant statements Lacking in continuity Inappropriate vocabulary Lacking in fluency Vague words and phrases Comments (if any): TALLIES