MICROTEACHING

TEACHING SKILLS & MICROTEACHING

Teaching : Definition

“Teaching is an intimate contact between a more mature personality and less mature one which is designed to further the education of the latter.” H.C.Morrison (1934)

"Teaching means many different things, that teaching act varies from person to person and from situation to situation. " (Bar, 1961)

"The behaviour or activities of persons as they go about doing whatever is required of teachers, particularly those activities which are concerned with the guidance or direction of learning of others." (Ryan, 1965)

TEACHING SKILLS

Teaching is not a single skill but a composite one.  Various skills are required by the teacher to make his teaching effective. Teaching is a complex process because it deals with human behavior which is in itself very dynamic in nature. The teaching process becomes complex when a teacher desires to be an effective and the whole process of teaching and learning result oriented. To achieve this teacher needs to inculcate abilities and skills which will make his teaching effective. The complex process of teaching can be divided into various components that are simple, and defined. These components are called teaching skills which can be identified, practiced, evaluated, controlled and acquired through training.

Teaching skill is a group of teaching acts or behaviours intended to facilitate pupil’s learning directly or indirectly. (Passi – 1976)

Characteristics of teaching skills

1.       Identifiable – teaching skills can be identified by analyzing teaching behaviors. Allen & Ryan (1969) identified 14 skills of teaching.

2.       Observable – teaching skills can be observed and this is the reason they have been identified.

3.       Trainable – we can train pupil teachers in using these skills which can be developed through instruction and training.

4.       Measurable – teaching skills can be measured by simple observation, by making observation schedule and check list.

5.       Perception, cognition and action are three basic components of teaching skills.

Attempts have been made to list teaching skills. Allen and Ryan listed the following teaching skills at Stanford University in the U.S.A.

1. Stimulus Variation

2. Set induction

3. Closure

4. Teacher silence and non-verbal cues

5. Reinforcing pupil participation

6. Fluency in questioning

7. Probing questioning

8. Use of higher questions

9. Divergent questions

10. Recognizing and attending behaviour

11. Illustrating and use of examples

12. Lecturing

13. Planned repetition

14. Completeness of communication

B.K. Passi has given the following list of Teaching Skills in his book “Becoming Better Teacher; Micro-teaching Approach” :

1. Writing instructional objectives

2. Introducing a lesson

3. Fluency in questioning

4. Probing questioning

5. Explaining

6. Illustrating with examples

7. Stimulus variation

8. Silence and non-verbal cues

9. Reinforcement

10. Increasing pupil participation

11. Using black board

12. Achieving Closure

13. Recognizing attending behavior

NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) in its publication Core Teaching Skills (1982) has laid stress on the following teaching skills…

• writing instructional objectives

• Organizing the content

• Creating set for introducing the lesson

• Introducing a lesson

• Structuring classroom questions

• Question delivery and its distribution

• Response management

• explaining

• Illustrating with examples

• Using teaching aids

• Stimulus variation

• Pacing of the lesson

• Promoting pupil participation

• Use of blackboard

• Achieving closure of the lesson

• Giving assignments

• Evaluating the pupil’s progress

• Diagnosing pupil learning difficulties and taking remedial measures

• Management of the class

Core Teaching Skills

It is not possible to train all the pupil teachers in all these skills in any training programme because of the constraints of time and funds. Therefore a set of teaching skills which cuts across the subject areas has been identified. They have been found very useful for every teacher. The set of these skills are known as CORE TEACHING SKILLS.

Core Teaching Skills are:

1. Skill of probing Questions

2. Skill of explaining

3. Skill of illustrating With Examples

4. Skill of stimulus Variation

5. Skill of reinforcement

6. Skill of questioning

7. Skill of using Blackboard

8. Skill of introducing a lesson

Core Teaching Skills and their Components

1.       Skill of introducing a lesson

Introduction skill is the skill required to begin the teaching – learning process on a good note. The objectives of the skill are to:

·         Get students attention & their readiness for learning

·         Arouse student’s motivation

·         Clearly indicate the learning experience to be provided

·         Suggest ways & means of the approaching activity to be done

·         Review previous experiences/knowledge & makes its link to the present content/task

Components of introduction skill

Skill components	How to use them
Gaining attention	By using voice, gesture & eye contact. Use of audio-visual aids. Changing the pattern of teacher-pupil interaction.
Use of previous knowledge	Previous knowledge refers to the learner’s level of achievements before instruction begins. Use of previous knowledge is a must, because it helps to establish integration between the pre-existing knowledge of the learner and the new knowledge that the teacher wants to impart him.
Use of Appropriate Device	In order to motivate the learner, the teacher should make use of appropriate devices or techniques while introducing a lesson.        For example- dramatization, models, audio-visual aids etc.

2.       Skill of stimulus variation

If the class room environment becomes monotonous, then it puts a negative impact on the teaching & learning process. It is therefore, essential to make the class room environment challenging & interesting such that the teaching –learning process becomes lively, interesting, pleasant & a thought provoking experience. This process of bringing variation in the overall interactive environment of the class with the help of stimuli change is called stimulus variation. It is important because it helps to:

·         Break monotony of the class

·         Bring variation in presentation

·         Bring & maintain attention of pupils

·         Make teaching attractive & interesting

·         Make teaching effective by using various senses

·         Involve students in the teaching-learning process

Components of stimulus variation skill

Teacher movement	The teacher should not be static, he should be moving around the lecture table so that he & the students remain active.
Teacher gesture	The body language & the facial expression of the teacher should be pleasant, relevant to explain the concepts & make teaching a live experience. It should be varied time to time & according to the need.
Change in interaction style	The class room interaction pattern must be changed constantly to make the class lively and everybody participate in the learning process. There may be four types of interaction pattern: a)      Teacher to whole class b)      Teacher to group of students c)       Teacher to individual student d)      Student to student
Change in speech pattern	The teacher should vary his speech pattern depending on the relevance of the concept & to break monotony of the class. It also helps in gaining & maintaining students attention & in reflecting the importance of the concept being expressed. The following three speech pattern may be used for this purpose: a)      Pausing b)      Low pitch c)       High pitch
Oral – visual switching	According to the need of the topic, it becomes necessary to shift sensory channels of students. It can be done in the following ways: a)      Verbal to visual b)      Verbal to verbal-visual c)       Visual to verbal d)      Visual to verbal-visual
Pupil activity	Students should be involved in organizing activity based learning.
Focusing	Focusing implies drawing the attention of the learners towards a particular point which the teacher wishes to emphasize. Such technique involves verbal focusing, gestural focusing, or verbal-gestural focusing.

3.       Skill of using Blackboard

BB is one of the most important tools in classroom teaching. Effective use of BB increases the effectiveness of teaching. The BB serves the following purposes:

·         Effective visual aid

·         Provides clarity in understanding concepts

·         Draws attention of students at relevant points

·         Presents holistic picture of the content

Components of BB use skill

Legibility of hand writing	·         Distinct difference between letters ·         Adequate space between letters ·         Adequate space between words ·         Slant of the letter nearly vertical ·         All letters of the same size ·         Size of the letters large enough to be read ·         Thickness of the line uniform
Neatness	Adequate spacing between lines Lines parallel to the base of the black board No over writing Focusing the relevant matter
Appropriateness	Continuity in the points Simplicity Proper use of color chalk Appropriate presentation of illustrations and diagrams Underlining only the important points
Organization of black board work	Systematic planning of space Spacing to exhibit the sequence of the items being presented Adjustment of space for presenting related items in totality

4.       Skill of Questioning

Questions are the most important tool of thinking, reasoning, learning & teaching. Questions are used at every stage of teaching, ie, pre-active, interactive & post-active stages.

Objectives of questioning

·         Finding out previous knowledge

·         Revising the topic

·         Stimulating thought process

·         Encouraging discussion

·         Getting students participation

Questioning approaches

1.       Targeting questions – a list of questions is put to a particular student or a group of student. After which it is rotated in the class from one student to another.

2.       Delivery – in this type of approach all participants have to consider the questions. Students are given time to think about the answers after teacher calls individual students & asks them to give answers.

3.       Acknowledging the answers – sometimes teacher put questions to acknowledge the answer of the previous question & to reinforce their positive response.

Level or order of question

Depending on the complexity of questions, there are three levels of questions; lower order, middle order & higher order questions. The teacher uses any of these levels of questions depending on student aptitude, nature of content, purpose of questioning & levels of teaching.

Types of questions

1.       Open questions – those questions for which there is not a single definite answer.

2.       Closed questions – these are the questions which have only one correct answer.

3.       Rhetorical/dramatic questions – these are the questions for which there are no easy answers. These are higher order thinking questions.

Components of questioning skill

Structure	Grammatical correctness and lucidity Conciseness Relevance Specificity
Process	Speed Voice Pause Style
Product

5. Skill of reinforcement

Reinforcement is a skill which a teacher uses to increase the frequency of positive or desirable behavior of the learner or to decrease the negative or undesirable behavior of the learner.

Objectives

·         Attract & retain attention of the class

·         Encourage pupils for positive behavior

·         Discourage pupils for negative behavior

·         Increase students confidence level

Components of reinforcement skill

Verbal	a)      Positive – repeating students answer & praising them b)      Negative – scolding & telling students to improve
Non-verbal	a)      Positive – Smile, positive head movement etc. b)      Negative – anger, negative head movement etc.
Contact reinforcement	Patting the back, hand shaking & putting hands on the students head.
Proximity reinforcement	Going nearer to the pupils & making them more involved & interested in learning
Activity reinforcement	Giving a task, a project, home work, assignment, etc.
Token reinforcement	Awarding marks, grades, good, excellent, etc. on pupils note book.
Inappropriate use of reinforcement	This is the situation when the teacher does not encourage the pupil with respect to quality of his response. He uses same type of comment for every response.
Denial reinforcement	This is the situation, where the teacher does not give reinforcement when the situation is demanding encouragement.

6.       Skill of explaining

This is the skill required to develop understanding & higher order thinking among students. This skill is one of the most important attributes a good teacher must possess.

Objectives

·         Pupils to clarify an issue

·         Students to describe process, structures & procedures

·         Students to state reasons of events & phenomena

Components

Use of beginning statements	Before starting any explanation, the teacher should make the pupils aware of what he is to teach on that day through a clear beginning statement.
Use of explaining links	This technique is used primarily to explain the links in statements with ‘so’, ‘therefore’, ‘because’, ‘due to’, ‘as a result of’, ‘in order to’ etc.
Use of mediators
Use of concluding statement	This is the statement made at the end of the explanation. It includes the summary of all the main results of the explanation.
Questions to test pupils understandings	These are short questions put to the pupils to test their understanding of the concept after the explanation. The main purpose is simply to judge whether the pupils have understood or not.

Precautions for skill of Explaining:

a)      It should be in simple language.

b)      It should not be given the shape of an advice.

c)       The thoughts included in it should be in a sequence.

d)      Irrelevant things should not be included in it.

e)      It should be according to the age, experience and mental level of the pupils.

7. Skill of Probing Question

Probing questions are those which help the pupils to think in depth about the various aspects of the problem. By asking such questions again, the teacher makes the pupils more thoughtful. He enables the pupils to understand the subject deeply.

The components of this skill are:

Prompting	When a pupil expresses his inability to answer some question in the class or his answer is incomplete, the teacher can ask such questions which prompt the pupils in solving the already asked questions.
Seeking Further Information	When the pupils answer correctly in the class but the teacher wants more information and further clarification from the learner by putting ‘how’ and ‘why’ of correct part the response.
Refocusing	When the teacher ask the same question from other pupil for comparison. This is known as Refocusing.
Redirecting Questions	Questions which are directed to more than one learner to answer are called redirected questions.
Increasing Critical Awareness	This technique is used when the pupil’s response is correct. The teacher puts higher order questions to stimulate the pupil to think beyond what the pupil knows. This involves the ‘how’ and ‘why’ and sometimes ‘what’ type of questions on the point under discussion.

8. Skill of illustration with examples

When a teacher finds difficult in making students understand an abstract idea, concept or principle despite the best explanation, he or she then resorts to the use of illustrations. The teacher uses his experience to illustrate the concept with the help of examples. The clearer the examples are, the more learning will be taking place.

Components

Formulating simple examples	A simple example is one which is related to the previous knowledge of pupils. It should be according to the age level, grade level and the background of pupils.
Formulating relevant examples	An example is relevant to the concept, when the concept or the rule can be applied to it. This means to say that the rule is explained by the example.
Formulating interesting examples	An example is interesting if it can arouse curiosity and interest of pupils. This can be judged by the attending behavior of students. If the pupils keenly attend to the example, it is really interesting.
Use of appropriate media for examples	Appropriateness of media refers to its suitability to age level, grade level, maturity and to the unit taught. The decision about the nature of media, whether verbal or non verbal depends on the nature of concept.
Use of inductive and deductive approach for example	This involves the teacher giving examples relating to the concept or rule to clarify it. The pupils on the basis of the examples given, formulate the rule. After this the teacher asks the pupils to give examples to test whether the pupils have rightly understood the concept or not.

CONCEPT OF MICRO-TEACHING

Micro-teaching is a teacher training technique which helps the teacher trainee to master the teaching skills. It requires the teacher trainee

1. to teach a single concept of content

2. using a specified teaching skill

3. for a short time

4. to a very small member of pupils

In this way the teacher trainee practices the teaching skill in terms of definable, observable, measurable and controllable form with repeated cycles till he attains mastery in the use of skill.

Meaning and Definition of Micro-Teaching

Meaning

Micro teaching is a procedure in which a student teacher practices teaching with a reduce number of pupils in a reduced period of time with emphasis on a narrow and specific teaching skill.

Definition

• “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)

• “Microteaching is a scaled down teaching encounter in which a teacher teaches a small unit to a group of five pupils for a small period of 5 to 20 minutes”

- L.C. Singh (1977)

Objectives of Microteaching

• 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.

Characteristic of Microteaching

• Microteaching is a highly individualized training device

• Microteaching is an experiment in the field of teacher education which has been incorporated in the practice teaching 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

• Practicing one skill at a time

• Reducing the class size to 5 – 10 pupil

• Reducing the duration of lesson to 5 – 10 minutes

• Limiting the content to a single concept

• immediate feedback helps in improving, fixing and motivating learning

• The student are providing immediate feedback in terms of peer group feedback, tape recorded/CCTV

• Microteaching advocates the choice and practice of one skill at a time

Steps of Micro-teaching

The Micro-teaching programme involves the following steps:

Step I- Particular skill to be practiced 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.

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 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 could not do well.

Step VI -In the light of the feed-back given by the supervisor, the teacher trainee replans 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.

Micro-teaching Cycle

The six steps generally involved in micro-teaching cycle are Plan , Teach , Feedback

Replan , Reteach , Refeedback. There can be variations as per requirement of the objective of practice session. These steps are diagrammatically represented in the following figure :

                           

 Diagramatic representation of a Micro-teaching Cycle

Plan : This involves the 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 pupils. The activities are planned in such a logical sequence where maximum application of the components of a skill is possible.

Teach : This involves the attempts of the teacher trainee to use the components of the skill in suitable situations coming up in the process of teaching-learning as per his/her planning of activitieó. If the situation is different and not as visualized(in the planning of tTe activities, the teacher should modify his/her behaviour ás per the demand of the situation in the Wlass. He should have the courage and confidence to handle the situation arising in the class effectively.

Feedback : This term refers to giving information to the teacher trainee about his performance. The information includes the points of strength as well as weakness relating to his/her performance. This helps the teacher trainee to improve upon his/her performance in the desired direction.

Re-plan : The teacher trainee replans his lesson incorporating the points of strength and removing the points not skillfully handled during teaching in the previous attempt either on the same topic or on another topic suiting to the teacher trainee for improvement.

Re-teach : This involves teaching to the same group of pupils if the topic is changed or to a different group of pupils if the topic is the same. This is done to remove boredom or monotony of the pupil. The teacher trainee teaches the class with renewed courage and confidence to perform better than the previous attempt.

Re-feedback : This is the most important component of Micro-teaching for behaviour modification of teacher trainee in the desired direction in each and every skill practice.

Time duration for the microteaching is;o Teach : 6 Minutes.

o Feedback : 6 Minutes.

o Re-Plan :12 Minutes.

o Re-Teach : 6 Minutes.

o Re-Feedback : 6 Minutes.

Phases of Micro-teachingThere are three phases of the Micro-teaching procedure which you have studied in the previous section of this Unit. They are :

1. Knowledge Acquisition Phase.

2. Skill Acquisition Phase.

3. Transfer Phase of Micro-teaching.

1. Knowledge Acquisition Phase (Pre-Active Phase)

It includes the activities such as;

Ø Provide knowledge about teaching skills.

Ø Observe the demonstration of teaching skill.

Ø Analyze and discuss the demonstration of the teaching skill.

2. Skill Acquisition Phase (Inter-active Phase)It includes the activities such as;

Ø Planning and preparation of micro lesson for a skill.

Ø Practicing the skill.

Ø Evaluation of the practiced skill (Feedback).

Ø Re-plan , Re-teach and re-feedback till the desired level of skill is achieved.

3. Transfer Phase (Post –Active Phase)

Ø Giving opportunity to use the mastered skill in normal class room teaching.

Ø Integrate the different skill practiced

Link Practice (Integration of Teaching Skills)When mastery has been attained in various skills ,the teacher trainee is allowed to teach the skills together. This separate training programme to integrate various isolated skills is known as ‘Link Practice’

ü It helps the trainee to transfer effectively all the skills learnt in the micro teaching sessions.

ü It helps to bridge the gap between training in isolated teaching skills and the real teaching situation faced by a student teacher.

ü Desirable Number of Pupils :15-20

ü Preferable Duration :20minutes.

ü Desirable Number of Skills :3-4 Skills

• Link practice or integration of skills can be done in two ways;

Integration in parts - 3 or 4 teaching skills are integrated and transferred them into a lesson of 15-20 minutes duration. And again 3 or 4 skills are integrated and are transferred all the skills to one lesson.

Integration as a whole - Student teacher integrates all the individual teaching skills by taking them as a whole and transferred them into a real teaching situation.

Merits of Microteaching

• It helps to develop and master important teaching skills.

• It helps to accomplish specific teacher competencies.

• It caters the need of individual differences in the teacher 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.

Limitations of Microteaching

• 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 very 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.