MEANING AND APPROACHES OF MICRO TEACHING

INTRODUCTION

Medical teachers most often do not receive a special training in pedagogic techniques, as it is usually not considered necessary for their recruitment or for an efficient continued performance. Their ability to teach therefore largely depends on self training, either by trial and error while teaching or by observation of colleagues, who may or may not be helpful examples.
Getting in front of students is a trying experience for a budding teacher. One may earnestly try to prepare him or herself: read books about teaching methods attend lectures and take courses on didactics. Yet, in theory everything seems much simpler than in practice. The complexity of a teaching situation can be overwhelming. To deal effectively with it, teachers must not only have a good knowledge of the subject in hand, but also some communication skills such as ability to observe, supervise, lead a discussion and pose questions.

What is microteaching?

Microteaching is an excellent way to build up skills and confidence, to experience a range of lecturing/tutoring styles and to learn and practice giving constructive feedback. Microteaching gives instructors an opportunity to safely put themselves “under the microscope” of a small group audience, but also to observe and comment on other people's performances. As a tool for teacher preparation, microteaching trains teaching behaviors and skills in small group settings aided by video-recordings. In a protected environment of friends and colleagues, teachers can try out a short piece of what they usually do with their students, and receive a well-intended collegial feedback. A microteaching session is a chance to adopt new teaching and learning strategies and, through assuming the student role, to get an insight into students' needs and expectations. It is a good time to learn from others and enrich one's own repertoire of teaching methods.
A microteaching session is much more comfortable than real classroom situations, because it eliminates pressure resulting from the length of the lecture, the scope and content of the matter to be conveyed, and the need to face large numbers of students, some of whom may be inattentive or even hostile. Another advantage of microteaching is that it provides skilled supervisors who can give support, lead the session in a proper direction and share some insights from the pedagogic sciences.

Approaches of Micro-Teaching

I. Preparation

Each participant of the session prepares a teaching segment. The presenter gives a brief statement of the general objectives of his/her presentation to be addressed. The group may be asked to focus their attention to particular elements of the lesson or of the teaching style. This may include pace, clarity of explanation, use of media, voice and body language, level of group interaction.

II. Presentation and Observation

Each participant presents his/her 10-minute teaching segment. He/she is allowed to use the media available. During the presentation, other participants serve as members of a supervisory team and take notes for the group feedback. Special assessment forms (Tables 1 and 2) may be helpful in standardizing the observation and feedback process. Each lesson is videotaped. Although the lesson is short, objective and procedures should be clear to generate useful discussions.

III. Videotape Viewing

The presenter watches the tape of his/her presentation and decides whether or not the objectives were accomplished. He/she also makes a list of strengths and suggestions for personal improvement. Then he/she again joins the supervisory team. In the meantime the supervisory team discussed and made conclusions about the teacher’s lecturing.

IV. Discussion and Analysis

While the presenter goes to another room to view the videotape, the supervisory team discusses and analyses the presentation. Patterns of teaching with evidence to support them are presented. The discussion should focus on the identification of recurrent behaviors of the presenter in the act of teaching. A few patterns are chosen for further discussions with the presenter. Only those patterns are selected which seem possible to alter and those which through emphasis or omission would greatly improve the teacher’s presentation. Objectives of the lesson plan are also examined to determine if they were met. It is understood that flexible teaching sometimes includes the modification and omission of objectives. Suggestions for improvement and alternative methods for presenting the lesson are formulated. Finally, a member of the supervisory team volunteers to be the speaker in giving the collected group feedback.

V. Giving and receiving feedback

Under the guidance of the professional supervisor, the presenter is first asked to present a self feed back of his mini lesson. With this new information taken into account, the supervisory team member who volunteered to be the speaker summarizes the comments generated during the analysis session. This part of the session is intended to provide positive reinforcement and constructive criticism. The presenter is encouraged to interact freely with the team so that all comments are clarified to his/her satisfaction.

The way in which feedback is given and received contributes to the learning process. Feedback should be honest and direct, constructive, focusing on the ways the presenter can improve, and containing personal observations.

Conclusion

Evaluation of teaching by students is becoming a common practice, and a constructive feedback could be an effective way to improve one's rating as a teacher. Even the experienced educators may sometimes reflect about strengths and weaknesses of their teaching style.

Furthermore, a teacher should be aware of how students perceive him or her. This perception is sometimes quite different from the teacher's self-image. It is difficult to self assess one’s own abilities and we benefit from colleagues’ feed back to recognize our strength and identify areas for possible improvement.

Reference

Allen, DW, Ryan KA. Microteaching. Massachusetts: Addision-Wesley Publishing Company; 1969.

Brown G. Microteaching - a programme of teaching skills. Philadelphia: Harper & Row Publishers Inc; 1975.

Brusling C. Microteaching: a concept in development. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell; 1974.

Van Ort S, Woodtli A, Hazzard ME. Microteaching: developing tomorrow's teachers. Nurse Educ. 1991;16:30-3.