“In this blog, we will take you through the meaning as well as the importance of microteaching.”
We can never stress enough the importance of good teachers. Teachers are the backbone of any nation. They are the ones who impart education and shape young minds. So, if they are not qualified or efficient enough, it’s sure to negatively impact the minds they have under their care.
To be deemed qualified to undertake the learning process, a teacher needs to have:
- In-depth subject knowledge
- The right teaching skills
Knowledge, the aspiring teachers acquire as students and presentation skills, they develop through microteaching.
GOT YOUR CONTENT READY? GRAPHY IS ALL YOU NEED TO GET STARTED!
According to microteaching, teaching shouldn’t be a trial and error method. When teachers enter the classroom, they should implement an effective learning process. This leaves no scope for errors of any kind.
But how do you ensure that?
Through microteaching.
To help you get a better picture, we at Graphy will take you through the importance of microteaching. But before we proceed to the importance, let’s understand the meaning of it.
Let’s get started.
Table of Contents
Understanding microteaching: what it is and its importance
What is microteaching?
Microteaching is a method developed in the 1960s by Professor Dwight W. Allen. It’s a skill development program meant to help teachers develop their teaching skills. Here, learning takes place in a simulated environment outside of the classroom.
Microteaching is all about preparing a training ground for prospective teachers. A place where they could enhance their basic teaching skills and evolve as a teacher.
GOT YOUR CONTENT READY? GRAPHY IS ALL YOU NEED TO GET STARTED!
In microteaching, teachers develop their teaching skills through real-life teaching experiences. Every teacher comes from a different background. The kind of education they received might or might not have given them the practical experience required to excel as a teacher.
As we mentioned before, having bookish knowledge is one aspect of effective teaching. Verbal and non-verbal skills like presentation skills and appropriate body language are also required. Moreover, microteaching makes space for the development of all such micro-skills.
Now comes the question: how is microteaching imparted? What is the method involved? What is the importance of microteaching? Let’s find an answer to these questions now.
Microteaching: Methodology
- In microteaching, a group of novice teachers gets together under the guidance of a supervisor and together creates a real-life teaching environment.
- Each participant takes up the role of the teacher and presents a 10-minute long lecture. Here, the rest of the participants would imitate the role of “students” who are at the receiving end.
- The session ends with a review of the teaching method adopted by the “teacher.” This includes their presentation skills, topics covered, and body language. Both the “students” and the supervisor take part in it.
These microteaching sessions followed a 2+2 performance appraisal system. Here, the review teams give 2 compliments and 2 suggestions as feedback. It gives each participant a scope for improvisation.
GOT YOUR CONTENT READY? GRAPHY IS ALL YOU NEED TO GET STARTED!
A basic microteaching procedure in a teacher training program today:
- Defining the micro-skills that a teacher should have and creating a proper plan to acquire those skills.
- A demonstration to help participants understand the basics of an effective teaching process.
- Based on the demonstration, the participants plan a small lesson and then present it in front of the expert and other participants.
- The teaching method accepted by the participant is then discussed and reviewed by the supervisor.
- The participant replans the lesson while incorporating the feedback and then presents the same lesson to another group of “students”. This happens under the guidance of the same supervisor.
- Another round of discussion takes place and this process goes on until the teacher makes the desired progress.
The importance of microteaching
Now, let’s come to the importance of microteaching. Today, microteaching is a method adopted by teacher training programs across the world. Why? because it is effective in helping the participants develop their teaching skills.
A teacher’s skills should be second to none. And to ensure that teachers arrive in the classroom all-equipped to efficiently undertake the learning process, microteaching can go a long way.
To get a clearer picture, let’s have a closer look at the importance of microteaching.
GOT YOUR CONTENT READY? GRAPHY IS ALL YOU NEED TO GET STARTED!
Help develop verbal and non-verbal teaching skills
Microteaching helps develop the skills that would help a teacher deliver effective lessons. The main intent of microteaching is to help novice teachers develop their basic teaching skills and arrive at an effective teaching method that best caters to the needs of their students.
The basic teaching skills covered by microteaching are:
- Introduction skills: To effectively capture the attention of students.
- Explanation skills: To ensure that they can easily explain the topics.
- Questioning skills: To be able to test the skills/knowledge of students.
- Stimulus variation: Improvise to keep the students engaged.
- Reinforcement skills: To encourage basic responses from the students.
- Demonstration skills: To make learning easy and engaging for students.
- Communication skills: How to interact with the students.
Microteaching targets each of these skills individually and ensures that by the end of the program, the aspiring teachers have acquired them all.
GOT YOUR CONTENT READY? GRAPHY IS ALL YOU NEED TO GET STARTED!
Boosts their confidence level
The one important quality of a teacher is confidence. If they are not confident in the classroom, they cannot create an effective learning environment. And microteaching helps boost the confidence level of all aspiring teachers.
Microteaching does it in two ways:
- When you are confident in your skills, it radiates in the way you present yourself. So, as microteaching helps develop basic teaching skills, it boosts the confidence level of the participants.
- As microteaching involves regular presentations, it helps them overcome their fears or insecurities. So, they can present the lectures more confidently.
As we already mentioned, microteaching creates a simulated environment where the teachers can practice, learn, and polish their skills. So, it creates the perfect learning space where they can develop their skills and boost their confidence level.
Improves the overall outlook of the teachers
Microteaching helps all aspiring teachers understand the importance of an effective teaching method. Only when a teacher is well-versed in the relevant teaching method can they teach well. It helps them develop their persona as a teacher. Also, it makes them aware of the responsibility they hold.
Microteaching lessons also help the participants develop a positive attitude.
- It teaches them how to stand strong against criticism.
- How to use constructive ones to pave the way for their growth.
So, microteaching allows all future potential teachers to stand up to the task they are to perform.
GOT YOUR CONTENT READY? GRAPHY IS ALL YOU NEED TO GET STARTED!
Verse teachers in the importance of lesson planning
A teacher should never ignore the importance of effective lesson planning. Every good lesson begins with efficient planning. This is exactly the idea that microteaching introduces them to.
As we mentioned earlier, in microteaching, lesson planning always comes before lecture delivery. And once the participant receives the feedback, the lessons are re-planned. This cycle continues until the participant satisfies the supervisor with the lecture.
Microteaching introduces the participants to the importance of lesson planning. Also, how lesson planning is the backbone of effective teaching. Thus, once they keep on practicing it during their microteaching lessons, it will always be a part of their routine.
Promotes learning through practice
The key difference between an efficient and an inefficient teacher is practical skills. Your hold over the subject matter is only secondary. If you are unable to present it in a language that is easy to understand, you can never deliver an effective lesson.
Presentation skills are not something that you learn through books or in a day, but through constant practice. And microteaching provides the participants ample space for this.
GOT YOUR CONTENT READY? GRAPHY IS ALL YOU NEED TO GET STARTED!
Moreover, when you practice something daily, there are more chances of you being able to craft an effective method. You:
- Plan
- Present
- Receive feedback
- Implement them
- Experiment
All these steps help you learn through practice and curate your unique teaching method.
To sum it up,
This is everything you need to know about microteaching. And by now, you must know how effective this method is in developing the hard and soft skills of a teacher. So, if you are a teacher, make sure to take up a course in microteaching and take a step towards becoming the best teacher out there.
Build a successful career as an online educator with Graphy!
If you are an educator, going online is how you can ensure that your course reaches as many people as possible. But for that, you need to build your online course and launch it on the right platform. So, are you an online course creator on the lookout for the right platform to build and launch your course? If so, your search ends with Graphy. We have all you need to build a trend-worthy course. From in-built marketing tools and customizable course-building options to integrated marketing getaways, you get access to it all with Graphy.
GOT YOUR CONTENT READY? GRAPHY IS ALL YOU NEED TO GET STARTED!
So, choose us as your online course platform and build, launch, and market your online course with us most conveniently and efficiently.
