MICRO-TEACHING (অনু শিক্ষণ)
- Dr Aniruddha Burmon
Associate Professor (English)
B. Ed Section
University BT & Evening College
Cooch Behar
.
Teaching can be considered both as an art and science. There are some people who may be considered as born teachers. For such teachers teaching is an art. There are again some people who need to be trained. In this case teaching can be considered as a science. If considered as science, teaching can be divided into different components or teaching skills. These skills may be practised separately in order to develop them. Later, all these skills may be integrated and used in a single class. A list of these skills is given at the end.
Teaching may also be looked at from another angle. It may be said that there are two approaches to teaching, if teaching is considered as a science. One is the Hardware approach and the other is the Software approach. The Hardware approach is where the teacher uses hardware teaching aids to teach. The software approach is the most important approach. Here the basic teaching skills are used. But each is complementary of the other. Without the Software approach the Hardware approach may appear not to be really effective.
In Hardware the teaching aids can be divided into three types Audio, Visual and Audio-visual aids. Audio aids are those which produce sounds only, like Radio, Cassette Player, Record Player, etc. Visual aids are those which show only visuals only, like Slide Projector, Over-head Projector etc. Audio-Visual aids are those which produce both sound and visual, like Television, Computer, etc. These days we can use Cell Phones, Internet, Fax, Pager, Video Camera, Tele Conferencing, Video Conferencing, etc.
Microteaching has been considered to be an effective technique for development of teaching skills in teachers. The technique has been refined over a period of over four decades now. Microteaching is like the simulation technique for developing skills. This approach is used to shape the teachers behaviour on an effective feedback mechanism.
TEACHING SKILLS
Teaching can be broken down to different skills. I have identified some twenty skills here. There may be a few more. The twenty skills are as follows:
(শিক্ষণ কৌশল/দক্ষতা)
Skill of Probing Questioning (অনুসন্ধানমূলক প্রশ্নন করনের কৌশল/দক্ষতা)
Skill of Response Management (Ešl f¢lQ¡me¡l L±nm/cra¡)
Skill of Reinforcement (Evp¡qc¡el L±nm/cra¡)
Skill of Stimulus Variation (EŸ£fL f¢lhaÑel L±nm/cra¡)
Skill of Explaining (hÉ¡MÉ¡ Llel L±nm/cra¡)
Skill of Illustrating with Examples (Ec¡qle hÉ¡hq¡ll L±nm/cra¡)
Skill of Writing Instructional Objectives (¢nrZl EnÉ ¢mMel L±nm/cra¡)
Skill of Introducing a Lesson (Ae¤n£m¢e Aha¡le¡l L±nm/cra¡)
Skill of Using the Chalkboard (QL h¡XÑ hÉ¡hq¡ll L±nm/cra¡)
Skill of Using Audio-Visual Aids (¢nr¡j§mL fËc£fe/¢nr¡ pq¡uL EfLle hÉ¡hq¡ll
L±nm/cra¡)
Skill of Closure (BhÜ Llel L±nm/cra¡)
Skill of Lecturing (h²«a¡ c¡el L±nm/cra¡)
Skill of Classroom Management and Organization (nËe£ f¢lQ¡me¡l L±nm/cra¡)
Skill of Setting Induction (AhÙÛ¡ pª¢ø Llel L±nm/cra¡)
Skill of Silence and Non-Verbal Cues (Ù¹ìa¡ J i¡o¡q£ea¡ hÉ¡hq¡l Llel L±nm/cra¡)
Skill of Frequency in Questioning (fËnÀel â¥aa¡ ¢edÑ¡lZl L±nm/cra¡)
Skill of Recognizing Attentive Behaviour (je¡k¡Nj§mL BQle ¢eZÑul L±nm/cra¡)
Skill of Increasing Pupil Participation (¢nr¡bÑ£cl AwnNËqe Ll¡e¡l L±nm/cra¡)
Skill for Pacing Lesson According to Necessity of Students and Difficulty
level (¢nr¡bÑ£cl Hhw L¡¢WeÉj¡el fËu¡Se£ua¡ Ae¤k¡u£ Ae¤¢nm¢el â¥aa¡ ¢edÑ¡lel L±nm/cra¡)
Skill of Planned Repetition (f¢lL¢Òfai¡h f§el¡hª¢ Ll¡l L±nm/cra¡)
Out of these twenty/twenty-one teaching skills five/six are considered to be Core-Teaching Skills or most important teaching skills. These skills are Skill of Probing Questioning, Skills of Response Management, Skill of Reinforcement, Skill of Stimulus Variation, Skill of Explaining and Skill of Illustrating with Examples.
As the term itself indicates, microteaching is a scaled down teaching in which the teacher teaches as short lesson to a small group of students for a short period. One teaching skill is practised at a time. Thus, microteaching is a miniature form of teaching in which teaching is scaled down in terms of class size, time, complexity, and activities with focus on developing a specific teaching skill. Microteaching is carried under controlled laboratory or clinical situation.
It is a scaled-down approach. The trainee practices in one skill. The content is limited to one or two concepts. S/he teaches for about six minutes. The fellow trainees numbering about 10-12 act as pupils, out of which two trainees act as observers and record their observations in an Observation Schedule. One trainee acts as a Time-keeper. Observers note their observations in the Observation Sheets by means of tallies per skill. Later on, they put up their observations on the board for the teacher-trainee to see for himself/herself. Comments and suggestions may also be made by other trainees and the supervisor. Feedback may also be given with the help of a video tape, if the teaching is recorded in a video camera. In this case the trainee can watch his/her own class and match the comments of the peers or the supervisor and rectify the shortcomings. The trainee is allowed to re-plan the lesson and re-teach for another two minutes.
The whole activity may be represented graphically with the help of the following model:
Practice in one skill
Content limited to one or two concepts
The trainee teaches for about six minutes
The fellow trainees numbering about 10-12 act as pupils
Two trainees act as observers and record their observations in an Observation Schedule
One trainee acts as a Time-keeper
Comments and suggestions may also be made by other trainees and the supervisor
Feedback may also be given with the help of a video tape/CD, if the teaching is recorded in a video camera
The trainee is allowed to re-plan the lesson and re-teach for another two minutes
The whole process of microteaching can be diagrammatically represented as follows:
If you analyze microteaching in the broader context, you will find that microteaching provides opportunities to the teacher trainee to teach a specific skill and get immediate feedback on his/her performance. Thus, the trainee first teaches (i.e., displays certain behaviours) and then analyses what he/she has done in terms of acquiring the teaching skills. The cycle of micro-teaching continues till the necessary skills required by the profession (say teaching in this case) are required in entirety. The provision of getting feedback about their performance immediately after completion of the lesson is a boon to the teacher trainees.
Microteaching is an effective approach, which leads one towards studying the process of human learning is general and learning of teaching skills in particular. It provides excellent opportunity to investigate the variables, which affect human learning.
CORE-TEACHING SKILLS (j§m ¢nrZ L±nm/cra¡)
Some of the teaching skills such as questioning, explaining, reinforcing, directing the students etc. are extensively used by all teachers. These skills, usually known as core-teaching skills, are an important concern of teacher educators. There is a long list of core skills and sub-skills in teaching. We shall confine our discussion to five broad core skills.
1. Skill of Probing Questioning (Ae¤på¡ej§mL fËnÀe Llelý L±nm/cra¡)/ Skill of Response Management (El f¢lQ¡me¡l L±nm/cra¡)
Questioning is a tool to make the teaching-learning process livelier and more participatory. Questions can stimulate thinking among students. However, this is possible only when the questions are of good quality. In fact construction of good question is not an easy task. What do we mean by a good question in the context of the teaching-learning process? A good question forces the students to think for themselves and apply the knowledge they have acquired to solve the problems. The question provides the student to lead to proceed further in his learning. A good question should help the students understand and retain knowledge being presented by the teacher; it should help them achieve the pre-determined objectives.
The question should be appropriately structured i.e., they should be concise, clear, specific and grammatically correct. The intention of the teacher (what he expects from the students) should be explicit in the questions asked. You, therefore, should use just as many words in the question as are necessary. The question should not have telegraphic language either. Do not use jargons which usually make the question difficult and ambiguous. The purpose of asking questions is not to confuse the students. The questions should not disturb the learners sequence of thought.
There are Higher Order Questions & Lower Order Questions. Lower Order Questions are those which take care of the cognitive domain. These questions are at the lowest rung of Blooms taxonomy. They only test the memory skills of the learners. Higher Order Questions take care of domains which are placed at a higher level. These questions mainly try to increase the critical awareness of the learners.
Prompting Technique a teacher prompts when he/she gives clues or hints his students by asking them leading questions. The objective of using these devices is to help the student answer the question correctly and adequately by himself/herself. Thus skill allows the teacher to probe the students knowledge by prompting him/her. You may use prompting when your student has difficulty in answering the question correctly. Prompting questions consist of a series of questions which help the student develop the correct answer. The teacher should begin prompting the student from what he knows and then proceed towards the standard response. Prompts can thus help your pupil to arrive at the correct response by means of a systematic and step-by-step questioning process.
Seeking further information technique
If the initial response of a pupil is either incomplete or partially correct then the teacher elicits more information and meaning or seeks further clarification from the pupil by asking questions.
Refocusing technique (f§ecÑ«¢ø BLoÑZl L±nm/cra¡)
This technique is generally used when the pupil gives a correct response. The teacher refocuses class attention to a related issue or a topic already covered in the class. The pupil views his response in relation to other similar situations.
Redirection technique
This involves putting or directing the same question to several pupils for response. This is generally done for the purpose of probing and for increasing pupil participation.
Increasing critical awareness technique
This involves asking how and why of a completely correct or expected response, for the purpose of seeking increased critical awareness in the pupil. This technique elicits a rationale for the pupils initial response.
Observation Schedule for the Skill of Probing Questioning
Name of the teacher trainee..Roll No..
Topic.Date...
Time duration...Teach/Reteach
Name of supervisor..
Components Tallies
Prompting .
Seeking further information .
Refocussing .
Redirection .
Increasing Critical Awareness .
Comments, if any:-
N.B.: This Observation Schedule is used by trainee observers to record the number of attempts that have been made by a trainee in a Micro-Teaching Class.Normally there are two observers. The observation given by the observers are wrotten on the chalkboard and the merits and deficiencies are discussed.
Skill of Reinforcement (Evp¡qc¡el L±nm/cra¡)
This skill involves the teacher to use more and more positive reinforcers and to decrease the use of negative reinforcers so that pupils participation in the class is maximized.
Positive verbal reinforcement
It includes reinforcement through various verbal expression in the form of teacher statements, communication, the pupil-teachers acceptance of students ideas. Feeling or making encouraging remarks like good, right, yes, carry on, etc. or using extra verbal cues or expression like hm-hm, uh-uh etc.
Positive non-verbal reinforcement
It includes non-verbal expressions like nodding of head, smiling, moving towards the responding pupil, or any other non-verbal (without words) action indicating pleasure at the pupils response.
Negative verbal reinforcement
This type of reinforcement like no, not correct, wrong, etc. affects learning negatively and deceases the motivation of the pupils. The negative remarks of this type should be avoided if pupils are to participate more in the class. (Sentences like You are not good etc, are included in Negative Verbal Reinforcement).
Negative non-verbal reinforcement
It includes non-verbal cues like frowning, staring looking angrily at the responding pupil.
Repeating & rephrasing
Generally a teacher repeats a correct answer or writes it on the Black Board. If the answer is partly correct, the teacher rephrases it.
Writing pupil answer
In some cases the students answer is written on the Blackboard, by the teacher for the benefit of the class.
Wrong use of reinforcement
It includes instances where no reinforcement was given, but could have been given.
Inappropriate use of reinforcement
It includes encouraging remarks made not according to the quality of the response; using same type of reinforcer for every response.
Observation Schedule for the Skill of Reinforcement
Name of the teacher trainee..Roll No..
Topic.Date...
Time duration..Teach/Reteach
Name of Supervisor.
Components Tallies
Positive verbal reinforcement
Positive non-verbal reinforcement
Negative verbal reinforcement
Negative non-verbal reinforcement
Repeating & rephrasing
Writing pupil answer
Wrong use of reinforcement …
Inappropriate use of reinforcement
Comments, if any:-
Skill of Stimulus Variation (E£fL f¢lhaÑel L±nm/cra¡)
The skill of Stimulus Variation can be defined as deliberate change in the attention drawing behaviours of the teacher in order to secure and sustain pupils attention towards the lesson at high level.
Movements
This includes movement from one place to another place to encourage useful shifts for attention. For example, the teacher moves towards the board to write something on it moves towards the back benches to see what pupils at the back are doing moves from the table to remove boredom.
Gestures
Gestures include head, hand and body movements to draw pupils attention to emphasize importance; to express emotion or to indicate shape, size or movements etc.
Change in speech pattern
It includes sudden or radical change in tone, volume or speed of the teachers speech (including strong emphasis on particular words or phrases) for drawing attention of the pupils.
Focussing
This includes
Verbal focussing like listen carefully to this, look carefully to this, look at the diagram etc to focus pupils attention to a particular point.
Gestural focussing like gestures (head, hand and body movement) to focus pupils attention to a particular point in the lesson.
Verbal and gestural focussing includes simultaneous use of verbal and gestural focussing which can be done by pointing to a figure and saying verbally look at this figure.
Change in interaction style
This includes three styles of interaction among pupils and teacher
teacher-pupil or teacher-group interaction
teacher-pupil interaction
pupil-pupil interaction
Pausing
Pausing includes short deliberate intervals of silence used while conveying information or explaining in order to sustain pupils attention.
Oral-visual switching
This includes change in the medium Oral, Visual or Oral-Visual through which information is conveyed to pupils.
Observation Schedule for the Skill of Stimulus Variation
Name of the teacher trainee..Roll No..
Topic.Date...
Time duration..Teach/Reteach
Name of Supervisor.
Components Tallies
Movements .
Gestures .
Change in speech pattern .
Focussing .
Change in interaction style .
Pausing .
Oral-visual switching .
Comments, if any:-
Skill of Explaining (hÉ¡MÉ¡ Llel L±nm/cra¡)
Generally a teacher is said to be explaining when he is describing how, why and sometimes what of a concept, phenomenon, event or condition.
Components of the Skills:
The skill of Explaining involves increasing desirable behaviours and avoiding undesirable behaviours mentioned below:
Desirable behaviours
Explaining links
This involves using linking words and phrases in the statement of an explanation clearer by bringing continuity in the statement used and they give clue to what the teacher is explaining. They are generally conjunctions and prepositions, which explicitly indicate the causes, consequences, time sequences, means or purposes of an event, concept, action or condition.
Beginning statement(s)
Beginning statements are the introductory statements made before an explanation for operating mental readiness on the part of pupils to listen to what is going to be explained.
Concluding statements (BhÜ Llel L±nm/cra¡)
Concluding statements are the statements summarizing the main points in the explanation, stated after the explanation ends.
Questions to test pupils understanding
This involves putting questions to pupils to test whether or not they have understood what has been explained.
Undesirable behaviours
Irrelevant statements
A statement becomes irrelevant when it is not related to and does not contribute to the understanding of what is being explained.
Lacking in continuity
This refers to break in sequence of ideas or information presented during explaining.
Inappropriate vocabulary
This involves using terms unknown to most of the pupils of the particular group and grade level.
Lacking in fluency
It occurs when the teacher speaks half sentences or reformulates in the midway of a sentence or a statement.
Vague words and phrases
This involves using words and phrases which indicate that the teacher is failing to make something explicit.
Observation Schedule for the Skill of Explaining
Name of the teacher trainees..Roll No..
Topic.Date…
Time duration...Teach/Reteach
Name of Supervisor
Components Tallies
Desirable behaviours
Explaining links
Beginning statement(s)
Concluding statements
Questions to test pupils understanding
Undesirable behaviours
Irrelevant statements
Lacking in continuity
Inappropriate vocabulary
Lacking in fluency
Vague words and phrases
Comments, if any:-
Skill of Illustrating with examples (Ec¡qle hÉ¡hq¡ll L±nm/cra¡)
The Skill of illustrating with Examples involves describing and idea, concept or principle by using various types of examples:
Components:
Formulating simple examples (pqS Ec¡qle)
Simple example is one that is related to the previous knowledge of pupils which can be judged from their participation.
Formulating examples relevant to the rule or concepts
An example is said to be relevant to a rule or concept can be applied to it.
Formulating interesting examples (BLoÑZ£u Ec¡qle)
An example is said to be interesting if it can arouse curiously and interest in pupils and this can be judged by observing attending behaviour of pupils.
Using appropriate media for examples (Efk¤² EfLlel hÉ¡hq¡l)
Appropriateness of media refers to its stability to age level, grade level, and maturity level and to the unit taught. It can be a) Verbal and b) Non-verbal
Using inductive-deductive approach (Blq£/Ahlq£ fÜ¢al hÉ¡hq¡l)
This involves teacher eliciting examples related to the concept or rule to clarify it, pupils stating concept or rule and teachers seeking examples from pupils for verifying their understanding.
Observation Schedule for the Skill of Illustrating with examples
Name of the teacher..Roll No....
Topic.Date..
Time duration..Teach/Reteach
Name of Supervisor
Components Tallies
Simple examples
Examples relevant to the rule or concepts
Interesting examples
Using appropriate media for examples
Using inductive-deductive approach
Comments, if any:-
