What are the Advantages And Disadvantages Of Micro-teaching
Introduction
Microteaching is so-called since it is analogous to putting the teacher under a microscope so to say while he is teaching so that all faults in teaching methodology are brought into perspective for the observers to give constructive feedback. It eliminates some of the complexities of learning to teach in the classroom situation such as the pressure of length of the lecture, the scope and content of the matter to be conveyed, the need to teach for a relatively long duration of time (usually an hour) and the need to face large numbers of students, some of whom are hostile temperamentally. Microteaching also provides skilled supervision with an opportunity to get constructive feedback. To go back to the analogy of the swimmer, while classroom teaching is like learning to swim at the deeper end of the pool, microteaching is an opportunity to practice on the shallower and less risky side.
Advantages of micro-teaching
- It is a useful innovation in teacher education.
- It develops a greater awareness of individual differences.
- It helps the teacher trainee with many problems such as indiscipline and anxiety.
- It helps the teacher to prepare in a better way.
- It helps to reduce the strain on practicing school.
- It is quite suitable for refresher courses.
- It is quite helpful in the faster motivation of the students.
- It is concerned more with self-improvement and self-evaluation.
- It helps in creating more interest and enthusiasm for teaching.
- It helps to develop a greater understanding of teaching
- It generates self-confidence.
- It helps to develop a healthier attitude towards criticism.
- It makes teaching more enjoyable.
- It creates greater awareness of verbal and non-verbal communication.
- It helps in the proper planning of lessons.
- It is quite useful in teaching the same unit again.
What are the Advantages And Disadvantages Of Micro-teaching
Disadvantages of micro-teaching
- It fails in providing necessary training to teachers to teach in a normal classroom.
- A limited number of students fails to arouse interest in teaching of Commerce
- It is only of a limited application.
- They require more time for planning.
- Sometimes it becomes difficult for the teacher to divide a bigger unit into smaller units.
- Many times it creates administrative difficulties.
- It hampers the classroom climate.
- It is an artificial situation.
- It requires the supervisors to be more critical.
- It requires insightful supervisors.
The effect of micro-teaching on students
- Microteaching has several advantages. It focuses on sharpening and developing specific teaching skills and eliminating errors. It enables the understanding of behaviors important in classroom teaching. It increases the confidence of the learner teacher. It is a vehicle of continuous training applicable at all stages not only to teachers at the beginning of their career but also to more senior teachers. It enables the projection of model instructional skills. It provides expert supervision and constructive feedback and above all if provides for repeated practice without adverse consequences to the teacher or his students.
- The lack of adequate and in-depth awareness of the purpose of microteaching has led to criticisms that microteaching produces homogenized standard robots with set smiles and procedures. It is said to be (wrongly) a form of play-acting in unnatural surroundings and it is feared that the acquired skills may not be internalized. However, these criticisms lack substance. A lot depends on the motivation of the teacher to improve himself and the ability of the observer to give good feedback. Repeated experiments abroad have shown that over a period of time microteaching produces remarkable improvement in teaching skills.
Conclusion
Teaching skills are necessary tools teachers should possess for effectiveness in their job. Teaching the teacher candidates these skills is not simple hence the need for a microteaching environment that enables pre-service teachers to acquire them in the controlled laboratory setting. The result has far-reaching implications for the need for a well-equipped microteaching laboratory for microteaching programmes in teacher education institutions.
References
Alien D, Ryan K. Microteaching. Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company; 1969.
Brown G. Microteaching – A Programme of Teaching Skills. Philadelphia: Harper & Row Publishers Inc; 1975
Turnery G, Cairns LG, Williams G, Hatton N, Owens LC. Sydney Micro skills, series 1 handbook. Reinforcement, Basic Questioning, Variability. Sydney: Sydney University Press; 1973
What are the Advantages And Disadvantages Of Micro-teaching