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Teaching isn’t an easy profession. Teachers must possess the skills necessary to teach young students and keep them engaged and attentive throughout a class. The last few years have seen some significant changes in the contents of teaching courses. With the advent of Covid-19, schools resorted to online classes. This was a dramatic change that took place all over the world.
Teaching courses come with a test that aspiring teachers must clear to become teachers. Trainee teachers are evaluated based on certain skills that they should possess to become teachers. Examiners, students, externals and co-teachers are present to evaluate them. This test is known as micro-teaching. Micro-teaching skills are essential in teacher training courses. These skills help determine an aspirant’s future. There are different types of micro-teaching skills that to-be teachers must learn to become successful.
In this article, we’ll talk about teaching skills in micro-teaching and why they’re essential.
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Why Are Micro-Teaching Skills Important?
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What Are The Skills In Micro-Teaching?
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Types Of Micro-Teaching Skills
Why Are Micro-Teaching Skills Important?
The different types of micro-teaching skills play a significant role in the professional development of teachers. Here are a few points why micro-teaching skills are essential:
- Trainee teachers get feedback from video records, supervisors or peers directly, which helps them improve and develop their skills
- Microteaching allows a trainee teacher to choose a lesson or topic that they feel comfortable teaching. Microteaching doesn’t affect the students in any way if a teacher fails to teach effectively
- Microteaching helps teachers prepare themselves well in advance and get themselves ready to face a real classroom. Through micro-teaching skills training, teachers learn to become more confident and efficient before they venture into the real world of teaching
Micro-teaching techniques play a critical role in developing knowledge and attitude in teachers, but most importantly, it equips teachers with certain essential skills. These skills are essential for the modern classroom.
What Are The Skills In Micro-Teaching?
If you’re wondering what are the skills in micro-teaching, take a look at the list below. Different types of micro-teaching skills are essential for a trainee to become a teacher. Some of the microlearning skills are as follows:
- The skill of introduction
- The skill of explaining
- The skill of questioning
- The skill of stimulus variation
- The skill of reinforcement
- The skill of illustration
- The skill of blackboard writing
- The skill of achieving closure
- The skill of demonstration
Now that you’ve got a basic idea of the skills in micro-teaching, let’s dive deeper into each one of them.
Types Of Micro-Teaching Skills
The skills that come together to make micro teaching effective are several in number. The most prominent of them are:
1. The Skill Of Introduction
First on the list of the kinds of micro-teaching skills is the skill of introduction. Teachers must possess the skill of giving students a great introduction before they begin teaching a lesson or topic. It’s an art that helps engage students and tell them exactly what they can expect from a lesson. Teachers must provide their students with a framework that they can work upon. It’s a great way to ensure that students understand what a topic or lesson is about. Through the introduction skill, teachers can use interesting or engaging words to get their students hooked on and interested in a topic from the very beginning. Without a good introduction, teachers won’t be able to capture their students’ attention.
Micro-teaching skills of introduction involve using previous student knowledge and the right device while trying to introduce a lesson. Teachers must avoid any irrelevant statements or discontinuity.
The major elements of micro-teaching skills of introduction are:
- Maximum use of students’ previous knowledge
- Using the appropriate device
- Maintaining continuity
- Relevant statements
2. The Skill Of Explaining
Next on the list of teaching skills in microteaching is the skill of explanation. The skill of explanation is an intellectual activity that teachers must possess when it comes to micro-teaching skills. Ideas, phenomena and concepts must be communicated well to students to help them understand a topic well. Teachers should give examples by highlighting relationships among different events and ideas.
Teachers must be able to relate facts with other sets of facts to help promote better understanding. Teachers need to learn microlearning skills like explaining to make students understand concepts and ideas properly. A teacher who can explain well is able to make a topic or lesson effective.
3. The Skill Of Questioning
The art of questioning is another important micro-teaching skill that teachers must have. The questioning skill is a technique that helps put meaningful, relevant, specific, clear and precise questions to students. Questioning is a skill used to test the understanding and knowledge of students. By using the skill of questioning, teachers can judge students’ knowledge and get a better understanding of whether students have understood a particular topic. It also helps teachers try out different ways of teaching to make students understand topics faster. After questioning, if a teacher realizes that students haven’t understood a topic well, they can try to explain things easier for a better grasp.
4. The Skill Of Stimulus Variation
Teaching skills in microteaching are essential to succeed as a teacher. The skill of stimulus variation is a teaching technique used to keep students engaged in a topic or lesson by changing the teaching behavior. It’s used to capture a student’s attention by using different stimuli in the class for maximum response.
According to Dr Sneha Joshi, “A stimulus is something that evokes a functional reaction in tissues. It has a touching effect on the learner. What to change, when to change and how to change requires skill on the part of the teacher for securing and sustaining attention at a high level. Such a skill is named as the skill of stimulus variation.”
The main elements of stimulus variation skills are
- Movement
- Gesture
- Change in speech pattern
- Focusing
- Change in interaction style
- Oral-visual switching
- Pausing
- Students’ active participation
5. The Skill Of Reinforcement
The skill of reinforcement is another important component of microlearning skills. Teachers use this skill to encourage responses from their students using non-verbal actions, such as nods and smiles, or verbal praises. It’s a response technique based on the concept of feedback. The reinforcement skill helps to reinforce student behavior using positive reinforcers rather than negative ones for maximum participation.
6. The Skill Of Illustration
The skill of illustration is also known as the skill of interpretation. It’s used when the skill of explanation doesn’t work. When a teacher fails to make their students understand a concept with the skill of explanation, they must use the skill of illustration. Through illustration, they can motivate and stimulate their students to help them grasp the ideas and concepts being taught. A teacher may also use specific and personal examples to illustrate a topic for better understanding.
7. The Skill Of Blackboard Writing
Blackboard writing is another essential skill of micro-teaching. It’s used to shift focus, grab attention and highlight vital terms and concepts. Teachers can use the skill of blackboard writing to draw attention. It’s a good technique that teachers can use to bring about clearness in concepts and perceptions. It also helps add variety to a lesson.
8. The Skill Of Achieving Closure
Just like the skill of introduction, the skill of achieving closure is also essential. Introducing a topic or lesson is easy, but giving a good closure to a topic can sometimes be tricky. Teachers should ensure they’re closing a topic systematically and clearly. They must give enough assignments to their students to help them remember the topic or lesson well without overburdening them.
9. The Skill Of Demonstration
Demonstration in teaching helps make things meaningful and simpler for students. It helps teachers link learning with real-life situations. Demonstration describes and explains principles, concepts and ideas to students by showing them devices, experiments or specimens. It helps create a lively environment in the classroom.
Micro-teaching skills help determine whether teachers are trained and well-groomed to carry out their duties effectively. They’re a replica of real-life classroom teaching and personality development training given to aspiring teachers. Teaching skills in micro-teaching help teachers develop self-confidence, speech modulation and expressive abilities. They learn time management, improve body language, imbibe a positive attitude and improve communication skills, which are very important when taking up teaching as a profession.
Harappa’s Inspiring Faculty Program enriches a teacher or a trainer’s ability to design outcome-oriented course plans for inquiry-based learning. The program helps in planning authentic assessments to apply knowledge in real-world contexts and sharpens communication skills to build an impactful classroom presence.
