So this week, I’d like to reflect on the whole process of microteaching, I think as a part of the Education faculty staff, you would find this type of feedback useful.
Microteaching is most definitely one of my favourite activities! I’m speaking from my experiences at Curtin where microteaching has been the most enjoyable part of this course above all other activities and exercises that prepare us for the teaching world. Why? There are many reasons, but put simply; it’s fun and practical! Think about how much time we spend and university detached from the schools we all want to teach in. Granted, we are given a chance to engage in practicum, but often, that transition into prac can be quite overwhelming, not to mention the fact that we still have to deal with university assessments at the same time. Incorporating teaching into the internal course makes a lot of sense.
This is what I get from engaging in microteaching lessons.
1. The lessons are short and manageable, they help me to focus on a single or at most, two activities and prepare for them properly. Often when we are teaching, we tend to have a lot on our minds regarding future lessons and hence, our lesson plans and preparation for activities may not be as solid as these dedicated microteaching sessions. Twenty minutes is a perfect amount of time for us to trial a lesson or activity and once we get familiar with hour the students respond to that activity, we can transfer that into our school teaching; with some knowledge of how things will work out.
2. Another reason why I find microteaching to be helpful for my learning is through exposure of other peoples skills! At the end the two weeks we spent on microteaching, I was able to see around 8 potential lessons that I could teach and I picked up many new ideas and resources. So not only does the teacher in the micro-lessons benefit from the experience, but also the students are the ones who pick up on new skills.
3. Microteaching is filmed, while this is may seem like a necessity for assessment purposes, having a recording of the lesson as a reference to see your progression is quite useful. I could see my progression from my first year of teach until now.
4. Feedback is something that teachers always need. Microteaching offers feedback on specific tasks and strategies used. Furthermore, the feedback given comes from multiple viewers and therefore, responses can be gauged from a larger group. While we are on prac, we do receive feedback from our cooperating teachers, however, that feedback is only from one person, and thus the ideas and responses given to us tend to be limited in that regard. The process of giving feedback is also a good way to engage in a lesson and analyse teaching styles. If we are asked to provide feedback to other teachers, then we are able to look at the lessons and see what can be improved for our own benefit.
5. I believe microteaching is a great morale booster. In an environment where you are teaching to your peers, the response and engagement may be better than real world situations, however, that response is needed to boost your confidence as a teacher. At the end of the day, these microteaching lessons are only a bridge to the real world class and so practice in this setting prepares us for the real world.
I believe Curtin has done well by incorporating microteaching into the curriculum. I would like to see more microteaching sessions allowed for this course and perhaps a unit dedicated to learning from microteaching and feedback from peers.
No comments:
Post a Comment