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| LETTER TO EDITOR |
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| Year : 2013 | Volume
: 27
| Issue : 2 | Page : 162 |
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Microteaching: Inculcating teaching skills in tomorrow's teachers
Saurabh Ram Bihari Lal Shrivastava, Prateek Saurabh Shrivastava, Jegadeesh Ramasamy
Department of Community Medicine, Shri Sathya Sai Medical College and Research Institute, Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu, India
| Date of Web Publication | 19-Nov-2013 |
Correspondence Address:
Saurabh Ram Bihari Lal Shrivastava
Department of Community Medicine, Shri Sathya Sai Medical College and Research Institute, Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/0972-4958.121609
How to cite this article:
Shrivastava SB, Shrivastava PS, Ramasamy J. Microteaching: Inculcating teaching skills in tomorrow's teachers. J Med Soc 2013;27:162 |
Sir,
Healthcare providers, especially doctors, have realized that their education does not make them competent enough for acquiring teaching skills. However, the current health status/needs demand that healthcare professionals should be taught teaching methods/skills and trained effectively for the betterment of the community. [1]
Microteaching is a scaled-down, simulated teaching encounter designed for the training of student trainees for empowering them with the teaching skills. Its objective is to provide an opportunity for the teachers/trainees to learn and assimilate new teaching skills under controlled conditions; to assist trainee teachers in developing simple, single-concept lessons in any topic, and also to help teachers/trainees in building their self-confidence. [2]
Microteaching is an individualized training technique; it is micro in the sense that it scales down the complexities of real teaching (viz. number of students/duration of session/content of the topic), advocates practicing one skill at a time, emphasizes on immediate feedback to the teacher trainee (viz. two positive remarks and two areas where improvement is desired) by the audience and thus helps in improving, fixing, and motivating effective learning. Thus, microteaching aids teacher trainee in practicing and acquiring the teaching skill in defined, observable, measurable and controlled manner. [1] Microteaching has some inherent demerits associated such as it is skill oriented; no emphasis on content; time consuming technique so not feasible for practicing for all; covers only a few specific skills; and it is not an exact simulation of classroom teaching. [1],[2]
Overall microteaching consists of five phases namely, a briefing phase focusing on orientation of the students/countering stage fear/building self-confidence, a preparation phase where students formulate their topic which they prefer to present using an identified basic skill, a teaching stage in which students deliver their lessons, review by the class and supervisor and critical appraisal with the help of two positive and two negative feedback, and finally, preparation for the next session or teaching of the same skill. [2],[3]
In a study to record the experiences of lecturers and students pertaining to the use of microteaching as a teaching strategy it was reported as a valuable teaching methodology in nurse education. [3] It has also been recognized that microteaching and immediate feedback helps in improvement of presentation skills of teachers. [4] Nevertheless, microteaching has been identified as a tool for improving simultaneous communication in classrooms for hearing impaired students. [5]
To conclude, microteaching helps teacher in improving both the content and methods of teaching and develop specific teaching skills such as questioning, the use of examples to make lessons more interesting, effective reinforcement techniques. Immediate, focused feedback and encouragement, combined with the opportunity to practice the suggested improvements in the same training session are the foundations of the microteaching protocol.
| Acknowledgment | |  |
We sincerely acknowledge Dr. Swayam Jothi, Professor and Head, Department of Anatomy, Shri Sathya Sai Medical College and Research Institute, for her guidance and orientation about the intricacies involved in microteaching especially in undergraduate medical education.
| References | | |
| 1. | Sana EA. Improving teaching through microteaching. Ann Acad Med Singapore 2007;36:452-3. 
[PUBMED] |
| 2. | Kamboj M, Kamboj P, George J, Jha UK. Microteaching in dental education. J Dent Educ 2010;74:1243-4.
[PUBMED] |
| 3. | Higgins A, Nicholl H. The experiences of lecturers and students in the use of microteaching as a teaching strategy. Nurse Educ Pract 2003;3:220-7.
[PUBMED] |
| 4. | Roush RE. Being "on stage": Improving platform presentation skills with microteaching exercises and feedback. Gerontol Geriatr Educ 2008;29:248-56.
[PUBMED] |
| 5. | Kluwin TN, Kluwin B. Microteaching as a tool for improving simultaneous communication in classrooms for hearing-impaired students. Am Ann Deaf 1983;128:820-5.
[PUBMED] |
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