The Impact Of Micro Teaching On Students’ Teaching Practice Performance In Ilorin Secondary Schools

Furthermore, microteaching has created a training ground for other disciplines and fields. Afolabi (2010) noted that microteaching as a course in teacher education program adds versatility, integrity and credibility to teaching profession. This is because fields and professions like nursing, law, medicine, engineering, languages and architecture use the feature of microteaching for their academic and practical training. Additionally, Chatzidimou (2011) considered microteaching as a ground-breaking program of teaching skills and a vehicle of teacher training and teacher professionalization.
Microteaching affords the student teachers the opportunity of detecting and correcting their mistakes early under the supervision and guidance of supervisors. In the normal class, the teacher pays attention to the learners’ characteristics such as age, developmental level, maturational level and socio-economic background. The student teachers do not pay attention to such variables because they teach their colleagues. As a result, they are able to correct their mistakes easily. Kumar (2008) claimed that microteaching permits senior teachers to assist the younger or potential teachers to identify their strengths and weaknesses in a practical manner and hence set guidelines for improvement.
According to Achuonye (2007), microteaching exposes the student teachers’ strengths and weaknesses. This motivates them to improve in a low risk supportive environment. Kayode et al., (2005) noted that microteaching provides ‘low risk’ for the student teacher and his learners. Instead of teaching children that are less matured wrong concepts, he teaches his colleagues who may have more knowledge of the subject matter than him.
 Afolabi (2010) observed that any mistakes committed by the student teacher could cause permanent damage to the life of the learners in a macro-lesson during teaching practice. It is better for a student teacher to first experiment with his colleagues, friends and peers where mistakes can be harmless and non- destructive. Allen and Ryan (1969) and Adeyanju (2004) argued that teaching experiment should not be allowed on children who are supposed to be taught skillfully in school and not be practiced on.
Microteaching offers the student teachers the opportunity to pilot materials and evaluate them with colleagues before trying them out in a full class. The student teachers make use of their knowledge of improvisation to make available the needed materials and manipulate the audio-visual gadgets. According to Ajibade (2009), through microteaching, student teachers gain new experience in handling learning materials.
In addition, microteaching is a new research tool. There are many studies, investigations and examinations on microteaching. Researchers had compared its effectiveness with that of traditional teaching. Educators have studied the correlation between microteaching and teaching practice and they have investigated the effectiveness of videotape, audio tape and printed materials on microteaching.
Microteaching brings changes in student teachers regarding their teaching. A greater grasp of teaching as a complex, challenging profession is ensured through microteaching. The field has the capacity of creating greater interest for teaching. Student teachers are motivated to participate in teaching and become professionals and authorities in their fields. The student teachers have increased self-confidence of becoming teachers. In support of this, Oguntunde (2009) noted that microteaching exposes student teachers to the realities of teaching. It introduces them to their roles as teachers and enables them to realize the difficulties faced by teachers especially in Nigerian classrooms.
Achuonye (2007) noted that microteaching creates opportunity for the in-service teachers to practice new instructional skills or behaviors. Some researchers have gone into the study of microteaching and in-service teachers. Through microteaching, the inservice teachers discover new teaching approaches of various subjects and courses. According to Achuonye, microteaching is used effectively by in-service teachers to practice new instructional skills and behavior. Through microteaching, the in-service teachers can up-date their knowledge.
Microteaching makes peer teaching possible. According to Egunjobi et al., (2011) classmates are readily available than real students. Many Colleges of Education and Universities may not have Demonstration schools where student teachers can source for students to teach during microteaching. Even where Demonstration schools are available, the microteaching session may disrupt the school program. In addition, Microteaching provides opportunity for peer teaching which the situation is where the student teacher teaches his classmates, friends and colleagues. In using peers, the supervisor needs to check and curb the excesses of the peer group members especially in the area of overreaction during the critique session. According to the study conducted by Fry and Hin (2006), peer coaching makes student teachers feel more confident, relax and comfortable. Lu (2010) opined that peer helps student teachers to develop professionalism. In the same vein, Amobi (2005) claimed that microteaching is a favourable and meaningful learning experience due to peer feedback.
 Furthermore, student teachers are helped by microteaching to build their self-confidence for teaching. Achuonye (2007) noted that student teachers are given opportunity to overcome mannerism, nervousness and other semantic barriers which can hinder the performance before the audience and supervisors. This leads to greater teachers’ effectiveness that is essential for better learning. Afolabi (2010) opined that microteaching afford student teachers to gain competency in the writing of lesson plan, stating objectives and delivering their lessons. According to Oguntunde (2009), microteaching helps the student teachers to see the importance of planning, decision making and implementation of instruction.
Karckay and Sanli (2009) confirmed (using research reports) that microteaching affects student teachers’ competency positively. However, the numerous merits or advantages of microteaching do not mean that it has no limitations; the limitations are minimal compared to its merits in teacher education. For example, microteaching is skill oriented at the expense of content orientation. Since there is reduction in time, there is also reduction in objectives of the subject matter.
In addition, microteaching does not pay attention to broad-based patterns of behaviors in the classroom. Since there is reduction in time, little or no attention is paid to classroom management. It does not take into consideration the overall environment of teaching. Kumar (2008) noted that microteaching applies only to observable, demonstrated and quantifiable skills. Other skills like keeping of students’ records are not taken care of by microteaching.
Microteaching is costly and expensive. It is not easy for all the Colleges of Education and Faculties of Education in Nigerian Universities to establish modern Educational Technology Centers and equip the microteaching laboratories adequately due to poor funding of education. The software and hardware like the digital video camera, audio and video tape recorders, Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) and television monitor as well as play back machine may be too expensive to purchase and maintain by educational institutions. The erratic power supply and constant power failure may hinder proper recording during microteaching sessions. This makes the evaluation which is an essential feature of feedback of microteaching impossible and renders the whole exercise to become a mirage.
Furthermore, microteaching does not take into consideration the overall environment of teaching. According to Kumar (2008), microteaching is conducted under controlled environment where different audio-visual media are provided. The consciousness of the audio and visual recordings may be a burden to the student teachers and may create fear and anxiety in them. Some of them focus their eyes on the camera instead of their audience. The recordings may merely have cosmetic effects on the entire training scheme as student teachers may pay more attention to their appearance on the camera than on skills’ acquisition. The student teachers can pretend and may not behave exactly the same way when they get to the field.
In her contribution, Achuonye (2007) noted that microteaching is time consuming. This is because the idea of 5-10 minutes per trainee for each skill may sound short but it is stressful for the supervisor who has to observe, criticize, correct, encourage and evaluate especially at this time of population explosion. For each student teacher to repeat presentations of plan---teach--- feedback--- re-plan--- re-teach and re-feedback cycle until each skill is mastered takes a long time.
The non-challant attitude of student teachers may have negative impacts on them. Achuonye (2007) observed that student teachers do not attach much importance to the course. Many student teachers do not bother to turn up for microteaching. This hinders microteaching effectiveness in Nigerian teacher producing institutions. Apart from that, student teachers do not easily accept negative comments made about their presentations. This makes learning difficult for them as they tend to repeat the same mistakes often and often. There have been cases when microteaching sessions end with quarrels, misunderstanding and misconception.
The comments, commendations and criticism may be misleading. This is because many of them may fail to make the true comments about their friends, mates and colleagues’ performance during micro-lesson. Whether their feedback is oral or written (filling of questionnaires or evaluation cards), the peers erroneously believe that scores and comments made by them may affect the overall score assigned by the supervisor. As a result, they pretend not to see the errors committed by their mates. Therefore, they make fantastic comments on their peers and give them high marks even when they have poor performance.
Different types of Microteaching skills and their acquisition
 Teaching skills are the behaviours and actions that teachers acquire through practice and experiences which are used during lesson presentation of the contents in other to make lessons easily understandable. According to Ajileye (2012), no teaching can actually take place without a demonstration of one skill or the other. A successful teacher in his teaching task might have been helped by the instrumentality of a host of skills at his disposal. The unsuccessful teacher in his teaching tasks dissipates energy and time but still, he constantly meets stone wall as the pupils fail to demonstrate desired learning outcomes. His failure is not as a result of the knowledge of the subject matter but as a result of lack of skills to transmit the knowledge or impart the knowledge to his pupils.
Kilic (2010) argued that teachers are more than transmitters of information like periodicals, course books and information sheets. Teachers are facilitators in learning process and in creating learning-conducive environment. To do this efficiently, teachers need some skills in teaching. These skills are used for training student teachers and they are referred to as microteaching skills. The numbers of microteaching skills depend on the authors or educators.
Allen and Ryan (1969) identified some microteaching skills at Stanford University for effective practicum. They are: writing instructional objectives, non-verbal communication, set induction, recognizing and attending to learners’ behaviours, planned repetition, questioning and explanation. Others are: illustration with examples, stimulus variation, reinforcement, chalkboard utilisation and closure. In another development, Passi (1976) identified thirteen (13) microteaching skills. These are: writing instructional objectives, set induction, fluency in questioning, probing questions, explanation, illustration with examples and stimulus variation. Others include silence and non-verbal cues, reinforcement, learners’ participation, chalkboard utilization, recognizing and attending learners’ behaviour and closure.
 In addition, Achuonye (2007) gave a list of twelve (12) microteaching skills. These are: set induction, closure, communication, stimulus variation, reinforcement, repetition, examples, explanation, attending to learners’ behaviours, questioning, classroom management and instructional materials utilization. Kumar (2008) enumerated some microteaching skills. These are: probing questioning, illustration with examples, explanation, stimulus variation, reinforcement, classroom management and chalkboard utilization. In the same vein, Ajibade (2009) identified ten (10) microteaching skills. They include set induction, illustration with examples, stimulus variation, planned repetition, reinforcement, non-verbal communication, questioning, learners’ participation, instructional media utilization and closure.
Furthermore, Shar and Mansur (2011) identified eight (8) microteaching skills. They include; planning, set induction, presentation, effective questioning, listening, reinforcement, teachers’ liveliness and closure. Ambili (2013) submitted eight (8) microteaching skills. These are: lesson planning, presentation and explanation, illustration with examples, reinforcement, stimulus variation, probing questions, classroom management and use of audio-visual aids. Recently NCCE (2012) identified eight microteaching skills. They are: set induction, stimulus variation, planned repetition, reinforcement, non-verbal communication, questioning, closure and evaluation.
Going through the above examples, the present research is using the eight (8) microteaching skills identified by NCCE with addition of four (4) others. The additional ones are: planning, classroom management, use of chalkboard and use of instructional materials. The reasons for adding the four are two: the four skills are generally identified by the cited authors and the NCCE assesses the student teachers on the four skills during teaching practice.
The microteaching skills can be divided into three bodies: the pre-instructional skill, instructional skills and post-instructional skills. The pre-instructional skill is planning skill (writing of lesson plan and stating of objectives). Instructional skills include set induction, communication, explanation, illustration with examples, reinforcement, questioning, attending to learners’ behaviours, stimulus variation, classroom management, use of chalkboard, use of instructional materials and planned repetition. Post instructional skills are closure and feedback skills.
The skill of planning is a pre-instructional skill. It is not regarded by some educationalist as a teaching skill because it is not part of what actually goes on in classroom in terms of practice or activity. Ajileye (2012) noted that, a well-planned lesson with well stated objectives is equivalent to a lesson half completed. As a result, it is in-separable from other aspects of lesson presentation. Teachers need to realize that a well-planned lesson serves as a frame of reference and guide in all aspects of a lesson from introduction to closure. A well written lesson plan gives confidence to the teacher. Many teachers fail in their teaching art right from this stage. Once the objectives of any lesson are wrongly stated, the consequence is disastrous. This is because the statement of objectives makes the success of such a lesson. Student teachers must learn and practice the skill of planning, writing of lesson and formation of lesson objectives. They should take this aspect very seriously because it may give negative or positive first impression to the supervisor at the beginning of a lesson presentation.