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ABSTRACT
Recent development in teacher education emphasizes the need to create teachers who are not only knowledgeable but have the ability to transfer their pedagogical skills into practice. This leads to the use of various approaches in teacher education courses, among which is the microteaching session. Researchers have viewed microteaching as beneficial in establishing a good experience amongst the student teachers in the teacher training institutions. However, their focus is mainly on establishing good lesson planning and carrying out what is planned in a mock classroom. There is a need to create awareness on what aspects of theories and approaches are applied during microteaching. This study aims to look into how educators from one teacher training institution view microteaching and lesson planning. A set of open-ended questionnaire was administered to the respondents to examine the ways they carried out microteaching and their perception on lesson planning. The findings of this study indicated that the respondents viewed learning objectives, stages of the lesson and types of activities for the lesson as three important elements in lesson planning. Student centered and teacher centered approaches were used to teach microteaching. Specific ways to teach microteaching were also presented by the respondents. Based on the findings of this study, a proposed template for microteaching is presented.
Keywords: microteaching, lesson planning, student teachers, approaches
Introduction
The hope and aspiration of a nation is to generate productive citizens to build a successful economy. With this in mind, the emphasis on good education is a key element in the national agenda. As such, the teaching profession is seen as the backbone that will lay the foundation for the future generation. Therefore, it is not surprising for the Ministry of Education (MOE) to focus on upgrading the quality of teaching and training in the teacher training institutions. Hence various ways and means are adopted in upgrading the quality of teaching and training especially among student teachers. Among the strategies employed are providing pedagogical knowledge and skills besides providing practical experiences through School-Based Experience (SBE) and practicum sessions.
With regards to the training of student teachers, various methods and approaches are adopted by the educators in either upskilling or providing new experiences. One of the ways to gauge student teachers' understanding of...