Learning to Teach: Vietnamese Preservice Teacher Development Through Microteaching

On-Campus Microteaching

Microteaching has its origin from Stanford University in the early 1960s and initially, it was supposed to teach students to master teaching skills (Amobi, 2005), provide them with “concrete real experiences” (Amobi & Irwin, 2009, p. 27) and to prepare them for their internship (Cruickshank et al., 1996). It is a cycle of teaching and evaluation events, which means PSTs conduct a short (ten to fifteen minutes) but complete lesson in a small class with the presence of an advisor. The original model is comprised of six stages: planning, teaching, observing, re-planning, re-teaching and re-observing (Arsal, 2014). In the first state, planning, some desired teaching behaviours are chosen. These behaviours will be assessed by the advisors after PSTs implement their lessons plans in the teaching phase. The lessons are observered and video recorded by their instructors, though video recording is not always chosen due to the discomfort it may cause to PSTs, leading to their unnatural behaviours. Still, the merits of recorded-lessons are worthwhile, for example, it will be easier for PSTs to rewatch their own performance and for the instructors to give comments afterwards. The cycle is repeated with higher expectation of changes in the behaviours of PSTs. In that sense, microteaching aims to improve teachers’ behaviours and their pedagogical skills, including learners’ attention drawing, questions asking, class and time management, choice of activities, or feedback giving (Kilic, 2010).