Microteaching: What is it that is going on here?
Abstract
Although microteaching has been found to be an effective way of helping preservice teachers learn about what it means to teach and while students themselves find it useful, researchers have not yet examined the task itself to discover exactly what it means to “microteach,” thus the purpose of this study was to learn more about the interactional structure of the task. The results of discourse analysis that was performed on 22 videotapes of microteaching showed that the question of how to frame the task was a constant challenge to the students, who must simultaneously negotiate the roles of teacher, student, classmate, and peer/friend. Analysis of the tapes, as well as of questionnaires in which participants described their perception of the activity and explained how they approached the task, reveals that microteaching resembles “performance” or “classroom task” to a much greater extent than it does “teaching.”
Reference
Bell, N. (2007). Microteaching: What is it that is going on here? Linguistics and Education, 18, 24-40. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2007.04.002
Journal
Linguistics and Education
Analysis
Is this article part of a larger project or series of studies?
no
Does this study draw on a large, preexisting data set?
no
Research Approach
Geographic Setting
Institutional Context
Certification Level
Programatic Focus
Research Location Context
Preservice Participants
- Masters
- Undergraduates (university based program)
Preservice Sample Size
13
Other Participant Data
Duration of Data Collection
Data Sources
Data Analysis Tools
- Discourse analysis (conversational analysis)
Researcher Positionality
- Outside (not directly invested in the program or operations)
Research Questions
"The general purpose of this study was, thus, to learn more about the
interactional characteristics of microteaching, including the ways in which students approach the task." (p. 25)
Is this research question explicit from the manuscript? Yes