Microsimulation for Student Teachers in the Covid-19 Era

ABSTRACT

Microteaching, as defined by Allen in 1969, in his book “Micro-Teaching-A Description” is a scaled down teaching approach in which a teacher teaches a small group of approximately 5 pupils for a small period of 5 to 20 minutes. This is helpful for an experienced or inexperienced teacher to acquire new teaching skills and to refine old ones. Ever since its introduction in 1961, it was practiced in classrooms. In the present era of the pandemic, when physical distancing and isolation is inevitable, how would it aid in improving teaching skills and the knowledge of the use of technology among novice or experienced teachers, and what skills of micro teaching must be focused on with prime importance, and what new skills, in addition to the existing ones, must be included to augment teaching skills and make it more effective? Would a simulated environment of teaching aid in the skills to be acquired and mastered by the student teachers, especially when it is conducted online. Now that societal and governmental norms are in practice with regard to the pandemic, a combination of microteaching and simulated teaching, rather a micro teaching in a simulated environment will have to be adopted for the mastery of skills and modification of teacher behavior for the student teachers. This article discusses about the possible skills that can be introduced, and the probable effects and consequences of micro teaching in a simulated environment online.