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The Micro-teaching Short Course is designed to give students the opportunity to plan, develop, and deliver a lesson in a mock classroom setting.

Goals of the Micro-teaching Short Course

• Develop an understanding of effective teaching and learning strategies.
• Gain practical teaching preparation and experience.
• Increase confidence in your teaching skills.
• Receive and apply critical feedback to enhance your teaching development.
• Strengthen your ability to assess and evaluate teaching.

What is Micro-teaching & Why is it Important for Your Teaching Development?

Micro-teaching, first developed in 1963 by Dr. Allen, provides new instructors with the chance to practice their teaching in a safe, collaborative environment. It has been widely used as a tool to give individuals teaching experience along with rich, constructive feedback to improve their overall teaching and learning development.

In a micro-teaching session, small groups of 8-10 students present short lessons (10-15 minutes) to their peers. This process mimics the real-world experience of planning, developing, and delivering a lesson. After each presentation, participants receive feedback, which they then use to refine their teaching before presenting again in a re-teach session.

The cycle of micro-teaching typically involves:

1. Lesson Planning and Preparation: Attend a training session to learn how to prepare your micro-lesson.
2. Teach: Present your 15-minute lesson to your peers.
3. Receive Feedback: Get both verbal and written feedback from your peers.
4. Revise: Reflect on the feedback and revise your lesson.
5. Re-teach: Present your revised lesson to a new group of peers.
6. Re-evaluate: Assess the improvements in your teaching.

Micro-teaching enhances both the content and delivery of teaching, such as using questions effectively, explaining concepts with examples, and summarizing lessons clearly.

Micro-teaching Short Course Framework

This course emphasizes collaboration, experimentation, and collective learning. It not only helps you develop teaching skills through lesson preparation and delivery but also enhances your abilities by observing and assessing your peers’ lessons. Research shows that even a 5-minute lesson can significantly benefit your teaching practice.

While a 15-minute lesson may seem brief, the goal is to practice delivering specific content with clear objectives and outcomes. In regular teaching, you may cover multiple concepts in one lesson, but micro-teaching helps you break down and focus on individual components.

What Can You Expect?

• Training Session: A 2-3 hour session where you'll meet fellow participants and learn about lesson planning, writing learning outcomes, and incorporating active learning strategies, etc.
• Session Participation: Sign up for two sessions as an instructor and one session as a student. Each session includes one facilitator, up to four students, and four instructors, with a minimum of two instructors and two students required to run a session.
• Teach a 15-Minute Lesson: As an instructor, you'll teach a 15-minute lesson to your peers, who will act as students. Afterward, you’ll receive both verbal and written feedback.
• Apply Feedback: Use the feedback to revise your lesson.
• Re-teach Your Lesson: Present your revised lesson to a new set of peers and receive additional feedback.

Important Dates

• Registration Deadline: October 29th.
• Training Session: November 4th, 9:30 am - 12:00 pm (in person).
• Micro-teaching Sessions: Sessions will be held throughout November and early December. You can sign up for Microteaching sessions on the training session. Each session accommodates four instructors and up to four students.

Registration

Registration is now closed.

Priority for the Micro-teaching Short Course will be given to those enrolled in the Certificate in University Teaching and Learning (CUTL). Upon successful completion, you will receive a Letter of Completion for your teaching dossier. To successfully complete the course, you must attend the training session and participate in three micro-teaching sessions (two as an instructor and one as a student).

If you have any questions, please reach out to Nasim Tavassoli at nasim.tavassoli@dal.ca.