Microteaching, an efficient technique for learning effective teaching

Abstract

• Microteaching, a teacher training technique currently practiced worldwide, provides teachers an opportunity to perk up their teaching skills by improving the various simple tasks called teaching skills. With the proven success among the novice and seniors, microteaching helps to promote real-time teaching experiences. The core skills of microteaching such as presentation and reinforcement skills help the novice teachers to learn the art of teaching at ease and to the maximum extent. The impact of this technique has been widely seen in various forms of education such as health sciences, life sciences, and other areas. The emerging changes in medical curricula by the Medical Council of India and the role of medical teachers envisage the need of this special training of teachers and monitoring of their skills for their continued efficient performance at any age. The alleged limitations of microteaching can be minimized by implementing this at the departmental level in several sequences. The author made literature search of research and review articles in various educational databases, journals, and books. From the reference list of published articles, books were also reviewed. This paper presents an outline of the various phases of microteaching, core teaching skills, implementation aspects, and the impact of microteaching on medical education.
• Key words: Microteaching, medical education, teacher training, teaching skills, teach-re teach