Problems faced by third year felte ulis students in writing and using lesson plans to do the micro teaching as partial requirement for the course english language teaching methodology 2

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

PROBLEMS FACED BY THIRD – YEAR FELTE –
ULIS STUDENTS IN WRITING AND USING LESSON
PLANS TO DO THE MICRO – TEACHING AS
PARTIAL REQUIREMENT FOR THE COURSE
“ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING
METHODOLOGY 2”

Supervisor: Ms. Phạm Thị Thanh Thủy (M.Ed.)
Student: Phạm Thị Hà Anh
Course: QH2012.F1.E2

HÀ NỘI – 2016

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ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ
KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

NHỮNG VẤN ĐỀ SINH VIÊN NĂM BA KHOA SƯ
PHẠM TIẾNG ANH, TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ
- ĐHQGHN GẶP PHẢI KHI VIẾT VÀ SỬ DỤNG GIÁO

ÁN ĐỂ THỰC HIỆN HOẠT ĐỘNG GIẢNG TẬP
TRONG MÔN PHƯƠNG PHÁP GIẢNG DẠY TIẾNG
ANH 2

Giáo viên hướng dẫn: ThS. Phạm Thị Thanh Thủy
Sinh viên: Phạm Thị Hà Anh
Khóa: QH2012.F1.E2

HÀ NỘI – 2016

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ACCEPTANCE PAGE
I hereby state that I: Phạm Thị Hà Anh (QH2012.F1.E2), being a candidate for the
degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the University
relating to the retention and use of Bachelor‟s Graduation Paper deposited in the
library.
In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the
library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance
with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or
reproduction of the paper.
Signature

Date
June 7, 2016.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First and foremost, it is my pleasure to be supervised by Ms. Phạm Thị Thanh
Thủy, to whom I would like to express my deepest gratitude. Without her all-round
supervision and careful guidance, this paper could not be completed.
With no less sincerity, my thanks should go to 70 students and 3 teachers
from University of Languages and International Studies VNU for their enthusiastic
and responsible participation in the research.
Moreover, I am very honored to have the continuous encouragement from
many teachers and friends of mine.
Last but not least, all my heart is dedicated to my parents, who have been
providing me every piece of care and support to complete this research.

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ABSTRACT
Micro – teaching is one of the most common techniques used in teacher
training programs to develop teaching competences of pre – service teachers. Micro
– teaching process involves several stages among which lesson planning is the first
stage playing one of the most vital roles in deciding the success of one micro –
teaching session. However, lesson planning is considered a laborious task to many
novice teachers and they face a lot of difficulties in tailoring a rational lesson plan.
Since there has been limited research on this in Vietnam, this paper was carried out
to investigate the problems faced by third – year students in writing and using lesson
plans to micro – teach, taking third – year FELTE – ULIS students and their
teachers as the research participants. Hopefully, the research would be a source of
reference for student teachers and teachers of English in general and English
language teaching methodology in particular. Triangulation research design was
employed to discover the problems faced by third – year students in writing and
using their lesson plans to micro – teach under the eyes of both the students and

their teachers. Seventy students and three teachers from four mainstream classes
were chosen to take part in the research, in which random cluster sampling was
utilized. Structured questionnaire of 10 questions and semi-structured interview
were applied to collect data. The findings indicated that from both students‟ and
teachers‟ perspectives, creating learning activities and determining the content of the
lesson are the two most common problems when students write lesson plans.
Meanwhile, when they use their lesson plans to micro – teach, class management
and time management are the two greatest challenges. The findings suggest that
more attention from both student teachers and their supervisors should be paid on
these stages when planning lessons and doing micro – teaching.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACCEPTANCE PAGE ............................................................................................... ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ........................................................................................... i
ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................ ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................... iii
LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND ABBREVIATIONS ....................................... vi
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................... 1
1.1. Statement of the problem and the rationale for the study.............................. 1
1.2. Aims and objectives of the study................................................................... 2
1.3. Scope of the study.......................................................................................... 3
1.4. Significance of the study ............................................................................... 3
1.5. Thesis structure .............................................................................................. 4
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................... 5
2.1. Key concepts.................................................................................................. 5
2.1.1.

Lesson plan .......................................................................................... 5

2.1.1.1. Definitions of lesson plan ................................................................ 5
2.1.1.2. Components of a lesson plan ........................................................... 7
2.1.1.3. Principles of lesson planning ........................................................... 9
2.1.1.4. Benefits of lesson plan ................................................................... 10
2.1.2.

Micro – teaching ................................................................................ 12

2.1.2.1. Definitions of micro – teaching ..................................................... 12
2.1.2.2. Process of micro – teaching ........................................................... 14
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2.2. Related studies ............................................................................................. 16
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ............................................................................ 18
3.1. Background of the study .............................................................................. 18
3.2. Participants and sampling methods ............................................................. 19
3.2.1.

Participants ........................................................................................ 19

3.2.2.

Sampling methods ............................................................................. 20

3.3. Research design ........................................................................................... 20
3.4. Data collection methods and procedure ...................................................... 22
3.4.1.

Questionnaire..................................................................................... 22

3.4.1.1. Questionnaire as a data collection instrument ............................... 22
3.4.1.2. Data collection procedure .............................................................. 23
3.4.2.

Semi – structured interview ............................................................... 24

3.4.2.1. Semi – structured interview as a data collection instrument ......... 24
3.4.2.2. Data collection procedure .............................................................. 25
3.5. Data analysis methods ................................................................................. 26
3.5.1.

Data analysis method for questionnaire ............................................ 26

3.5.2.

Data analysis method for semi – structured interview ...................... 26

3.6. Anticipated challenges ................................................................................. 27
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ...................................................... 29
4.1. Background of students‟ attitude towards the importance of lesson plan in
doing a successful micro – teaching...................................................................... 29
4.2. Research question 1 ..................................................................................... 32
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4.2.1.

The level of difficulty in completing each step of lesson planning .. 32

4.2.2.

Problems in completing each step of the lesson planning process .... 35

4.3. Research question 2 ..................................................................................... 44
4.3.1.

The level of difficulty in accomplishing different tasks when using

lesson plans to micro - teach ............................................................................. 44
4.3.2.

Problems in using lesson plans to do micro - teaching ..................... 46

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION.................................................................................. 54
5.1. Summary of the findings ............................................................................. 54
5.2. Limitations of the study ............................................................................... 55
5.3. Suggestions for further studies .................................................................... 56
LIST OF REFERENCES .......................................................................................... 56
APPENDICES........................................................................................................... 60
APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE .......................................................................... 60
APPENDIX 2: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR STUDENTS .............................. 67
APPENDIX 3: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS .............................. 68
APPENDIX 4: SUMMARY OF THE INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT ..................... 69
APPENDIX 5: INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTION ................................................... 77

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LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND ABBREVIATIONS
LIST OF TABLES

Table 1. Difficulties in completing each step of the lesson planning process
(as perceived by the students) ……………………………………………38
Table 2. Problems in using lesson plans to do micro – teaching (as
perceived by the students) ………………………………………………..48

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1. Process of micro - teaching …………………………………….14
Figure 2. Time spent on planning a lesson (as perceived by students) …..30
Figure 3. The importance of lesson planning in doing micro – teaching (as
perceived by students) ……………………………………………………..31
Figure 4. Level of difficulty in completing each step of lesson planning (as
perceived by the students) …………………………………………………34
Figure 5. Level of difficulty in accomplishing different tasks when using
lesson plans to micro – teach (as perceived by the students) ………………45

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

FELTE

ULIS

VNU

Faculty of English Language Teacher
Education
University of Languages and
International Studies
Vietnam National University
English Language Teaching

ELT 2

Methodology 2 (The name of a teacher
training course in FELTE – ULIS –
VNU)

SD

Standard Deviation

Q

Question No.

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

This initial chapter justified the reasons for this research to be carried
out. Research questions, significance of the research, scope of the study and the
thesis structure would be presented.

1.1.

Statement of the problem and the rationale for the study
Teaching is a complicated process which involves a complete circle of

planning, implementation, evaluation and adjustments. Among these stages,
lesson planning has long been identified the fundamental step which determines
the success of English language lessons. Teachers‟ planning and preparation is
not only the base for the whole teaching process but also the major contributor to
the effectiveness of their instruction and teaching practice. As Richards (1998)
highlights the significance of lesson plan “The success with which a teacher
conducts a lesson is often thought to depend on the effectiveness with which the
lesson was planned” (p. 103), good lesson planning is strongly asserted as the
decisive factor to the efficiency of a lesson.
Despite being a crucial part of any lesson, designing a rational lesson
plan has been a laborious task to both experienced and novice teachers.
Especially in the case of novice teachers, lesson planning has become “a
problematic area” for many pre – service teachers (Thombury; Bhargava, cited in
Ghanaguru, Nair & Yong, 2013). They struggle hard to tailor a good lesson plan
and find ways to use it in their teaching practice.
In Vietnam context, with the great effort in catching up the
development of the international education, many teacher training programs are
conducted throughout the nation. In the University of Languages and
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International Studies – Vietnam National University (ULIS – VNU), several
courses in English teaching methodology are developed. Micro – teaching
activities are designed as the main projects for student teachers to develop their

teaching skills. Lesson planning to do micro – teaching are focused in most of
these courses. Nevertheless, students still face a lot of difficulties in designing
their own lesson plans and use them to micro – teach. Therefore it is imperative
that there should be more attention paid on lesson planning skill in teacher
training programs. To be more specific, more research should be done on the
problems and difficulties experienced by novice teachers so that both teacher
trainers and teacher trainees can find ways to avoid.
All these conditions henceforth offered the researcher a chance to
conduct a study on “Problems faced by third – year FELTE – ULIS students in
writing and using lesson plans to do the micro – teaching as partial requirement
of the course “English Language Teaching Methodology 2”.
1.2.

Aims and objectives of the study
First, the paper is to explore the problems faced by third – year FELTE

– ULIS students in writing lesson plans to do micro – teaching. Second, the
study is carried out to discover the difficulties experienced by these students in
using their lesson plans to do micro – teaching in the course “English Language
Teacher Methodology 2”. To be more specific, the problems and difficulties are
investigated under the eyes of both teachers and students.
In brief, the research is carried out with the hope of setting up tentative
answers to the following questions:
1.

What are the problems faced by third – year FELTE – ULIS students
in writing lesson plans as perceived by themselves and by their
teachers?
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2.

What are the difficulties experienced by third – year FELTE – ULIS
students as seen by themselves and by their teachers when they use
their lesson plans to do micro – teaching in the course “English
Language Teaching Methodology 2”?

1.3.

Scope of the study

Since there are many potential problems that students may cope with when
writing lesson plans and using their lesson plans to do the micro – teaching, this
paper concentrates only on the ones directly caused by pedagogical factors but not
other social factors such as teamwork, time management and relationship with
classmates. Moreover, when investing the problems caused in the microteaching
process, the researcher only focuses on the ones directly relating to students‟
designed lesson plan but not any problems when doing micro – teaching in general.
As the mentioned problems are considered under the eyes of both teachers
and students, the researcher intentionally regards third – year FELTE – ULIS
mainstream students and their teachers as the participants of the study. The students
chosen for the research are the ones participating in the course “English Language
Teaching Methodology 2”, in which they have to do two micro – teaching sessions
with two lesson plans. The teachers participating in the research are the ones who
teach in the chosen classes.
1.4.

Significance of the study

If all the above – mentioned objectives could be achieved, the study is
expected to be beneficial for teachers and student teachers of the university, as well
as the students and researchers who are interested in the topic. First, the study will
facilitate teachers at FELTE, ULIS – VNU in their teacher training courses. They
may adjust their teaching methodology so that their students can avoid potential
problems in lesson planning process. Second, student teachers can be well aware of
the difficulties that they may encounter when conducting micro – teaching. They are
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efficiently informed about effective solutions to solve their own lesson planning
problems. Last but not least, the study may partly fill the gap in literature for further
research in the topic and raise other students‟ interests in investigating the research
problem.
1.5.

Thesis structure

This research consists of five chapters:
Chapter 1: Introduction
This chapter aims at stating the research problems, the significance of the
study, the scope of the research and proposing questions to answer.
Chapter 2: Literature review
This chapter provides the background of the study including the explanation
of key definitions and related theories as well as the review on different previous
works on the similar research problems.
Chapter 3: Methodology
This chapter comprises of the description of research participants, population
and sampling method; data collections and data analysis methods as well as the
procedure of implementing these methods.

Chapter 4: Findings and discussion
In this chapter, research findings will be presented. Also, discussion on
comparison between two groups of participants (students and teachers) and between
the findings and reviewed literature will be delivered in this chapter.
Chapter 5: Conclusion
Summary of the research, implication of the findings, the limitation of the
study and suggestion for further research will be presented in this chapter.

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter is aimed at providing a brief overview of the literature on the
research topic as well as forming the theoretical basis for the whole study.
Moreover, related studies will also be reviewed to contextualize the research paper,
and discover the research gaps and; hence, justify the implementation of this study.

2.1.

Key concepts
2.1.1. Lesson plan
2.1.1.1.

Definitions of lesson plan

In the teaching process, lesson planning plays one of the most vital roles in
deciding the success of one lesson as an effective lesson plan will become a detailed
map for both teachers and students to head towards their learning goals (Ghanaguru,
Nair & Yong, 2013). Despite being a crucial part of any lesson, it is considerably

difficult to define exactly what “lesson plan” is. There are numerous definitions of
“lesson plan”; however, each of them focuses on one aspect of the term. Therefore,
there is a need for a comprehensive definition of the term to lay the foundation for
further discussion.
Yinger refers to lesson plan as “a written description of how students will
move toward attaining specific objectives” and adds that “teaching behavior”
demonstrated in the lesson plan will “result in student learning” (as cited in Farrell,
2002, p.30). The definition mentions that both students and teachers are the centre of
a lesson. However, the interaction between them appears to be one – way interaction
since there is no students‟ effects on teachers pointed out. Additionally, in this
definition, the author just focuses on one purpose of lesson plan, which is to

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describe the process of a lesson. Other purposes and elements of lesson plan are not
covered.
However, according to Farrell (2002), lesson plan refers to “[a] systematic
record(s)” of what teacher thinks will be dealt with in the lesson (p.31). Different
from the first definition, Farrell‟s definition focuses only on the role of teacher, there
is no students‟ role mentioned. Moreover, in this definition, the logical structure of
lesson plan is added and the lesson content is more focused.
In agreement with Farrell, Good (1945) defines lesson plan as “a teaching
outline of the important points of a lesson” (cited in Rajan, 2014, p.3). In both
Farrell‟s and Good‟s interpretations, lesson plan structure and content are the central
points; teacher is the centre of a lesson. While there is no component of lesson plan
mentioned in Farrell‟s definition, Good (1945) adds “objectives, points to be made,
questions to ask, references and assignments” as key elements of a lesson plan (cited
in Rajan, 2014, p.3).
All the three definitions above concentrate on clarifying specific aspects of a

lesson plan but none of them sketches out the big picture. The last definition below
will be the most comprehensive interpretation of the term:
A lesson plan is a detailed description of the course of instruction for an
individual lesson or presentation. It structures the learning for the teachers
and the students, noting the methods of delivery, specific goals and timelines
associated with the delivery of the lesson content. (Giesler, 2011, p.300)
This is the only definition that places lesson plan in the whole context of the
course. Additionally, in Giesler‟s interpretation, lesson plan is not an outline or a
brief description but “a detailed description”. Lesson plan should serve as a clear
and diligent plan of a lesson. Therefore, beside content and process, teaching
methodology, objectives and timeline should be included. Both teachers and
students become the centre of the lesson; they are interactive during the teaching and
learning process.
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This research paper adopts Giesler‟s viewpoint mentioned above. Lesson plan
is a detailed plan of how teacher delivers the lesson and student participates in. In
lesson plan‟s logical structure, important elements – goals, content, timelines,
methodology, process are fully covered.
2.1.1.2.

Components of a lesson plan

Written lesson plans serve as detailed maps helping novice teachers deal with
many uncertainties that they may face in their lesson (Kagan & Tippins, 1992). In
order to accomplish that mission, lesson plans should include crucial elements. Each
researcher has a certain viewpoint on the selection of these elements. Similarly,
different teachers have distinctive choices for their lesson plan format. Some of
them prefer simplified linear formats such as objectives, contents, procedures,

materials, evaluation (Kauchak & Eggen, 1989). Many other teachers participating
in Ghanaguru, Nair and Yong‟s (2013) research said that learning objectives, stages
of lessons, types of activities and assessment tasks should be included in a standard
lesson plan. Nevertheless, there is one format of lesson plans that is most widely
accepted worldwide – Hunter‟s (2004) lesson plan format (cited in Shrum & Glisan,
2015). This format includes key elements of a lesson plan that both novice and
experienced teachers should follow. They are objectives, anticipatory set or focus,
body of the lesson, closure, extensions, independent practice, evaluation strategy
and re – teaching.
The first element is objectives. This component consists of the aims that the
teacher expects the students to achieve after the lesson. The teacher will clarify what
the students will be able to achieve not what the teachers are going to do. The
objectives should be clearly stated with both primary and secondary objectives
(secondary objectives include the development of linguistic skills, social skills and
other cognitive skills) (Golland, 1998).

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The second element is anticipatory set or focus. This is an attention –
drawing device that teacher will use in the lesson to draw students‟ interest into the
presented topic. This component could refer to the introduction to the lesson or to
gain students‟ attention before involving them in in – class activities.
The third component is body of the lesson. This is the main part of the
lesson plan. In this section, the teacher will give detailed description of the designed
activities with logical sequence and suitable time allotment. This component
depends much on the teacher‟s creativity as he/ she has to think of various learning
activities that are both meaningful and interesting to get his/ her students actively
involved in.
The forth component is closure. This is the brief review of the lesson

contents, which helps students remember the knowledge grasped. Closure also
serves as a preparation for the latter assessment of students‟ learnt concepts.
The fifth element is extensions. They are the follow – up activities helping
students practice and recall what they have learnt so far in the whole lesson.
Extensions and closure are interchangeable in one lesson.
The sixth element is independent practice. This part of the lesson allows
students to demonstrate what they have learnt in the lesson without the teacher‟s
guidance. If necessary, the teacher may re – teach some information that the students
did not learn.
The seventh component is evaluation strategy. This part enables the teacher
to determine whether students have reached the learning outcomes or how far they
have moved toward the set learning objectives. Evaluation strategies often lead to
the assignment of grades reported to parents and administrators.
The last element is re – teaching. Basing on the evaluation, the teacher will
be able to plan future instructions. The teacher will decide on which areas students
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need additional practice and further explanation as well as consider whether those
students show their well understanding.
These are the key components of a lesson plan. Different teachers may have
certain adaptation when they design their own lesson plans. Some of these
components may be omitted and some others may be added so that the teachers
could feel most comfortable when they carry out their teaching sessions. The
decision on which components should be included in the lesson plans at the same
time shapes teachers‟ lesson planning process. If they include all these eight
components above, their lesson planning process will consist of eight steps
(beginning with deciding on the objectives and ending with planning the re –
teaching session).
2.1.1.3.

Principles of lesson planning

Lesson planning is the everyday task of all teachers. Nevertheless, to many
novice teachers, lesson planning becomes “a problematic area” (Thombury;
Bhargava, cited in Ghanaguru, Nair & Yong, 2013). In order to better their lesson
plans, novice teachers need to be aware of basic principles in planning a lesson.
These basic principles include coherence, variety and flexibility (Jensen, 1991).
In the first place, a good lesson plan needs to be coherent. The lesson should
have a clear connection to both its previous and following lessons. Moreover,
different parts in the lesson should be closely related and there are smooth
transitions between activities. The sequence of activities and exercises in the lesson
should have a sense of logic. When these requirements are met, the coherence of the
lesson will be achieved.
Secondly, lessons need variety. The variety of one lesson is shown in both
macro and micro levels. First and foremost, in terms of the macro level, teachers
need to choose various topics, contents and skills to be covered in the lesson during
9


the whole course. Students may get bored with course in which they have to learn
the same thing over again. Regarding the micro level, the types of materials,
activities and teaching sequence need to be varied. Variety will not only keep the
lively atmosphere of the class but also make students become more interested in the
lesson. Students with different intelligence can find at least one activity that they
enjoy in the whole lesson.
The last principle is flexibility. A lesson plan is not “one size fits all”. There
are many cases that what the teacher planned may not work for the class in one
particular day. A good lesson plan is the one that can be flexibly changed and
adapted to various situations and show teachers‟ planning in unexpected cases. With

flexible lesson plans, teachers can reduce the number of on – the – spot management
decisions.
These principles serve as an orientation for both novice and experienced
teachers to plan their lessons in order to better meet students‟ needs.
2.1.1.4.

Benefits of lesson plan

As lesson plan is a detailed map of how teacher delivers the lesson and how
students participate in, it is beneficial for not only the teachers but also the students
and the school administrators.
For the teachers, lesson plan is an indispensable tool to organize the lesson
logically. Lesson planning is drawing a big picture of a lesson before it actually
happens. When planning, teachers have a chance to choose what to teach; organize
and sequence different parts of the lesson. The sooner teachers plan the lesson, the
better their lesson will be as they have more time to organize it and make as many
changes as possible until everything is perfect. Moreover, planning also helps
teachers become ready to deal with unexpected situations in class (Aydin, 2014).
Teachers can anticipate many potential problems when they planning their lesson
10


and think of as many solutions as possible. Hence, they have more chances to have
successful lessons. Additionally, planning lesson also gives teachers the opportunity
to deepen their own knowledge. In order to plan a lesson, teachers have to search
various sources of information, read a lot of books and study the teaching problems
carefully. Therefore, planning helps deepen teachers‟ knowledge and encourage
their self – study.
For the students, they can learn a lot from their teachers‟ careful lesson
planning. First, they are encouraged to learn harder as their teachers are good

models of self – studying for them to follow. Second, teachers‟ lesson planning will
give their students‟ confidence in what they teach. Students can never be confident if
the teachers are unsure about what they are teaching because of lacking preparation.
Attending a lesson, students can easily know whether their teachers have good
preparation or not and hence, they can choose to believe or not. Therefore, teachers‟
preparation before teaching is considerably important to students‟ learning
effectiveness.
For the school administrators, lesson plan plays as a tool to manage the
teaching of all the teachers and a record of the teachers‟ effort in accomplishing their
job. By checking teachers‟ lesson plans, the school administrator can easily know
whether their teachers in the school are following the curriculum or not; or whether
they are working hard or not. Lesson plans become a reliable evidence of the
teachers‟ working process.
To teachers, students or school administrators, lesson plans have certain
benefits. To pre – service teachers, lesson planning is even more important. As they
do not have much experience, pre – service teachers need to plan the lesson so as to
be more confident in their teaching and more ready for potential problems.
Therefore, planning lessons gives them more chances to succeed in microteaching.

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2.1.2. Micro – teaching
2.1.2.1.

Definitions of micro – teaching

Micro – teaching is one of the most effective techniques used in teacher
training programs to develop teaching competences of both pre – service and in –
service teachers. It was invented by Dwight W. Allen, Robert Bush and Kim

Romney at Stanford University in 1960; and it has been utilized widely since then
(Lakshmi, 2009). Nowadays micro – teaching practice is mostly used in student
teachers training. It allows prospective teachers to apply the taught theoretical
knowledge into trial teaching situations. As a well – researched issue, “micro –
teaching” is defined in various ways due to different viewpoints of researchers. Each
of these definitions focuses on a certain aspect and context where micro – teaching
is adopted. Henceforth, it is necessary to find the most comprehensive definition of
the term.
According to Hamed (1979)‟s definition, micro – teaching refers to “a
technique that gives student teachers the opportunity to analyze and assimilate
different teaching approaches and styles” (as cited in Ghanaguru, Nair & Yong,
2013, p.219). This definition highlights the function of micro – teaching in bridging
theory and real teaching practice. However, the theory mentioned is just “teaching
approaches and styles”, which is not sufficient as micro – teaching requires more
theoretical knowledge such as teaching methodology, class management skills,
students‟ characteristics, etc. The term “micro – teaching”, therefore, is not
thoroughly defined.
Different from the former definition, the one given by Allen and Eve (1968)
focuses more on the general practice of micro – teaching which differentiates it from
real teaching. In this definition, micro – teaching refers to “a system of controlled
practice that makes it possible to concentrate on specific teaching behavior and to
practice teaching under controlled condition” (as cited in Saban & Coklar, 2013,
12


p.234). Allen and Eve (1968) give the basic understanding of the concept and no
specific aspect of micro – teaching is covered.
Similarly, Cruickshank and Metcalf (1993) also define micro – teaching as a
“scaled – down teaching encounter in which pre – service teachers demonstrate their
ability to perform one of several desirable abilities to a group of 3 – 5 peers during a

short time period” (as cited in Fives & Gill, 2015, p.223). The general idea of micro
– teaching presented is much comparable to Allen‟s and Eve‟s (1968) definition.
However, the “controlled condition” in Allen‟s and Eve‟s (1968) saying is specified
as “a group of 3 – 5 peers” and “a short time period”. Therefore, the definition of
“micro – teaching” is contextualized and may not be applicable in other situations.
All three definitions above focus on certain aspects of the micro – teaching
concept. The following definition appears to be the most comprehensive one as it
covers almost all aspects of micro – teaching from the targeted objects, the purposes,
the way of practice to the feedback session. In this definition, micro – teaching
refers to “a training concept that can be applied at various pre – service and in –
service stages in the professional development of teachers”. It provides teachers with
opportunities to practice in an instructional setting in which the normal complexities
of the classroom are limited and in which they can receive feedback on their
performances (Allen & Ryan, 1969, as cited in Saban & Coklar, 2013, p.234). The
definition both draws the big picture of the concept and covers almost all important
aspects of micro – teaching.
Among all the above definitions of micro – teaching, Allen‟s and Ryan‟s
definition is adopted since it reflects clearly and thoroughly the nature of micro –
teaching.

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2.1.2.2.

Process of micro – teaching

Micro – teaching process involves several stages, which enable student
teachers to practice various skills and gain first – hand experiences of being a
teacher. According to many researchers, the general micro – teaching process is a

complete circle which is known as “micro – teaching circle”. The circle includes
various stages that novice teachers have to follow in order to have successful micro
– teaching sessions. Although the names of the stages vary among researchers, all of
them share a common nature. In general, it could be concluded that the micro –
teaching circle consists of 6 steps: planning, teaching, criticizing, re – planning, re –
teaching and re – criticizing as shown in Figure 1 (Peker, 2009)

Figure 1. Process of micro - teaching

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Planning: In the micro – teaching circle, this stage involves the student
teachers‟ selection of their teaching content which is suitable and feasible to be
covered in their micro – teaching scope (Singh, 2004). The teaching contents then
are planned in written form with detailed description of the lesson sequence,
activities, exercises, etc., which is known as the lesson plan. The lesson plan is
submitted to student teachers‟ supervisors for comments before their teaching
sessions.
Teaching: In this stage, student teachers micro – teach their peers accordance
to the lesson plan that they have prepared. The performance of the micro teacher is
closely observed by their supervisor and other peers. They note down all their
comments basing upon the checklist delivered at the beginning of the course
(Moore, 1979). In the micro – teaching session, both teaching and class management
skills are counted.
Criticizing: In criticizing stage, student teachers‟ micro – teaching
performance is “reviewed, discussed, analyzed and evaluated” (Celik, 2001, as cited
in Saban & Coklar 2013, p.235). The novice teachers have precious chance to listen
to their supervisor‟s and peers‟ comments on both their strengths and weaknesses so
that they can improve their teaching in the desired direction.

Re – planning: Pre – service teachers then take the supervisor‟s and peers‟
criticisms and suggestions into consideration. They prepare their lesson again basing
on these constructive comments in order to minimize their weaknesses and
maximize their strengths as much as possible.
Re – teaching: Student teachers re – deliver their micro – teaching lesson to
the same group of “pupils”. In this session, student teachers use their revised lesson
plan to teach in the same duration as their previous session and try to avoid all the
mistakes that they have made.
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