Enhancing Micro-teaching through Peer Review and Reflection

Background

Alongside a paradigm shift towards practice-based learning in teacher education, micro-teaching is an increasingly important pedagogical approach to developing preservice teachers’ core professional knowledge. Yet, best practices for the design of micro-teaching activities remain largely unexplored. Its design and implementation vary widely, and peer review and reflection are not organically integrated into it. Even more concerning is that the double-degree Chinese curriculum includes methods courses, but not all of them have practice components. Specifically, while BBED 4202: Pedagogy II: Teaching Chinese in Putonghua and Teaching Putonghua as a Subject has a strong emphasis on micro-teaching, its predecessor BBED 3201 Pedagogy I: Becoming a Competent and Reflective Teacher has no practice component. Ideally, students should not have to wait a year after being exposed to this and other pedagogical approaches before enacting them for the first time.

In the current design of BBED 4202, students receive both teacher and peer assessment after micro-teaching, and then reflect on their practices (i.e., engage in retrospective reflection). Due to this design, two areas have not been addressed well. First, peer assessment is not reviewed by the students who receive it. While there are rubrics and guidance on how to provide peer review, its quality varies, and students do not seem to benefit much from the process. In the absence of reviewees’ reactions to peer reviews, students may not know how their comments are perceived. Second, while reflection prompts are provided, the quality of reflection also varies, so it is not clear if students develop the skills necessary to becoming reflective practitioners. Moreover, given the large volume of peer review each student receives, it has been difficult to track how students respond to peer review in their reflection, leaving the precise linkages between peer review and reflection unclear.

Aims

To address the above two issues, the proposed project will therefore develop a technology-enhanced micro-teaching model, incorporating two activities – peer review and reflection – that have previously been found highly beneficial to the development of preservice teachers’ practical knowledge. For more details, the specific objectives are as follows:

1. To develop a technology-enhanced microteaching model for assessment and feedback;

2. To facilitate students’ development of core teaching practices;

3. To develop students’ skills at peer-reviewing via microteaching;

4. To cultivate reflective preservice teachers; and

5. To disseminate the developed technology-enhanced microteaching model within and beyond the Faculty of Education.

Project Collaborators

1. Dr Chin-Hsi Lin, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, HKU.

2. Dr Sau Yan Hui, Lecturer, Faculty of Education, HKU.

Redesigned Micro-teaching, Assessment and Reflection Model

Procedure

First, to develop a technology-enhanced micro-teaching model based on theories and recent findings in teacher education; and second, to evaluate that model’s efficacy in two double-degree courses. The model will be shared with the teacher-training programmes in the Faculty of Education as well as other faculties responsible for professional education and development (e.g., the Faculty of Medicine) at the end of the project. The success of this project will be measured in terms of the expert review of the micro-teaching model and students’ learning outcomes (i.e., students’ practical knowledge and the quality of their peer review and reflection) and feedback about the new model, as well as usage of a website established to disseminate its research outcomes.

Example Sharing

Course Description

Year 3 Group Micro-Teaching

Two teacher training courses were conducted in first semester,21-22. It occurred in a face-to-face environment (offline course) when the local epidemic situation continued to subside. Each course content consists of three modes: pedagogical theories and instructional design; teaching strategies for specific objectives and micro-teaching. These involved lectures, demonstration, discussion, sharing and micro-teaching. Assessments were conducted based on students’ lesson plans, micro-teaching performance, the quality of their peer review and their final self-reflection report.

Year 3 Course-BBED3201

The third-year course included four group micro-teaching lessons and eight lectures. Each student finished group micro-teaching twice based on collaboration. The tutor gave four lectures at beginning of the course. Then, one group micro-teaching session was followed by one lecture.

Year 4 Group Micro-Teaching

Year 4 Course-BBED4202

The fourth-year course included eight micro-teaching lessons and four lectures. The tutor gave three lectures at beginning of the course. Then, each student need finish one individual and one group micro-teaching, respectively (four individual and four group micro-teaching lessons). At the end of this course was a tutorial class for conclusion.

The Procedure of Micro-Teaching Session

1) To conduct group or individual micro-teaching.

2) The presenters will be given several minutes for self-reflection. Non-presenters and tutors need to finish an online assessment form (for more details, see ‘4.1 The Peer Review Rubric’).

3) In peer review session, the presenters will share their self-reflection at first. Then, a discussion will be carried out between the presenters, non-presenters and tutors. In this session, non-presenters and tutors will provide constructive feedback, suggestions or ask critical questions to the presentation group. On the other hand, the presenters need to respond to teacher and peer review. 

4) Students should submit a written self-reflection report after finishing micro-teaching (post-lesson).

Year 4 Individual Micro-Teaching
Teacher Review and Peer Review Session

Resources Sharing