Does “Microteaching” Meet Pre-Service Teacher's Expectations?

Abstract

Practically every academic institution and official body that is involved in the preparation of teachers of every educational grade and orientation regarding didactic practice in class, has included “Microteaching” in its academic curriculum as a basic subject. However, what is the attitude of students themselves towards this subject? What are their expectations? Does it eventually meet these expectations? What kind of knowledge and skills does it provide them with? This current research attempts to give insight to such queries, as it aims at researching the views of 115 student teachers on the subject “Microteaching”. These views have been documented in short texts that students were asked to produce both in the beginning of the academic semester-after receiving initial information – and in its end - after their training was completed. This study makes use of a double perspective: it focuses on the one hand on their expectations from this subject, while on the other on their critical overall assessment, in order to formulate a thorough and rounded picture regarding the subject “Microteaching” through the viewpoint of the students who are trained in it.