Microteaching as a reflective training tool for secondary school teachers

Abstract

The present contribution examines a tool for teacher training: microteaching. Microteaching – a technique developed in the 1960s at Stanford University as a professional development practice for teachers and as an educational research tool – is a simple and ‘old’ idea, but one that can foster processes of reflectivity, self-analysis and peer-analysis in teaching, teacher training and self-training. The research presented in this contribution is a multiple case study and involves two large, heterogeneous groups of teachers at vocational schools who were involved in assessment procedures for confirming their professional status. From the analysis and discussion of the case study, a pedagogical reflection on the practice of peer microteaching is proposed, as a tool to promote reflectivity and to make teaching visible and, consequently, as an opportunity to learn how to improve one’s own teaching.