The Impact Of Micro Teaching On Students’ Teaching Practice Performance In Ilorin Secondary Schools

The use of the concept of micro-teaching started in Nigeria in 1974. It was the effort of UNESCO at Alvan Ikoku College of Education Owerri that ushered in microteaching in Nigeria. From there, micro-teaching spread to other tertiary institutions like College of Education Abraka now Delta State University and College of Education Awka. Microteaching was not only found effective for training teachers in Nigerian Colleges of Education but also in Nigerian Universities and Institutes of Education. Some scholars in University of Ilorin, Obafemi Awolowo University Ife and University of Ibadan studied and examined the effectiveness of microteaching on the student teachers’ performances in teaching practice exercise in 1980s. The findings were encouraging and it was recommended for Nigerian Universities, Colleges of Education and Institutes of Education as the training technique in teachers’ preparation.
 In 1990s, the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) in Nigeria made mandated microteaching a part of accreditation requirements that must be properly put in place under Educational Technology Centre. It used to be a course (EDU213) for two credits in Colleges of Education but since 2010, two courses are attached to microteaching (EDU213, Theory and EDU 223, Practicum). Student teachers are expected to register for the two courses, offer them and pass them before they are posted out for teaching practice exercise.
Similarly, the National University Commission (NUC) has recommended microteaching as compulsory course for all Teachers Trainees in all Institutes and Faculties of Education. Virtually all tertiary institutions running teacher education program today adopt the concept of micro-teaching. The institutions are Federal, State and private Colleges of Education, Faculties of Education in Universities, Department of Education in Polytechnics and Institutes of Education such as National Teachers’ Institute, Kaduna. Micro-teaching is one of the compulsory courses in the NCCE guidelines for minimum standard for NCE graduates.
 All student teachers at the end of their training are expected not only to pass certain prescribed set of written examinations but also to attain level of competency in the task of teaching. Micro-teaching has become the most effective strategy for ensuring the attainment of the expected level of competency in teacher education.
Objectives and nature of Microteaching
    Teacher education is the special training that is meant for teachers and teaching profession. One of the components of teacher education program is practice. Before student teachers are thrown to the normal classroom for teaching practice, they undergo microteaching which equips them for acquisition of teaching skills. According to Ijaiya (2013), one of the recurring problems in teacher education is skill acquisition in teaching. The pre-service teachers are exposed to rudiments of teaching through microteaching.
Saxena and Khajanchee (2012) and Ambili (2013) identified three phases of microteaching. They are: knowledge acquisition phase, skill acquisition phase and transfer phase. The knowledge acquisition phase is described as pre-active phase. During knowledge acquisition, student teachers learn about the skills and their components through orientation, lectures, discussions, tutorials, illustrations and demonstration of the skills given by the experts. They learn about the purpose of the skill and condition under which it proves useful in the teaching-learning process. They learn a lot about the skills from the demonstration given by the experts.