A sample of microteaching in environmental education and its effect on pre-service teachers’ presenting effective lessons

The findings obtained in this study that is designed in order to introduce a TV program simulation prepared based on microteaching technique into environmental education and to determine the effect of it on their lecturing in the class are as follows.

It is observed that television program simulation designed in line with the content of environmental education course is suitable for the microteaching technique and the technique increased the students’ interests, excitements and wishes to participate in the course. Furthermore, it is confirmed that after microteaching application students know better how to start the course and their worries stemming from not being able to answer the questions of the students, experimenting chaos in using course tools, their lectures’ falling short, and the fear of lecturing in front of the students decreased. On the other hand, worries of the students resulting from making mistakes while lecturing, not knowing how to correct the mistakes they can make during the course, the possibility of being criticized, not knowing how to react against irrelevant questions from the students and not being able to run the lesson smoothly decreased to a great extent as a result of TV program microteaching application.

Moreover, the worries of the pre-service teachers such as not knowing how to react against a student constantly stringing up troubles during the course, not being able to manage the class, not being able to adjust their tones and speaking speed decreased to a great extent depending on microteaching technique, at the end of the application the pre-service teachers were found to feel themselves more ready for the role of teaching. It was also found that their worries about getting confused during the lesson, the fear of lecturing in front of the students, the possibility of not being able to form meaningful sentences also decreased as a result of microteaching application.

In addition, due to the microteaching application, the worries of pre-service teachers such as not generating a group discussion due to the possibility of not being able to control the class, not being able to simplify the subject so that student can understand, not knowing how to direct students’ attention and interest to the subject, forgetting what to say while lecturing, what kind of demonstration method they should use in subjects requiring applications dropped significantly. Moreover, their anxieties about what kind of reinforcement they should give to students who correctly contribute to the lesson, not being able to contact with the students, not being patient while lecturing, not being able to control their feelings while lecturing and not knowing how to end the course decreased significantly at the end of the application.

Görgen (2003), in his study focusing on whether there is a difference between the views of pre-service teachers about lecturing in pre and post-microteaching, states that microteaching caused some positive alterations on pre-service teachers’ views of lecturing in the class. Microteaching is found to be efficient to make them more comfortable and to reduce their shyness (Çakır, 2000; Külahçı, 1994). In microteaching technique, the steps followed are presenting the lesson, recording it, watching it on TV again, removing its deficiencies by discussing and deciding on what can be done to make it better. This may help to reduce pre-service teachers’ worries of how to correct the mistakes while lecturing (Demirel, 2000). Microteaching applications give positive results in solving the problems pre-service teachers encounter during the lesson and in the management of the class (Çakır, 2000; Külahçı, 1994). Akalın (2005) asserts that microteaching prepares pre-service teachers more effectively to their professions in comparison with the traditional teaching. These results support the present study’s findings.

Karçkay and Sanlı (2009) have come to the conclusion that microteaching applications affect pre-school pre-service teachers’ teaching competences positively. Pre-school teacher candidates carrying out microteaching applications are found to be more efficient during lecturing as they kill some of their worries in the classroom setting and as it causes them to feel more comfortable (Sarı et al., 2005).

Many studies indicating that microteaching activities help pre-service teachers to suppress their anxiety levels, overcome their doubts and fears, increase their consciousness about teaching profession, be efficient in all the matters about teaching self-competence, make contact with students, direct students’ interests to the course, use time efficiently, benefit from education technologies and provide classroom management support (Arends, 2000; Kpanja, 2001; Karamustafaoğlu & Akdeniz, 2002; Fernandez, 2005; Fernández & Robinson, 2006, Ogeyik, 2009) are in compliance with the present study .

In light of the findings of the present study, it is possible to say that TV program simulation designed in accordance with the microteaching technique is effective to a great extent in reducing the worries of pre-service teachers about lecturing and in increasing their self-confidence and their interest and excitement about the environmental education course. Consequently, introduced TV program simulation method is suggested to be used especially in teacher education institutions and also in all levels of teaching. The missing equipments required for the healthy execution of microteaching applications should be provided. This application is thought to be important in terms of applying the microteaching technique in environmental education and make pre-service teachers volunteer practitioners of these applications. It is suggested that further research may look at the effects of TV program simulation at different levels of schooling on variables such as environmental consciousness, environmental attitude and behavior.