Micro-teaching
Instructions

What is micro-teaching?

Micro-teaching is a shorter version of the process that you go through to prepare and teach a lesson. Micro-teaching Sessions brings together a small group of peer faculty members to observe each other teach short lessons and to provide and gain feedback on teaching. Micro-teaching Sessions allow faculty to focus on teaching and assessment strategies in a non-threatening environment, and receive supportive feedback on their teaching from their peers.

What do I need to do to prepare for micro-teaching?

At Micro-teaching Sessions, you will prepare a 15-minute lesson that will include questions from the “students,” your peer observers. Plan a lesson that would be suitable for an online, synchronous session. You will have one hour to prepare your lesson. Please keep to your time limit as we must ensure that everyone will have equal time to participate and receive feedback.

You may use: presentation software, digital handouts, online engagement tools (e.g., Padlet, Mentimeter), etc. Please have these ready to go before you present your activity.

You will be facilitating your activity using Zoom. If you are not familiar with Zoom, you should:

• download Zoom (you can do so here)

• activate your Seneca Zoom account (instructions can be found here)

For more Zoom support for this event, see the Using Zoom page.

For more information about using Zoom in your courses, see the Teaching with Zoom webpage from the Teaching & Learning Centre.

Steps for Preparing Micro-Teaching Lesson

What do I teach?

We would like you to choose one of the five topics below that you feel most comfortable teaching. These are generic topics that can be accessible by anyone in your audience. Assume that you will be teaching to first-year learners and the content is new to them. Keep the lesson focused on a clear learning outcome and streamline your material. Micro-teaching emphasizes how you present your topic and the impact it has on your audience.

Topics:

1. Harnessing the Power of AI with your Students

2. Preparing for Job Interviews

3. Learning with Social Media

4. In the News – current events

5. How We Learn – best practices and study tips

Theme: Assessment and Feedback

The focus of this Micro-teaching Sessions is on assessment and feedback. Your lesson should include a strategy for checking-in on students' understanding of the lesson and providing them with feedback. How do we know whether students have achieved the intended outcome(s)? How do students know?

The 15-minute lesson plan should include the following five items:

1. Learning Outcome

What will the students be able to do or know by the end of the lesson?

2. Minds On

The Minds On is the first part of the lesson to get your students cognitively prepared for the task in the next part of the lesson. Students may revisit concepts or strategies related to the learning outcome and provide opportunities for students to activate prior knowledge. This introduction should provide motivation to the students.

3. Action

The Action is the part of the lesson during which students explore and investigate a new concept. Students can work in small groups, in pairs, individually, or as a whole class. When developing your learning activity, keep in mind our overall objective of creating conversations in your classroom.

4. Assessment and Feedback

How will you know that your students have accomplished the learning outcome? How will students know? Include a quick check for understanding that allows you and your students to monitor learning progress. Remember, formative assessments are ungraded and most effective when accompanied by immediate feedback.

5. Consolidate and Debrief

How will you know that you have accomplished your learning outcome? The purpose of the Consolidate and Debrief is to connect the concepts to the actions students took during the lesson and consolidate their understanding. What the faculty member learns from this discussion will guide the direction of future lessons or activities.

Feel free to use the micro-teaching lesson plan.

At Micro-teaching Sessions, you will assess your own performance as well as provide feedback for the other lessons observed in your group. Review these guidelines on observations and feedback.

Finally, this is a great opportunity for you to experiment with your teaching/presentation style. This micro-teaching session is about your learning and not about creating the perfect lesson or presentation. Have some fun!