My reflection on Micro Teaching a class

"What a practical assessment task Microteaching in EDST8237 was. Despite being in a coaching capacity for 8 years, turning on Zoom and knowing I need to 'microteach' to two, respectful and mature people who have to deliver a similar microteaching task, my palms were a bit sweaty and I noticed irregularity in my breathing. Right around the first minute however, I began to ease in and the years of repetition echoed its familiarity and I was in the zone. Watching the recording of my microteaching, I could tell I was later in the flow state.

Looking back for the sake of this task and for the sake of everything in my life, I aim to always look at the big picture and not get lost in the details. The big picture of being a student is someone who may or may not be consciously willing to learn. As I reflect, I’m reminded of the first tutorial of EDST8200, we were encouraged to think about what it means to be a teacher. I am a firm believer that a teacher is a student; we are always learning. Thankfully, the two 'students' in my microteaching task were willing, sympathetic listeners and I am extremely mindful that the students I will teach will not be so kind. Engagement is crucial yet forcing engagement will be felt by students and not be responded to with optimal results. To put simply, if I cannot be sincerely myself, the students will sense it and act against me whether it be in the immediate short term or some point in the future. As a teacher I’d like to reach the students who are willing and aren’t consciously willing to learn.

At the heart of my microteaching experience, the overarching theme at the back of my mind was that my 'students' are human beings. A one-way street of me as a teacher, speaking about the Stage 5 Commerce syllabus outcomes in length or me as a teacher, whether passionately or not, talking about some theory or concept on my own, will not have the highest probability of success. John Hattie (2009), arguably the Southern Hemisphere's most dedicated educator to his research, highlights the power of 'visibility'. Visibility equates to something being seen immediately, something our current society is well accustomed to. Being mindful of this, I had to visibly engage the 'students'. I told them within seconds, the goal of the lesson was to understand "how anything can be made into a business." Immediately after, within seconds, I asked the 'students', "what are you passionate about?" I believe it is helpful to consider 'engagement' as a holistic term, where we want to engage every single student in the class as much as possible. As our Microteaching task involved teaching BELFORD HIGH SCHOOL, there would be a sizeable range in outliers whether it be attitude towards learning or performance. As a teacher, I need to engage both outliers, by speaking in a manner that is understandable to a year 9 co-educational public school. As Hattie (2009) synthesises simply, transparency and simplicity are key.

Similar to my beliefs in seeing the big picture, EDST8200 and EDST8237's textbook 'Teaching: Making a difference' (Churchill, 2018) recommended to "pause and stand back," during teaching to observe the responses of students. I view teaching very much like a two way conversation. During classes, there are clear and sometimes not so clear signs of disengagement, particularly if there isn’t that ‘two way conversation’. The clear examples are if the students are on their phone or not looking or yawning. Some subtle examples but just as evident of disengagement could be saying “yes” repeatedly, nodding out of context or looking blank. I believe it's also important to recognise consciously, that this is a learnt skill from experience; time spent in the classroom and leading students. Churchill (2018) also portrays teaching and learning as "experiential". Experiences are multifaceted more so in person, and with technology, it may be more multimodal. I aimed to make my microteaching experiential by engaging the human within the 'students'. I tried to get them to think about their own life experiences and engage with themselves while engaging with me. This process of reaching them is described by Churchill as "requiring emotive and survival responses." Indeed, I believe as humans, the more we are engaged with our core primal senses, often referred to as the five senses, the more we are likely to engage. As aforementioned, over complication and dwelling on syllabus outcomes for Stage 5 students at Belford High School or any school for that matter, will not create an 'experiential' experience. Perhaps this was what Tasmanian academic Jeffrey Thomas (2019) was implying when he meant 'group punishment doesn't fix behaviour - it just make kids hate school.' He elaborates this implication, in my opinion, further through "each individual should have ownership for their own actions." For my teaching, this means I need to engage each individual through personalisation by paradox: engage one to engage all.

The prescribed readings of Lee (2020) and AITSL had some key takeaways for me. In alignment with my above reflections, Lee (2020) conveys how a teacher needs to be professional but also authentic. Even through the medium of Zoom or whatever other digital learning platform, students can pick up on teachers beyond searching them up prior to ever meeting them. Students can pick up on voice tone, facial expressions and so much more. As such, I aimed to be as organic as possible and true to my character during the microteaching; just like a conversation. Lee puts this as "letting the students take control", with moderation. AITSL expands on this further by highlighting the age old saying, "quality over quantity." I believe this was particularly true with only 10 minutes to teach, I didn't want to take up precious time with Youtube videos or even picking up a phone to do an online quiz through a QR code. I perceived the priority of 'quality' in this microteaching was engagement. In the PEER EVALUATION FORMS, the 'students' endorsed me on my efforts of engagement, however I was suggested to use "more technology". I am still at dissonance with this and look forward to experiencing more to clarify my stance on this. Being conscious of sounding self-defensive, I believe Anderson and Krathwohl's revised Taxonomy (2001) affirms my recurring motif of 'engagement' through simplicity by having the foundation of the 'pyramid' as "remember". To truly create something, one must first remember. Within this Information Age, quantity is the cosmos. As a teacher, I have the responsibility to simplify accurately, efficiently and as humanly as possible.

Ultimately, I am grateful for EDST8237 for introducing me to Fisher and Frey (2013)'s Gradual Release of Responsibility (GRR) framework. This theory has captured my values and has given further definition to my teaching style and goals. With this microcosm of microteaching, this task has given us a taste of GRR to us as teachers. In turn, as with the ‘circular’ nature of life metaphorically, we as teachers, will be imparting GRR to our students and so on. I must remain open-minded and remind myself that nothing is concrete and that learning is forever, so long as I have the attitude of a willing student towards learning. I look forward to the exciting journey ahead with continuous incremental development.

AITSL (n.d). What works in online/Distance Teaching and Learning. Resource 1: Advice for teachers delivering content online.

Anderson, L. W., Krathwohl, D. R., & Bloom, B. S. (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of educational objectives (Complete ed.). Longman.

Churchill, R. (2018). Teaching: Making a Difference, 5th edition. Melbourne: Wiley.

Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2013). Better learning through structured teaching: A framework for the gradual release of responsibility (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Hattie, J. (2009). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. Routledge.

Lee, K. (2020, March 17). Coronavirus: 14 simple tips for better online teaching. The Conversation

Thomas, J. (2019). Group punishment doesn't fix behaviour - it just makes kids hate school. The Conversation."