Effectiveness of microteaching as a method of developing teaching competence among in-service medical teachers

In spite of the fact that microteaching has been
practiced extensively in most universities, its actual efficacy
has not been studied systematically. In this study, there was an
attempt to quantify the efficacy of microteaching in inducing
behavioral change in teachers. We also aimed to determine the
perceived utility and ease of this process in teacher training,
using the feedback received from the participants. This feedback
along with efficacy can collectively predict the effectiveness of
microteaching. A prospective experimental study was designed using a
convenient sample of 30 faculty volunteers. After the institutional
ethics committee approval, the videos of pre-microteaching and
post-microteaching sessions from the 30 participants undergoing 5
sessions of microteaching were graded with a seven point teaching
competency scale and the participant’s perceived usefulness and
perceived ease of use was studied using a validated questionnaire.
Paired sample t-test was used to determine the efficacy of the study. Microteaching showed a statistically significant
improvement among the behavior of the participants after five
sessions of microteaching. All the parameters in the scale showed
a statistically significant improvement. Though the participants
felt that this method was useful, the majority of them felt it is a
very time consuming process requiring resources. Hence, the overall effectiveness in in-service
teaching process was limited for microteaching in this current
scenario; though microteaching induced positive behaviour
change, it was time consuming and also it was difficult to arrange
a peer group to enrole