EXAMINING PRIMARY PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS’ DIFFICULTIES OF MATHEMATICS TEACHING WITH THE MICRO-TEACHING METHOD

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Rizky

The study examines primary pre-service teachers’ difficulties in teaching mathematics using the micro-teaching method. Fifteen third-grade pre-service teachers from the primary education department participated, teaching mathematics through micro-teaching sessions within a 40-minute period. Semi-structured interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed through qualitative pattern identification and answer categorization. Findings show concerns about classroom management, excitement, lack of materials, and ineffective time use, with micro-teaching’s artificial nature negatively affecting planning implementation.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages10

Reading Time25 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Micro-teaching in teacher training

Characteristics and stages of micro-teaching

EXAMINING PRIMARY PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS’DIFFICULTIES OF MATHEMATICS TEACHING WITH THE MICRO-TEACHING METHOD Savaş Baştürk, Mehtap Taştepe Abstract: The purpose of the study was to examine primary pre-service teachers’ difficulties of the teaching of mathematics with micro-teaching method. The participants of the study were 15 third grade pre-service teachers from the department of primary education in the faculty of education. In this grade which includes four sections, there were approximately 150 pre-service teachers. All of them taught mathematics with the micro-teaching method in a period of 40 minutes. To gather data, a semi-structured interview was administered. Later the recorded interviews were transferred to written texts and analysed. The pre-service teachers’ responses were qualitatively analysed to characterize patterns and categorize answers. The main results of the study revealed that before the teaching the pre-service teachers were concerned about classroom management, excitement, lack of materials, unable to use time effectively. A majority of them indicated that, during their teaching, they were most forced into managing classroom and encouraging students’ class participation. The artificial nature of micro-teaching negatively influenced pre-service teachers’ classroom management and prevented to implement their teaching plans as they wished. Key words: Mathematics teaching; primary education; pre-service teachers; micro-teaching. 1. Introduction In training persons the society needs, the importance of the educational institutions is not deniable. Definitely the most basic elements of these institutions are teachers. Therefore, teachers in both preservice and in-service should be trained in the best way. Yet, negatives in teachers’ behaviours are atthe top of the causes of students’ failure (Oktar & Bulduk, 1999) . Being teacher is a process which includes theory and practice, and asks pre-service teachers to improve themselves in many aspects. Conversely, many studies highlight that the most of novel teachers are difficulties in transforming their content knowledge into a form in which students are able to understand (Canbazoğlu, 2008; Simmons et al., 1999; Veal, Tippins & Bell, 1998). These problems in composing theory and practice increase the importance given to teaching practices and micro-teaching applications in teacher training area day after day (Baştürk, 2009) . First, micro-teaching has been used by Dwight Allen to train medicine students at Stanford University in the early 1970s. Then, it started to be adapted into teacher training area to help teachers and preservice teachers acquire and improve new teaching skills (He & Yan, 2011) . The following unique characteristics distinguish micro-teaching from the other pre-service teachers’ training methods (Allen & Ryan, 1969): 􀁸 Micro-teaching offers pre-service teachers an authentic teaching environment. So, teacher’s and student’s role are clearly identified. 􀁸 Pre-service teachers only focus on a specific teaching skills in each micro-teaching session. It helps them to only concentrate on their teaching by reducing the complexity of normal classroom teaching. 􀁸 Pre-service teachers’ teaching is video recorded and reviewed in order to increase the supervision of practice. It can significantly expand the traditional knowledge-of-results or feedback dimension. Asiabaka and Emenalo (2011) do not find right that teacher education institutions send pre-service teachers to practicum schools without providing them to master teaching skills through learning to teach. In fact, with programs whose the theoretical side is more dominant, it is difficult to answer to the question “how best teachers are to be prepared for teaching which led to the emergence of microteaching in teacher education”(Ijioma, Obasi & Ifegbo, 2014, p.22). As is known, for some professions such as medicine, law, engineering, there are some specific skills to be requ

FAQs

How were participants and data collected in the study?

The study involved 15 third-grade pre-service teachers. Semi-structured interviews were recorded, transcribed into written form, and analyzed qualitatively to identify patterns and categorize responses.

What difficulties did pre-service teachers report before and during teaching?

Before teaching, they were concerned about classroom management, excitement, lack of materials, and ineffective time use. During teaching, many felt most pressured to manage the classroom and encourage student participation.

How did micro-teaching affect the participants’ teaching plans and classroom management?

The study indicates that the artificial nature of micro-teaching negatively influenced classroom management and prevented pre-service teachers from implementing their teaching plans as they wished.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Rizky