Effects Of Reflective And Micro-Teaching Practices On Teaching Skills And Attitude To Teaching Practice Among Pre-Service Teachers Of English In Nigeria

ABSTRACT

A large number of pre-service English as Second Language (ESL) teachers trained in Nigeria

have deficiencies in developing and demonstrating appropriate teaching skills and attitude

during Teaching Practice (TP). This is probably as a result of their inadequate exposure to

participatory practices like Reflective Teaching Practice (RTP) and Micro-Teaching Practice

(MTP) during the exercise. Previous studies on RTP and MTP have focused on different

areas of teacher behaviour but have not sufficiently covered the area of using them to

improve the teaching skills and attitude of pre-service teachers. This study, therefore,

determined the effects of RTP and MTP on teaching skills and attitude to teaching practice

among pre-service teachers of English as second language in South-West and North-Central

states of Nigeria. The moderating effects of the pre-service teachers‘ academic ability and

gender on the dependent variables were also determined.

Pretest-posttest, control group, quasi experimental research design was adopted. The

participants were 120 pre-service ESL teachers selected through multistage sampling

technique from six colleges of education in South-West (4) and North-Central (2) states.

Participants were randomly assigned to RTP (40), MTP (40) and Control (40) groups

respectively. Pre-service ESL Teachers‘ Attitude to Teaching Practice Questionnaire (r=

0.88), Classroom Observation Scale Manual (r= 0.79), Academic Ability Rating Sheet and

two Instructional Guides, Micro Teaching Instructional Guide and Reflective Teaching

Instructional Guide (r = 0.81 and r = 0.88) were the instruments used. Seven hypotheses were

tested at 0.05 level of significance. The treatment lasted 12 weeks. Data were analysed using

Analysis of Covariance, and Scheffe‘s post-hoc test.

There was a significant main effect of treatment on ESL pre-service teachers‘ teaching skills

(F(2, 103) = 22.78; η2 = .31). Pre-service ESL teachers exposed to MTP had highest teaching

skill mean score ( = 96.37), those exposed to RTP had ( = 91.82) and control ( = 76.84).

There was also a significant main effect of treatment on the attitude of pre-service ESL

teachers to teaching practice (F (2, 103) = 5.82; η2 = .10). Pre-service ESL teachers exposed to

RTP had highest post attitude mean score ( = 61.78), than those exposed to MTP ( =59.75)

and those exposed to conventional teaching practice ( = 52.83). There were no significant

main effects of academic ability and gender on pre-service ESL teachers‘ teaching skills and

attitude towards teaching practice. Also, there were no significant interaction effects of

treatments and each of teachers‘ academic ability and gender.

Micro-teaching practice and reflective teaching practices enhanced the pre-service ESL

teachers‘ teaching skills and attitude towards teaching practice, though the latter was more

effective in Nigeria. These strategies should be adopted in improving the teaching skills of

pre-service teachers of English as second language.