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Our instructional team has also begun to examine ways in which we can embed
some of the structural elements of our microteach design into our individual content
methods courses as well. For example, we have identified areas of our courses where
we can increase the opportunities for students to engage in mastery experiences via
microteaching to their peers (which subsequently can result in vicarious experiences
as they observe peer instruction). We have also learned the value of providing
scaffolds, such as sentence frames, and of tying teaching practice to the InTASC
teaching standards to facilitate meaningful, targeted feedback on these teaching
opportunities from peers and instructors. It is our hope that supplementing the
typical 6-week block of field experience with some of the new tools and strategies
we gained while implementing a hybrid model will afford extended opportunities for
our preservice teachers to grow in confidence and teaching competence.

Potential Implications for Other Teacher Preparation Programs
The lessons learned from our reflections on the incorporation of microteaches as
an alternative approach to foster self-efficacy in our preservice teachers may be of
benefit to other teacher preparation programs beyond our own. As a result, we offer
several recommendations for faculty who lead teacher preparation programs and
who may be interested in incorporating microteaches. First, it is critical to have clear
goals for the implementation of the microteach. What skills, strategies, or teaching
standards are preservice teachers practicing and working to master? Identifying this
target and unpacking it with them prior to the microteach allows both the teacher and
the observer to engage in the experience with the same lens. Preservice teachers are
able to craft and implement lessons that focus on a specific element of their praxis,
and instructors and peers have a specific goal in mind as they observe so they can
offer intentional, meaningful feedback.
Additionally, we recognized that preservice teachers often need to see and
experience descriptive feedback modeled so they have an understanding of what
constitutes quality, actionable feedback. Preservice teachers can benefit from
scaffolds such as sentence frames to help them practice crafting their comments in
constructive and supportive ways for peers while still offering candid insights. We
also found that providing critical feedback to peers can be uncomfortable at first.
Ensuring that students can collaborate regularly with their peers in small groups to
garner trust can facilitate their engaging more openly in these types of conversations.
Faculty must assess where their preservice teachers are developmentally in terms of
their experiences in receiving and giving feedback to ascertain what types of support
may best suit their learning needs. Incorporating structures such as this can help
facilitate peer feedback that is of high quality.
Finally, our team came to appreciate the types of logistics that go into facilitating
microteaches in such a way that maximizes the experience for students. We found
it is imperative to keep a small student-to-instructor ratio so that we can fully focus
on individual learners. To do so, faculty must examine issues such as the available
physical space, timing, and potential methods of capturing evidence of preservice
teachers’ teaching experiences in order to provide individualized feedback.
Intentional organization and planning became an imperative component of our
microteach implementation model, and although we offer suggestions here, we
recognize that individual teacher preparation programs will need to assess the needs
that are specific to their students and models.

Schools Fostering a More Equitable World 33