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

Introduction: In spite of the fact that microteaching has beenpracticed extensively in most universities, its actual efficacyhas not been studied systematically. In this study, there was anattempt to quantify the efficacy of microteaching in inducingbehavioral change in teachers. We also aimed to determine theperceived utility and ease of this process in teacher training,using the feedback received from the participants. This feedbackalong with efficacy can collectively predict the effectiveness ofmicroteaching.Methods: A prospective experimental study was designed using aconvenient sample of 30 faculty volunteers. After the institutionalethics committee approval, the videos of pre-microteaching andpost-microteaching sessions from the 30 participants undergoing 5sessions of microteaching were graded with a seven point teachingcompetency scale and the participant’s perceived usefulness andperceived ease of use was studied using a validated questionnaire.Paired sample t-test was used to determine the efficacy of the study.Results: Microteaching showed a statistically significantimprovement among the behavior of the participants after fivesessions of microteaching. All the parameters in the scale showeda statistically significant improvement. Though the participantsfelt that this method was useful, the majority of them felt it is avery time consuming process requiring resources.Conclusion: Hence, the overall effectiveness in in-serviceteaching process was limited for microteaching in this currentscenario; though microteaching induced positive behaviourchange, it was time consuming and also it was difficult to arrangea peer group to enrole.Keywords: Microteaching, Efficacy, Usefulness, Effectiveness, Teacher training