Every term, the Centre for Teaching Excellence (CTE) offers microteaching sessions. These sessions provide participants the opportunity to practice different teaching methods and receive constructive feedback in a supportive, low-risk environment.
How it works
As part of the Fundamentals of University Teaching program, participants must complete three microteaching cycles. A microteaching cycle is comprised of:
- submission and acceptance of a lesson plan
- teaching an interactive lesson
- receiving and giving oral feedback
- receiving formal written feedback and assessment
Each microteaching session has four participants, one CTE facilitator, and is 2.5 hours in length. Participants are each given 15 minutes to teach their mini-lessons, followed by 15 minutes of self-reflection and peer feedback. The remaining half hour is broken down into introductions, debrief, and next steps.
Requirements
To participate, you must:
*Upon completion, you will be added to the Fundamentals LEARN site which houses resources on preparing for microteaching sessions, including information on submitting lesson plans.
Registering in microteaching sessions
To view the microteaching schedule, please visit our Microteaching Events page.
Please note: Sessions are opened for registration mid-month for the following month, and multiple sessions are offered each month, with the exception of April, August, and December. Participants can only register in one microteaching session at a time.
Frequently asked questions
What topics can I work on?
Participants must successfully complete one microteaching session on each of the following topics (in any order):
- Topic 1: A favourite theory or theorist
- Topic 2: A key concept or skill from an introductory course
- Topic 3: Your favourite teaching method
How do I submit a lesson plan?
Lesson plans are due 7 days prior to scheduled microteaching sessions and must be submitted via the LEARN dropbox.
Facilitators will evaluate lesson plans and provide feedback, on LEARN, within 2 business days. If revisions are required, participants must submit their revised lesson plan within 24 hours of receiving feedback. It is the participant's responsibility to check LEARN for this feedback and make any necessary revisions within 24 hours. If participants fail to submit on time, their registration in the session will be cancelled in order to make room for a particpant on the waitlist.
Please note that failing to submit your lesson plan or lesson plan revisions on time counts as a cancellation.
Due to high demand, microteaching sessions fill quickly and often carry a waiting list. It is important that we have measures in place that prevent repeated and short-notice cancellations. Respectfully consider:
- the learning experience of the session (i.e. one of the outcomes of the Fundamentals program is to improve the participants ability to give and receive effective feedback, which requires full attendance)
- participants waiting to enrol in our sessions
- timely completion of the Fundamentals program
With this in mind:
- To cancel your microteaching session, without penalty, you must provide 72 hours notice prior to your session. This allows CTE staff to offer the space to another student and for the other student to have enough time to prepare.
- Cancellations within 72 hours of a microteaching session will result in a 90-day probation period. During this period, you will be unable to enrol in any microteaching sessions.
- More than two cancellations in a term (regardless of the notice given) will also result in a 90-day probation period. During this period, you will be unable to enrol in any microteaching sessions.
Please note that failing to submit your lesson plan or lesson plan revisions on time counts as a cancellation.
To cancel your microteaching session, please send an email to: cte-mts@uwaterloo.ca.
How do I get prior credit recognition?
Students who have completed EMLS 601R/ESL 601R: Professional Spoken English or EMLS 621R can have one of these count in place of:
To count this course as credit for your Fundamentals microteaching, students in the course must:
- attain a minimum average grade of 70% on the oral assignments (i.e., not on the 2 tests)
- request a letter from the course instructor, after the course has finished
- forward the letter from your instructor (as a PDF) to cte-grad@uwaterloo.ca
*Note: students who receive this credit are expected to complete Topic 3 in one of their microteaching sessions
Where can I learn more about CTE's microteaching sessions?
After attending the Effective Lesson Plans (CTE202) workshop, students will be added to the Fundamentals LEARN site which houses resources on planning and preparing for microteaching sessions. You will find everything you need there to prepare for your microteaching sessions.
Have further questions? Contact us at cte-grad@uwaterloo.ca or at ext. 33132.
