Repositioning Microteaching for Quality Teacher Production in Nigeria: The Niger Delta University Experience

Abstract

For any state to be on the driver’s seat in this era of globalization, the provision of essential quality services and products by its people is a necessity. In the production of these goods and services for the development of the society, education has a great role to perform. For education in the formal setting to do this, the place of the teacher becomes a necessity. And for the teacher to do this creditably for societal development, his/her professional preparation must as a matter of necessity be of a high quality. This is so because it is quality teachers that will stimulate the rendering and production of quality services and products respectively, after all the National Policy on Education (FRN:2004:39) brought home this assertion when it opined inter alia that “… no education system may rise above the quality of its teachers…” which implies that the quality of development in a country is a function of the quality of its educational system which is being facilitated by its teachers. In the production of the teachers for this assignment, the practicum which starts with microteaching is a sine qua non. It is the opinion of these authors that the way this aspect of teacher preparation is being executed in most teacher preparation institutions will not make provision for the production of such quality teachers for development in the country. This, therefore, calls for the repositioning of this very important component of the professional preparation process of the Nigerian teacher for the challenges ahead of him on graduation from these professional preparation institutions.

Keywords: Repositioning. Microteaching, Globalization, Professionalization.