Role of Microteaching in Acquisition of Educational Media Development and Use Skills: Perceptions of Christian Religious Education Pre-Service Teachers and Trainers in Kenya’s Public Universities

Abstract

The integration of media into teaching dominates contemporary discourse on pedagogy and forms an integral part of microteaching. Nonetheless, the use of such media in the day-to-day teaching/learning remains minimal. The purpose of the study was therefore to investigate the perceptions of CRE pre-service teachers and trainers on the availability and use of educational media during microteaching sessions in public universities in Kenya. Based on the study, this paper explores the perceptions of CRE pre-service teachers and trainers on the role of microteaching in acquisition of educational media development and use skills. The study was grounded in the Cognitive Constructivist, Media Effects and Operant Conditioning theories. It adopted a concurrent mixed methods research design embedded in the pragmatic paradigm. The four universities were purposively sampled on the criterion that they were public and offered education programmes. Purposive, stratified and simple random sampling techniques were used to select a sample of 287 pre-service teachers, 21 CRE teachers and 4 Heads of Departments. Data was collected using questionnaire, interview guide and focused group discussion guide and analysed using descriptive and thematic analysis with narration. The findings established that CRE pre-service teachers and trainers in public universities perceived the use of educational media in CRE instruction positively in terms of skills acquisition. Such media enable pre-service teachers to enhance classroom participation in a range of relevant activities and improves the teaching process. The study recommends the need to address the surging number of students in terms of increasing physical facilities and media resources, equipping trainers with technical expertise, tapping trainees’ innovative abilities to avoid compromising the quality of microteaching sessions. The study findings offer public universities a pedestal upon which to improve microteaching policy and practice to enhance skill acquisition among pre-service teachers.

Keywords: perceptions, christian religious education, pre-service teachers, trainers, skill acquisition, development, use, educational media, microteaching