Five classmates seated in a semicircle, a supervisor holding a rating scale, and exactly 10 minutes on the clock. That is the micro-teaching session as most Indian B. Ed students experience it — controlled, observed, and over before the chalk dust settles. For teacher trainees, it is the first encounter with deliberate, isolated skill practice. For experienced CBSE teachers, it remains one of the most practical forms of school-based professional development available.
This guide breaks down the micro teaching lesson plan from first principles: the NCERT-defined parameters, the six-step cycle, the core skills your plan must target, and a complete template you can adapt for your subject and class today.
What is Micro-Teaching in the Indian Context?
Micro-teaching reduces the complexity of a full lesson to isolate one skill at a time. A teacher trainee teaches a short segment to a small group, typically 5 to 10 students, for no longer than 5 to 10 minutes. A supervisor observes and rates the session using a standardized scale. Then the group discusses what happened, the trainee revises, and teaches again.
The Indian model, developed by NCERT, builds on the original Stanford University concept (Allen and Ryan, 1969) but adapts it specifically for the B. Ed curriculum and CBSE-affiliated classrooms. NCERT specifies three defining parameters: a class of 5-10 students, a teaching duration of 5-10 minutes, and an explicit focus on a single pedagogical skill per cycle. This focus-and-repeat structure is what separates micro-teaching from standard practice teaching, where trainees manage a full lesson across 35-45 minutes without isolating any particular competency.
For in-service CBSE teachers, this connection matters directly. School-based micro-teaching can count toward annual professional development obligations, making it a practical way to build structured practice time into your existing responsibilities rather than treating it as an add-on.ed micro-teaching sessions as a valid internal professional development activity. Documenting these sessions with a written plan, an observation record, and a feedback summary is how many schools build a credible evidence trail for the board.
The 6 Steps of the Micro-Teaching Cycle
The complete micro-teaching cycle, as used across Indian teacher training institutes, follows six sequential steps. Many B.Ed programmes structure the full cycle to run around 36 minutes, though exact timings may vary by institution.
Step 1: Plan (6 minutes)
The trainee prepares a focused micro teaching lesson plan targeting one skill. The plan specifies a learning objective, the teacher activities, the expected student responses, and how understanding will be checked. Every element of the plan should serve the single skill being practiced — nothing more.
Step 2: Teach (6 minutes)
The trainee delivers the lesson to a small peer group acting as students. A supervisor observes and records specific behaviors on a rating scale: how many examples were used, whether comprehension was checked, how student responses were handled.
Step 3: Feedback (6 minutes)
The supervisor and peer group give structured feedback. Effective feedback is timestamped and specific: "You gave three examples to explain past tense, but after the second one, three students looked confused and you moved on without checking" is more useful than "good explanation, but needs more clarity."
Step 4: Re-plan (6 minutes)
The trainee revises the micro teaching lesson plan based on feedback received. This might mean reordering activities, adding a comprehension check, changing the stimulus material, or cutting content to make room for student response.
Step 5: Re-teach (6 minutes)
The trainee delivers the revised lesson — ideally to a different small group, to avoid the prior-familiarity effect where peers already know what to expect.
Step 6: Re-feedback (6 minutes)
A second observation and feedback round confirms whether the targeted skill has improved. This step is what distinguishes micro-teaching from ordinary practice. Without it, the cycle produces reflection but not necessarily change.
Record each session — even a short audio recording on a phone gives trainees something to self-assess before the feedback conversation. Research on self-regulated learning consistently shows that self-assessment combined with external feedback produces stronger skill development than external feedback alone.
Core Micro-Teaching Skills for NCERT Curriculum
A micro teaching lesson plan targets one specific pedagogical skill per cycle. NCERT and most Indian B. Ed programs identify six core skills as essential for pre-service and in-service teachers alike.
Skill of Introduction
This is the skill of capturing student attention and connecting new content to prior knowledge within the first 2-3 minutes of a lesson. In a CBSE English classroom, a strong introduction might use a visual prompt, a short anecdote, or a single guiding question before the new concept is named. The most common trainee error here is starting with the definition before establishing why the topic matters to the students sitting in front of them.
Skill of Explanation
Explanation is not summarizing. It involves sequenced examples, analogies, and comprehension checks that build understanding rather than just transmit information. For Class 9 Science, explaining diffusion requires moving from the familiar (the smell of incense crossing a room) to the unfamiliar: particle movement across membranes. The skill is evaluated on sequencing, variety of examples, and how often the teacher verifies understanding before moving on.
Skill of Probing Questions
Probing questions push students beyond recall. "What is photosynthesis?" retrieves a definition. "If a plant has no sunlight for three days, what happens to its starch reserves — and why?" requires the student to reason from a principle. Practicing this skill trains teachers to build comprehension rather than just measure it.
Skill of Stimulus Variation
A teacher who stands in one spot, maintains one pace, and uses one medium loses most students by the fifteen-minute mark. Stimulus variation trains deliberate shifts: moving around the room, switching from lecture to paired discussion, using the board, then a diagram, then a student demonstration. The skill is managed variation that sustains cognitive engagement, not arbitrary variety.
Skill of Reinforcement
Reinforcement is how teachers respond to student behavior and answers. Specific positive reinforcement — "That's an interesting angle; can you connect it to what we read yesterday?" — is more effective than generic praise. This skill matters because untrained teachers often default to either over-praising every answer equally or failing to acknowledge responses at all.
Skill of Blackboard Writing
In CBSE classrooms, particularly in government-aided and semi-rural schools, the blackboard remains the primary visual medium. This skill covers layout, legibility, appropriate abbreviation, and the sequencing of information as the lesson develops. A well-organized board gives students a visual record of the lesson's logic.
Sample Micro-Teaching Lesson Plan: Class 9 English (NCERT)
The template below is designed for the skill of explanation, using figurative language in Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken (NCERT Beehive, Poem 1) as the content vehicle.
Micro Teaching Lesson Plan
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Name of Trainee | [Your Name] |
| Subject | English |
| Class | IX |
| Topic | Figurative Language: Metaphor and Symbolism in The Road Not Taken |
| Skill Practiced | Skill of Explanation |
| Duration | 8 minutes |
| No. of Students | 7 |
| Date | [Date] |
Learning Objective: Students will identify at least one metaphor or symbol in the poem and explain its meaning in their own words.
Materials: Printed poem extract (NCERT Beehive, p. 14), whiteboard, marker.
| Step | Teacher Activity | Student Activity | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Introduction | Ask: "Has anyone faced a decision you couldn't reverse? What made it hard?" | 2-3 students share briefly. | 1 min |
| Explanation 1 | Read lines 1-4 aloud. State: "Frost uses two roads to represent a life choice — they are real roads, but they mean something larger." Write on board: Metaphor = concrete image representing an abstract idea. | Students listen; copy definition. | 2 min |
| Explanation 2 | Ask: "If the road represents a life decision, what does 'the one less traveled by' represent?" Explain: the divergence symbolizes individuality and non-conformity. | Students offer interpretations; teacher responds and builds on them. | 2 min |
| Comprehension Check | Cold-call two students: "Name one thing the road could symbolize in your own life." | Students articulate personal connections to the metaphor. | 2 min |
| Closure | Summarize: "Frost's metaphor works because divergence is universal — everyone faces a crossroads." | Students record the definition and one example in their exercise books. | 1 min |
Supervisor Observation Checklist:
- Explanation was logically sequenced from familiar to unfamiliar
- At least two examples or analogies were used
- Comprehension was checked before moving to the next step
- Board writing was legible and organized
- Pace matched the group's response time
The objective line in this plan is deliberately specific: not "students will understand metaphor" but "students will identify at least one metaphor and explain its meaning in their own words." That specificity makes the supervisor's observation and the re-plan far more productive.
Modernizing Micro-Teaching: AI and Digital Feedback
The most persistent criticism of traditional micro-teaching is not the concept but the feedback quality. Supervisor availability varies across institutions. Peer feedback often stays polite and vague. The six-minute feedback window rarely allows for the kind of detailed, evidence-based conversation that produces real change. These are structural problems that technology is starting to address directly.
AI-powered tools can analyze recorded micro-teaching sessions and return specific, timestamped feedback — flagging moments where the teacher spoke for more than 90 seconds without student interaction, or identifying where comprehension checks were absent. That kind of granular analysis is difficult for a human observer managing multiple trainees and a rating form simultaneously.
Platforms like Flip Education integrate video-based observation directly into teacher training workflows. A trainee records their 8-minute session on a phone, uploads it, and receives a structured transcript with annotations before the re-plan step begins. For remote B. Ed programs, where traditional micro-teaching requires physical co-presence, this asynchronous model solves a real logistical problem.
Video-based platforms that support asynchronous observation are particularly useful for remote B. Ed cohorts. Supervisors review recordings at a set time and return written or recorded feedback within 24 hours — preserving the structure of the micro-teaching cycle without requiring real-time coordination across geography.
There is a documented gap between the micro-teaching competencies developed during pre-service training and their application in a real 40-student CBSE classroom. Part of what closes that gap is continued, structured practice after the B. Ed year. Digital tools make that continuation realistic — micro-teaching does not have to stop being useful the day a teacher receives their certificate.
Micro vs. Macro Teaching: Key Differences
| Dimension | Micro-Teaching | Macro Teaching (Standard Lesson) |
|---|---|---|
| Class Size | 5-10 students (peers or real pupils) | 25-45 students |
| Duration | 5-10 minutes | 35-45 minutes |
| Skill Focus | One specific pedagogical skill | Multiple skills integrated |
| Observation | Structured (rating scales, video) | Informal or periodic |
| Feedback | Immediate, systematic | Delayed or inconsistent |
| Objective | Skill acquisition and refinement | Curriculum coverage and learning |
| Context | Simulated or controlled | Real classroom dynamics |
| Complexity | Low (reduced variables) | High (full classroom variables) |
The transition from micro to macro teaching is where many B. Ed graduates encounter difficulty. Practicing a skill in front of seven peers is structurally different from deploying it with 35 students of varying attention spans, prior knowledge, and social dynamics. Progressive practice helps: micro-teaching with peers, then a small group of real students, then a full class with an observer present.
What This Means for CBSE Teachers
A well-constructed micro teaching lesson plan is a professional discipline, not just a training requirement. It is the practice of isolating one aspect of your teaching, designing a short session around it, watching what happens, and using that observation to improve. That process is as useful in year fifteen of teaching as it is in the B. Ed program.
For trainees preparing for practice teaching: write the objective of your micro teaching lesson plan with a verb that can be observed. "Students will understand" is not observable. "Students will identify," "students will explain," or "students will give one example" are. That shift makes the supervisor's feedback specific, the re-plan meaningful, and the re-teach measurably different from the first attempt.
For in-service CBSE teachers working toward the 50-hour training requirement: two colleagues, a phone, and a printed observation checklist are enough to run a complete 36-minute cycle. What makes it count professionally, and what makes it worth doing, is taking the re-teach step seriously. The skill is not in the plan. It is in the cycle.
