Abstract:

Recently, a lot of attention has been paid to the necessity to increase the quality of pre-gradual teacher training programmes at universities in Slovakia and to adapt their content to the current needs and requirements of students, the society and the labour market. DTI University in Dubnica nad Váhom, Slovakia, has implemented a new project focusing on the application of video microteaching as an innovation in teacher trainees’ compulsory teaching practice, which can be realized both in the classroom and online. The purpose of the proposed paper is to draw attention to the benefits of video microteaching from the point of view of increasing the quality of teacher training and from the aspect of the organization of teaching practice which is getting more and more difficult. In the paper, the authors briefly introduce the above project under realization and point out the innovation in the content, as well as in the functional and conceptual focus of teacher trainees’ compulsory teaching practice. Based on recently gained experiences and available research in this field, it can be stated that video microteaching appears to be a suitable, effective and attractive alternative to traditional classroom based observations and provides opportunities for recording and analysing lessons conducted by teacher trainees as well. Microteaching is also interesting from the aspect of the current pandemic, which highlighted the necessity to promote university education in the virtual environment.