The term “micro lesson” is still a relatively new and unfamiliar teaching term to me, a teacher of middle-level professional foundation course, but with the development of flipped classroom teaching and research activities, micro lesson gradually comes into everyone’s sight.

With the development of flipped classroom teaching and research activities, microcourses have gradually come into the limelight. As the flipped classroom is becoming more and more popular, and microcourses are the main means, in this context, I took “Exploring the application of microcourses in the teaching of metal materials-related majors” as the topic and conducted a more systematic research. With the depth of research, I have a more comprehensive understanding and experience of micro-course teaching, and found some problems and shortcomings in the specific operation process, and have done in-depth thinking on how to improve.

  Experiences and gains

  In the beginning of the research, I also checked a lot of information about micro-lessons and micro-lesson applications, and gained a better understanding and experience of what micro-lessons and micro-lesson teaching are, which laid a certain theoretical and ideological foundation for the subsequent design and production of micro-lessons. This has laid a certain theoretical and ideological foundation for the subsequent design and production of micro-lessons. I have also gained a certain amount of experience through participating in micro-lesson teaching practice.

  I have the following understanding of the characteristics of micro-lessons.

  The first and foremost feature of micro-lessons is the change in form, and “micro” is the first and main feature of the change in form.

  ”Smallness” is another major characteristic of microlearning. “Because of the short time, the file size of micro-lesson videos can be greatly reduced, generally only a few dozen megabytes or even a dozen megabytes, which is fully in line with the bandwidth and speed of the current Internet, and makes the dissemination and release of micro-lesson videos have a better basis; secondly, it refers to the small size of micro-lesson files. Because of the short time, it is impossible to teach a complete unit like the previous classroom video, but only for a certain knowledge point or a certain learning link.

  The “precision” is a characteristic of micro-lessons caused by “short”. By “precise”, we mean that the design of the micro-lesson must be delicate and compact, and cannot be delayed. Because of the short time, every minute or even every second of the micro-lesson should be carefully designed, otherwise the teaching task cannot be completed in a short period of time. In a traditional classroom video, the teacher has more time to introduce the learning content and relatively ample time to organize the learning activities, but not in a micro-lesson, where each teaching activity needs to be more elaborately designed. Therefore, designing a micro-lesson is like making a short film, in addition to the usual teaching design, there should be a detailed script planning and the organization of the footage, otherwise it is likely to overrun.

  Therefore, I summarize another characteristic of micro-lessons as “humongous”, that is, micro-lessons emphasize the effect, the effect on the learners’ learning support, whether a micro-lesson is excellent or not, the key is whether its effect is strong, whether it can solve the learners’ confusion. In layman’s terms, if students don’t understand, they will understand after watching your micro-lesson, and such micro-lesson is a good micro-lesson. The other elements of micro-lessons serve this core feature and are the basis and support to achieve this goal.

  Problems and shortcomings

  Through reviewing the information and watching the micro-lesson teaching videos made by other colleagues and the Internet, although we have a comprehensive understanding of what “micro-lesson” and micro-lesson teaching are, we have a first contact with micro-lesson, and in the process of specific practice, there are some problems that we did not design or did not anticipate. The most prominent problems are manifested in the following three aspects.

  (1) The design of micro-lesson teaching does not reflect the meaning of “micro” well.

First, the content of the micro-lesson is a certain knowledge point or teaching link; second, the content of the micro-lesson is a very critical or important knowledge point or teaching link that can help students’ independent learning. The design of the whole micro-lesson is based on these two meanings and theoretical principles. In the specific teaching design process, because these principles are not well followed, it leads to too much key content design and slightly bloated when making micro-lessons by oneself; the teaching content explanation and teaching time control are not well coordinated and slightly dragged.

  (2) The choice of micro-lesson content is too large and redundant.

For a long time, under the influence of the traditional teaching mode, my teaching philosophy has formed a stereotypical thinking that the more knowledge taught to students in a lesson, the better, the fuller the lesson, the larger the knowledge capacity, and the more detailed the lecture, the better. With such a teaching philosophy, it is difficult for me to adapt my teaching philosophy to the concept of micro-lesson teaching quickly. I need to continuously change my teaching philosophy and adapt to the new teaching mode as soon as possible.

  (3) The allocation of teaching time is not scientific, and the control is not in place, and it is slightly dragging.

Because there are some problems in the top-level design of micro-course teaching, it is too much to pursue the completeness of the whole teaching link and design more teaching links. In addition, the scope of teaching content is too large, and the large capacity of knowledge and the refinement of classroom teaching are pursued too much, which eventually leads to the unsatisfactory control of the whole class time and a slight procrastination. How to deal with the relationship between the organization of classroom content and the control of teaching time is a problem I have to think about in the future teaching process, and it is also the inspiration brought to me by micro-lesson teaching.

  Measures and methods for improvement

  (1) Change the teaching concept, and accurately understand and grasp the meaning of “micro-lesson” and micro-lesson teaching.

Micro-lesson teaching is a new teaching concept and educational model in the context of modern educational technology and its application, the essence of which is that teachers take some important and key knowledge points or teaching links as teaching content, make videos and upload them to the relevant network platform for learners to use for independent learning. Although its presentation is fragmentary for a certain knowledge point and teaching link, it provides important help and teaching support for students’ independent learning, and is more flexible and convenient in learning.

  (2) Do a good job in teaching design and continuously improve teaching ability and quality in teaching practice.

In the design process of micro-course teaching, six aspects must be taken into account: first, the determination of teaching objectives, which must clarify the purpose of micro-course teaching and the main problems to be solved in the classroom.
The second is the determination of the teaching content, which must reflect the word “micro” of micro-lesson, and must choose a specific knowledge point and teaching link in the teaching content.
Third, the choice of teaching methods must use the combination of lecture and practice and other effective teaching methods suitable for micro-lesson teaching, so that the content taught can be well understood and accepted by students.
Fourth, the control of teaching time should take into account the integrity of the teaching process and the reasonable allocation of teaching time.
Fifth, the use of teaching methods, the skilled application of a variety of teaching methods, especially multimedia teaching methods that can well present the teaching content, so that the teaching content can be complete and intuitive image vividly presented to students.
Sixth is the integrity of teaching links. Although the content of microteaching is a specific point of knowledge, but as a class, it is necessary to ensure the integrity of microteaching.