The effects of micro teaching method on instructional skills and the attitudes towards cello course of cello student teachers

The aims of the study are to identify the effects of micro teaching method on instructional skills and the attitudes towards cello course of cello student teachers.The participants of the study are first grade and fourth grade students attending to the cello course in Gazi University, Gazi Education Faculty, Department of Fine Arts, Branch of Music Education during the spring semester of the academic year 2009- 2010. Total number of participants is ten. Of them, five are first-graders, while the remaining are fourth-graders.In order to the effects of micro teaching on instructional skills and the attitudes towards cello course of cello student teachers, current levels of the participants? instruction skills and their attitudes towards cello courses are identified. For this aim, ?Instructional Activities Observation Form? and ?Scale of attitudes towards cello coursethat was develeoped by the author were employed. Another scale, namely ?Gainings through micro instruction? that was also developed by the author was employed to abtain data on the views of the participants regarding cello instruction in which micro instruction is used.Collected data was statistically analysed by using SPSS (Statistical Package For Social Sciences). Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to identify the effects of micro teaching method on instructional skills and the attitudes towards cello course of cello student teachers. Friedman test was used to identify instructional skill development of the cello student teachers. Student teachers? points from the questionairre were calculated as frequency (f) and percentage (%).The findings of the study indicate that micro instruction significantly improved the participants? instructional skills as well as their attittudes towards cello courses. Furthermore, it can be stated that this type of instruction increased the effectiveness of the course ?Solo Instrucments and their Instruction? given in the Gazi University, Gazi Education Faculty, Department of Fine Arts, Branch of Music EducationKey terms: Cello instruction, student teachers, micro teaching, instructional skills, attitude.