Influence of microteaching on the development of differentiated instruction skills among christian religious education pre-service teachers in public universities in Kenya

Abstract

Microteaching has increasingly become an essential pedagogical strategy in teacher education because it enables pre-service teachers to acquire practical instructional competencies before entering actual classroom environments. Despite its widespread use, limited empirical evidence exists regarding its effectiveness in developing differentiated instruction skills required for inclusive education, particularly among Christian Religious Education (CRE) pre-service teachers in Kenya. This study examined the influence of microteaching on the development of differentiation skills among CRE pre-service teachers in public universities in Kenya. Guided by Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory of Learning, the study investigated whether microteaching enhances differentiation of content, process, product, and learning environment during classroom instruction. The study adopted a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design within the post-positivist paradigm. Sixty CRE pre-service teachers participated in two consecutive microteaching sessions during which they were observed using a structured observation schedule. The first session constituted the pre-test, while the second session followed feedback, reflection, peer critique, and lesson revision. Quantitative data were analysed using paired sample t-tests. The findings revealed statistically significant improvements in all four dimensions of differentiated instruction. Significant gains were observed in content differentiation (t=6.497, p<0.001), process differentiation (t=6.332, p<0.001), product differentiation (t=7.863, p<0.001), and learning environment differentiation (t=7.743, p<0.001). These findings demonstrate that structured microteaching significantly enhances pre-service teachers' ability to accommodate learner diversity during instruction. The study concludes that microteaching is an effective pedagogical approach for preparing future CRE teachers to implement inclusive instructional practices in Kenyan secondary schools. It recommends strengthening microteaching programmes through increased instructional resources, structured reflective practice, and explicit integration of differentiated instruction competencies into teacher education curricula.