ABSTRACT: Teaching skills are necessary tools teachers should possess for effectiveness in their profession. The most practicable way of acquiring these skills remains to demonstrate teaching skills in micro-teaching. Over the years practitioners and educationists have noted that teacher trainees prepare and deliver inadequate music content during teaching practice. There is little indication on whether there is effect of micro-teaching skills on teacher trainees‟ music performance during teaching practice. The purpose of this study therefore is to establish the effect of micro-teaching skills on teacher trainees‟ music performance during teaching practice at Mosoriot teachers training college, Nandi County, Kenya. The objectives of the study include: to establish the effect of micro-teaching on teacher trainees‟ music performance during teaching practice, establish the level of usage of micro teaching in preparing for teaching practice and find out the adequacy of time allocated to music during micro teaching in primary teacher training colleges. The study was guided by social learning theory advanced by Albert Bandura. The study adopted case study design. The target population was 221comprising of 21lecturers and 200 teacher trainees. A sample of 200 (74.1%) teacher trainees was purposively drawn from first year teacher trainees in the college who were preparing to embark on teaching practice in the 2018 teaching practice program. Simple random sampling was then applied to 21 the lecturers. Questionnaires and document analysis of past records were used in collection of data for the study. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The study found that micro-teaching affected teaching skills in music. The time allotted in micro-teaching is limited and teacher trainees‟ were not able to teach music content adequately. The study recommends that 1) a well researched micro-teaching model and policy should be put in place to improve the quality of teacher preparation and 2) the period of micro-teaching should be extended so that teacher trainees will be able to have adequate time to teach music content in particular and all the subjects of the primary school curriculum.
KEY WORDS: Micro teaching, music performance, teacher trainees, teacher preparation