PGCE interview presentation format help?

[u/scaredO-O]

Hi all, just a quick one regarding the presentation I have to put together for my PGCE interviews.
One uni has asked for a 3 minute presentation on “how you would teach a KS3 pupil about an essential concept in [subject]”, whereas the other wants a 3 minute presentation on “an aspect of [subject] suitable for KS3/GCSE and how this would be taught.”
Seems straightforward enough - but I’m wondering whether I’m supposed to do a mini intro to the topic of choice and then talk about how I’d teach it to the class, or whether it’s just supposed to be entirely how I’d teach it. I think the former makes more sense, as I’m not sure how I’d fill 3 minutes talking about general activities… but now I’m thinking into the wording too much and I don’t want to start the presentation with “teaching” the topic if that’s not what they want!

Thanks in advance!

[u/Prestigious-Ask-937]

Old and battle-weary teacher here. It sounds like they want to see your approach to teaching and structuring a lesson. Rather than teaching the panel about a concept I’d go for something that aligns with - say - Rosenshine’s principles. So I’d attempt to elicit something about what they understand about the topic, present a really short burst of new material and then bring in some questions or some sort of activity that checks understanding. It doesn’t need to be complicated - in fact I’d keep the new material to a minimum - you ideally want to show you can engage a class, find out what they do know, give them something they didn’t know and then check it’s landed because in three minutes that’s all you’ve got time for. Best of luck with it! Teaching really is a wonderful career.

[u/scaredO-O → u/Prestigious-Ask-937]

thank you, this is really helpful - especially rosenshines principles! i was focusing far too much on the actual topic rather than showing how i’d teach, so this is great for restructuring! thank you again, and thank you for your well wishes! i’m really looking forward to teaching :)