Understandably, answering interview questions can provoke anxiety and nervousness. A certain level of anxiety is expected and healthy – this unsettling feeling means you care about the position and understand the importance of your performance at the teacher interview. Too much anxiety, though, can be a self-sabotaging force. Teacher candidates may focus too much on getting the “right” or “perfect” answer causing them to overthink while simultaneously grappling with many competing thoughts. In short, this approach is inefficient, cognitively taxing, and exhausting. Alternatively, interviewees may find themselves launching right into their response, grasping at disparate ideas and, all the while, attempting to patch these ideas together into a coherent response. Generally, they then produce an answer that lacks clarity and is often completed in less than a minute.
…Interviewees may find themselves launching right into their response, grasping at disparate ideas and, all the while, attempting to patch these ideas together into a coherent response.
Applying a framework – a conceptual structure of ideas and rules – when fashioning your interview response may lower your anxiety to a healthier level and create a more coherent and compelling interview response. Let’s start to unpack this framing strategy.
Understand the Question (Step 1)
To start, be actively listening to the question as it is being presented to you. Proceed to answer the question only if you fully understand what is being asked. If there is a part of the interview question you need clarity on, simply ask. For example, you could say, “Would you mind rephrasing the question?” An interviewer would rather have you ask for clarification than try to improvise and give a misplaced response.
If you are confident you heard the question correctly, take a moment to think about what the question is striving to tell the interviewers about you and your pedagogy – at a higher-level. In other words, what is the essence of the question?
Take as an example the following interview question: “Describe to us (the hiring committee) the first five minutes of your daily classroom routine.” For this question, obviously, the interviewers are looking to hear about the specific behaviors, moves, and strategies that you will employ at the start of the school day or class period. Yet, at a higher-level, this particular question is really driving at your personal approach to classroom management. The interviewers are attempting to better understand your beliefs and philosophy as it pertains to building student relationships and how you establish routines and procedures. Understanding this nuance helps you move to step 2: stating your philosophy and values.
State your Philosophy/Values (Step 2)
Your philosophy and values are reflective of your beliefs, and your values are what should guide your practice. Ultimately, teaching is really about connecting to other human beings in a meaningful and genuine way. Therefore, learning into your values, opening up about what you stand for, what you care about, and how this motivates you provides the interviewers a window into your authentic self. Just like teaching, you want to make a human connection during the interview process. The interviewers are not just interviewing you as a teacher, but also as a future colleague.
To start your response to an interview question, make a brief statement of the philosophy and values that relate to what’s being asked at the higher-level. For instance, continuing with the example question above, the interviewee may respond with the following: “To start, I believe building positive student relationships and reinforcing high expectations are crucial for a high performing classroom. This perspective will inform my first five minutes of my class.” In this response, the interviewee acknowledges the essence of the question, and unequivocally emphasizes the values that guide their classroom management approach.
Describe Pedagogical Approaches (Step 3)
Following up on your value statement, you should then directly address the question being asked with specific approaches. Try to provide a level of specificity that creates a mental picture of your strategies/behaviors for the interviewers. And, be sure to link your specific strategies/behaviors directly to the value statement. For example, “One way I will foster positive student relationships within the first five minutes is that I will greet every child with a high-five, fist-pump, or side-hug as they enter the class. Next, after the greeting, students will know they are entering into a learning community that comes with high expectations. Therefore, students will follow a routine to put away their bags, organize papers, and begin working immediately on a meaningful entry task.”
Explain the Benefits (Step 4)
Next, briefly describe 1-2 benefits of the said strategies/behaviors. For instance, you may say, “By consistently greeting students by name, I am demonstrating to my students that I SEE them and that they are important. Also, it is a way for me to address any issues that interfere with their learning – such as if they are sad or angry – before entering the classroom.”
Provide a Real-life Example (Step 5)
Real-life examples can be drawn from a plethora of personal and professional experiences: classroom observations, work experience as a para-educator or instructional aide, volunteer work with school-age children, parenthood, and so on. This step is optional unless the interviewers directly ask you to share a real-life example. At this step, you will need to make the judgment if providing a concrete example from your experiences adds value to your response or if it just seems like filler. Typically, I suggest providing an example when it seems as if the interviewers are seeking more information or clarity. In this case, you may want to ask, “Would you care for me to share a real-life example?” Finally, I suggest providing a real-life example when you have a compelling anecdotal story of how your described approach/strategy/behavior has positively impacted a particular student or your teaching and learnings in general.
Successfully implementation of the framework technique requires 1) knowing the framework’s steps – understand the question, state values, give specific strategies, describe benefits, and, possibly, give a real-life example – and 2) practicing the application of it with various teacher interview questions. It is important to emphasize that practice is key and the strategy Practice Interview Questions in Pathway Teaching provides additional tangible ideas on how to gain more experience answering interview questions. As you practice, aim for developing automaticity when applying the framework to respond to teacher interview questions. This method of practice and preparation will help offload a lot of the anxiety you may be feeling and, hopefully, make you more confident in responding. In short, the framework lays out a path forward to responding to teacher interview questions in a concise and thoughtful way, even when faced with the toughest questions.
Pathway to Teaching: A Guide to Teacher Training,
Student Teaching, and Finding a Job
Check out Pathway to Teaching to gain additional interview tips & strategies on how to land your dream teaching job. Here are some valuable strategies on how to:
Shine After Student Teaching
Craft a Resume
Jumpstart Your Job Search
Attend Teacher Career Fairs and Open Houses
Answer Teacher Interview Questions
Practice Teacher Interview Questions
And more…
