INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR Educators

Remember that one of the strongest predictors of success in an interview is preparation! In addition to this handout, please refer to the Successful Interviewing handout. This handout is intended for teachers, specialists, and school counselors.

General Questions

• Why do you want to be a teacher?
• How has Lesley University prepared you to become a teacher?
• How would you evaluate your Lesley program? What courses did you like best and least?
• What parts of teaching appeal most to you? What parts appeal least?
• What is your philosophy of teaching?
• What special skills or talents will you bring to our classroom?
• Tell me a little about yourself? (Hear: Tell me about yourself professionally as it related to this position.)
• What does diversity mean to you?
• What has been your most inspiring moment in teaching?
• What do you think will be the most challenging aspect of teaching for you?
• At the end of the school year, how will you determine whether or not you were successful?
• Who was your most influential teacher and why?
• What are your professional goals? Where do you want to be in five years?
• What is your greatest strength as a educator? What is greatest weakness as a educator? (Tip: Omit the word "greatest" as you consider this question. Focus on strategies you are using to overcome an area of challenge.)
• Why do you want to teach in this district/school?
• What are your interests?

Questions About Student Teaching

• What was most rewarding/frustrating about your student teaching?
• Describe the best lesson you taught and one that didn't work.
• From your student teaching experience, what would you have eliminated from the curriculum?
• If I were interviewing your students, what would they say about you?
• During your student teaching, if it had been your classroom, what would you have done differently?
• If I spoke with your cooperating practitioner, what would she/he say you do especially well? What would she/he say you could improve upon?

Questions for Elementary Teachers

• In what curriculum areas do you feel particularly strong?
• What grade do you want to teach and why?
• Describe an ideal reading program.
• Describe a typical school day and the activities of children.
• How you would involve parents in the classroom?
• What is Guided Reading?
• How would you incorporate phonics into a balanced literacy program?
• What would you do if a parent escorted her daughter into your classroom in the morning, angry that you had placed her in the "wrong" reading group?
• What do you know about _____ grade developmentally and how would you incorporate that knowledge into the curriculum? What is important in _____ grade?
• What are the components of a balanced reading program?
• Are you familiar with Everyday Math and/or Investigations?
• During literacy time in your classroom, what are you doing? What are the children doing?
• Describe rules for a _____ grade classroom vs. a _____ grade classroom.

Questions for Teachers K-12

• When I visit your classroom, what will I find to be most impressive?
• Describe the first day of school.
• Tell me about a time when you worked with ELL students.
• What kind of homework do you give to _____ graders?
• Describe how you have aligned a lesson with the MA Curriculum Frameworks.
• How would you go about developing a curriculum unit?
• How will you integrate technology into the curriculum?
• How would you set up your classroom?
• How will the MCAS impact your teaching?
• How will you evaluate students' mastery of a subject?
• What instructional approaches would you use in your classroom?
• What would you do if a student brought in a project and it was obviously done by a parent?
• What is your approach to classroom management? How is classroom management different from discipline?
• Tell me about a time when you had a disruptive student in your classroom. How did you handle the situation?
  

Questions for Special Education Teachers

• What type of assessments have you used?
• Describe a student with a challenging learning disability and how you supported him/her.
• What are your views on inclusion and remediation?
• What are some of the timelines related to IEPs?
• How have you supported students on IEPs in the regular classroom?
• Describe both a successful and challenging collaboration experience with a regular education teacher.

Questions for School Counselors

• Please describe your counseling experience with individuals and groups. Tell me about some specific examples.
• Describe your crisis intervention experience.
• Describe your collaboration with community agencies when you were a school counseling intern (i.e. DSS, DMH, community mental health organizations, hospitals, etc).
  
• What experience and knowledge do you have regarding special education laws and issues?
• Our school is culturally diverse. What impact do you see that having on the role of the school counselor?
• If you had the opportunity to offer classroom workshops, what topics would you address and how would you approach them?
• Tell me about a difficult interaction with a parent.
• What knowledge and/or experience do you have in filing out a 51A?
• How have you dealt with issues of bullying, depression, anxiety, and substance abuse and prevention?
• For high school: What experience do you have with assisting students with the career planning and college admissions process?

Types of Interview Questions

• Subject Area - Designed to assess your knowledge of both theory and practice in your area of licensure.
• Educational Methodology - Designed to elicit information on your techniques in dealing with classroom situations.
• Educational Philosophy - Focus on your value system and commitment to teaching.
• Hypothetical Situations - Questions which ask you to respond to hypothetical situations which might come up as a teacher.
• Behavioral Interviewing Questions - Rather than a hypothetical situation, you are asked to describe how you handled an actual specific situation in the past.

Questions to Ask the Interviewer

• Would you describe the in-service training opportunities in your district?
• To a principal: How would you describe your leadership style?
• What are the strengths of this district?
• What kind of support/mentoring is available to first year teachers?
• How active are parents in this building and in the school district?
• What are the opportunities for team teaching or team planning?
• How do you anticipate this district changing over the next five years?
• Are extracurricular assignments available for teachers interested in, and qualified for, after school activities?
• I read about your new _________ program on your web site. Would you tell me a bit more about it? or How has it been received by students/parents?
• What models of special education are utilized in this district?

Note: If you encounter questions that were not on this list, please feel free to tell us by emailing crcjobs@lesley.edu

Some of these questions come from Contact to Contract, R. Anthony & G. Roe, Sulzberger & Graham Publishing Ltd., 1992 and
Inside Secrets of Finding a Teaching Job, J. Warner and C. Bryan, Park Avenue Publications, 1997