Top Questions And Answers To Prepare For A Teacher Interview
There are few jobs as rewarding as being a teacher, allowing you to share your knowledge and passion for education with students, helping them prepare for their bright futures ahead on both academic and personal levels. Teachers, too, however also need to practice their skills, such as answering interview questions to land themselves their dream job as a teacher at that new school. Here are the top teacher interview questions to help you best prepare for your big day!
1. What Made You Decide To Be A Teacher?
Why do you want to be a teacher? This question is one of the most common teacher interview questions, and your answer needs to go beyond the typical response that you love to help others learn. Your answer needs to show that you are really meant to be a teacher, giving specific, genuine, and thoughtful examples.
The Best Way To Respond:
Be sure to avoid giving an obvious answer such as the fact that summer vacations are longer than most professions. Aim to show how much you truly love teaching, perhaps by giving examples with your friends and family. Giving some examples of your passion for children is also a great addition, or even talking about a teacher you once had that inspired you.
2. Why Do You Want To Teach At This Institution?
This another highly common question, and is a perfect example of the fact that preparation for a teacher interview is crucial. This is your chance to share everything you know about this specific school, and prove why you’re the right fit to teach here. The interviewer wants to know if you really want to work here specifically, or if you’re sending out resumes with your eyes closed and playing your luck.
3. What Can You Bring To Our School That Makes You Unique?
This is your chance to make your claim to fame, and to truly stand out in your teacher interview! Share the passions you have and things you’ve taken part in. Show the interviewer everything that you have to bring to the table, and offer some ideas of how you can add to the classroom without undermining the existing system.
Everyone is bound to respond differently to this question, since everyone has a different educational and personal background. The interviewer here wants to see what your teaching philosophy is, what your approach to education is, and what’s shaped those beliefs.
The Best Way To Respond:
It’s best to take a community approach — showing that you acknowledge your part in each student’s experience. Be honest about your specific values and methods, while also keeping in mind what the philosophy of the school is.
5. How Would You Handle A Student That Could Be Considered ‘Difficult?’
No matter what school you teach at, it’s inevitable that there will be difficult students, and this can also mean so many different things. The interviewer wants to understand by asking this question what kind of experiences you have, and how you’ve successfully dealt with these situations.
The Best Way To Respond:
Your answer should show that you understand that it’s important to first try to address the root of the problem. The best way to respond would be to provide a past example of how you took a student aside for a mature conversation, rather than reprimanding them in front of the entire classroom.
6. What Is Your Teaching Philosophy?
An interviewer is likely to be asking this question in order to see that your goal is to help students not only succeed academically, but also outside of the classroom. The interviewer wants to see that you care about your students on a personal level too, grades aside.
7. How Do You Cultivate Positive Relationships With Your students And Create A Sense Of Class Community?
This is an opportunity to share an experience with the interviewer of when you bonded with a student who required some additional attention outside of the classroom time. It’s a chance to show that you care for the overall well-being of the student, and that you have a sense of empathy for your students.
8. How Do You Keep Students Engaged And Motivated?
This a chance to provide some concrete techniques that you’re familiar with that help keep students excited about learning, and always wanting to learn more. Explain how your classroom is one that encourages creativity and purpose, that’s always ready for adjustments.
The Best Way To Respond:
The best way to respond to this question would be to provide examples of times when you used specific techniques and successfully managed to bring excitement into your teaching, such as curiosity, creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking.
9. How Do You Establish Communication And Involvement With Parents?
The interviewer will ask this question in order to understand how you see the role of the parent in a student’s success, and what your approach to working together is. Being a teacher is not only relating with students — but with their parents too.
The Best Way To Respond:
The best way to answer this question would be to give solid examples of times when you collaborated with parents or guardians, whether it be through meetings, phone calls, or even through notes. Show that you took initiative and opportunities to connect with parents.
10. What Kinds Of Things Are You Currently Studying?
This question will be asked in order to see how curious you are, and how passionate you really are about learning, which are, of course, important traits for a teacher. The interviewer wants to get to know your personal interests too, and understand how you develop yourself.
The Best Way To Respond:
Even if you’re not doing some career-related growth right now, hopefully you’re at least doing something on a personal level that you can share, such as learning a new skill, reading an interesting book, or maybe even taking a course right now. Show that you have a passion and appreciation for continuous learning. Not all teaching interview questions are going to be related to just teaching students.
11. Could You Please Provide An Example Of When You Successfully Worked As A team Player?
Being a teacher means being a team player — beyond just with your students and their parents. You will often be faced with situations where you have to come to agreements with other staff members and student aids to ensure the success and well-being of your class. This is one of the most common teacher interview questions.
The Best Way To Respond:
Don’t be shy to share an experience that you had, and to explain how you solved through the conflict as a team, putting an emphasis on your specific role. Show how you all successfully managed to communicate even when the situation was challenging.
12. What Are Your Strengths And Weaknesses As A Teacher?
Although it might seem like a strange question, the interviewer is trying to challenge you. You don’t want to be caught off guard. You want to show that you’re confident and prepared to answer, without coming off as cocky. And there are plenty of ways to share a weakness without negatively affecting your interview, such as sharing a weakness that is not absolutely necessary for the position. An example of this could be talking about a specific subject that you struggle with, such as math. Just be sure to add that you’re always open to learning and challenging yourself!
13. Describe A Situation When You helped Someone Else Successfully Reach Their Goal.
Caring for others is an innate trait that can’t be taught. Knowing how to help someone is something that you either have or don’t, and that’s what interviewers want to know when asking this question.
The Best Way To Respond:
Give an example of a time when you really helped someone reach their goal or advance in it, providing details of the actions you took to do so despite the obstacles that might have been present.
14. Describe A Challenge That You Managed To Overcome.
The interviewer here wants to know how you deal with difficult situations, and that you understand that challenges and success are interlinked. This is likely to be one of the interview questions for teachers, as well as for any other professional that involves working with others.
The Best Way To Respond:
Choose a situation in the past that required that you go out of your comfort zone that challenged you, but in the end led to a positive outcome, preferably with an example if you have one that you can provide.
15. Describe A Situation In Which You Were Able To Influence Another Person.
We can all claim to be able to influence others, but interviewers need to be able to truly believe that you can by showing them how you’ve done so in the past by constantly altering the message you’re sending.
The Best Way To Respond:
Similar to other questions, it’s always useful to provide a real-life example from a past situation. Providing an example of when you really managed to influence others, including how you went about it, sharing your opinion without being overly controlling or aggressive is a great way to show that you can be truly influential, and always shows that you know how to be a team player.
16. How Do You Respond To Changes In The Workplace? Could You Give An Example Of A Past Situation?
Although teaching often includes a lesson plan, it’s constantly changing and requires adjustments based on the needs of students. Interviewers want to see that you understand this, and know how to respond accordingly.
The Best Way To Respond:
Show the interviewer that you can handle unexpected changes in a calm, cool, and collected manner, also with concrete examples. Perhaps they might also make sudden changes in your teacher interview, and this is the perfect chance to show how you handle it.
17. How Would You Say You Handle Feedback? Could You Give An Example Of A Past Situation?
Teachers need to have a mindset of constant growth, which also means that they are able to receive feedback constructively so they are always improving themselves.
The Best Way To Respond:
Provide an example of a time when you received feedback, and although it might not have been the most positive, show how you turned it into something positive that helped you improve at your task and become a better teacher.
18. Walk Me Through A Typical Lesson.
The interviewer wants to hear more than just the fact that you know your material. They also want to learn more about your thought process, and what factors you take into account when creating this learning plan.
19. Is There Anything You Would Like To Ask?
Anyone that’s ever been to a job interview, not just a teacher interview, surely knows that this question will be asked. This is asked for two main reasons.
First, to really provide you with additional information that you may be wondering. And second, to give an extra few minutes to really show that you are the ideal candidate by asking questions such as: what the school culture is like, what a typical day looks like, how many students are in each class, and what the bullying policy is.
What Are Some Additional Pointers When Interviewing To Be A Teacher?
1. Get Personal
As a teacher, it’s crucial that you get personal and involved with your students as well as their parents. Make sure your answers are personal, and aren’t something that you read online and memorized.
2. Be Specific
Be sure to use concrete examples when asked questions to make sure that your experience and skills are really made evident to the interviewer. You can take your time to prepare well-thought-out examples by reviewing teaching interview questions.
3. Get Coordinated
Do your research prior to the interview — show that you’ve come prepared and that you really want this job. Make sure you know what kind of school you’ve come to, and what they expect.
4. Be Comfortable And Honest
Make sure you’re comfortable when you arrive at the interview, especially since you’re likely to be interviewed by several people. For everyone, this means something else. Perhaps for you it could mean showing up early to get familiar with the setting, or wearing something that you feel confident in.
It’s also crucial to be honest, because otherwise you’ll not only be caught in your lies, but perhaps the position isn’t really the right fit for you.
What Are Interviewers Looking For When Hiring A Teacher?
1. Teaching Abilities
Having great teaching skills should come to no surprise that it’s a requirement to land a job as a teacher. An interviewer wants to see how you work with students and how you effectively teach a class.
2. Data Skills
In the modern world, an understanding of data is also crucial for teaching in order to be able to learn from both mistakes and successes.
3. An Expert On The Subject Matter
If you’re going to teach a specific subject, then you better be an expert in the field! Being a good teacher isn’t enough to successfully teach specific subjects.
4. A Team Player
It might be cliche, but being a team player is vital to be a teacher. You’ll need to show that you know how to work with all kinds of people.
5. Organized And Accountable
An interviewer is going to want to see that you’ll be on top of your tasks, and that your lesson plans will always be ready on time.
What If You’re Having Trouble Landing An Interview?
Now that you know all about how to answer the most common teacher interview questions, there’s no reason for you not to be prepared to nail your interview!
But what if you’re having trouble landing an interview in the first place? Perhaps you should try to tailor your resume to make it better fit the role of teacher, adding some of your strengths and experience helping others, even if it’s not directly related to teaching.
Maybe you also need to do some volunteer or intern work before applying to a school. And if you are looking to study a degree in Education to increase your chances of landing that job, you can do so online at University of the People which offers a variety of tuition-free education degrees.
At UoPeople, our blog writers are thinkers, researchers, and experts dedicated to curating articles relevant to our mission: making higher education accessible to everyone. Read More
