Congratulations! You have gotten an interview call for the next promising position as a teacher! We are here to provide you with some basic interview questions that will help you ace your interview. This article is going to help you in preparing for the interview along with its challenges and job description too. Here we are sharing the Top 25 Teacher Interview Questions and Answers that will be helpful.
1. Why Are You Interested In This Role?
I joined this field due to my passion for education. I was an average student till I met my greatest mathematics teacher Mrs Johnson in high school. Mathematics was always a problem for me and my result card used to portray that every year. Mrs Johnson helped in understand algebra so well through extra lectures. Ever since teaching mathematics became my passion. I enjoy teaching with the responsibility of teaching the future of the country. I always ensure my students find their potential and develop critical thinking skills!
2. What Are The Roles Of A Teacher?
Teachers are a home away from home! The entire society is dependent on the role of teachers in the education system and responsibility is immense. To play a positive role in a child’s life, a teacher must play a role apart from her career too.
A teacher is a self-esteem builder for a child by providing an “I can do it” attitude. Apart from the academic counselor, a teacher is a guide regarding behavior and parental issues at home. With the caring attitude, a teacher becomes a role model for young minds and creates love for the subject he or she teaches. The teachers are a role of generosity when it comes to giving time and knowledge and some extra help to weak students. With their passion, teachers can make learning a fun activity for all students that creates interest. The role of a teacher surpassed the conventional thinking that a teacher only educates students. They were used to following a specific curriculum and had to learn about teaching the curriculum. But in modern scenarios, the teacher’s role is not limited. Today, they keep educating students, mentoring students, and giving them practical knowledge.
3. What Are The Qualities That A Teacher Need To Be Successful?
The success of a teacher is measured by achieving students! To be successful, I always tell my fellows too that students should get teachers who are dedicated and approachable. If students see a hardworking teacher, they automatically start taking an interest in your lecture! In my case, I always maintain an open-door policy for all my students.
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4. What Major Challenges Did You Face During Your Last Role? How Did You Manage Them?
One of the biggest challenges during my last role was online classes due to pandemics. It was such a new experience for everyone including teachers too. Being in the field for many years, there has not been a time when online classes became the only mode of education. In the early days, I faced problems with the concentration level of my students during online classes. I had to repeat my lectures again and again since the children were not paying attention. With discussion with parents and school administration, I created some fun presentations using bright colours and elements that caught the interest of kids. I started giving the last 10 minutes of my lecture in some topic related fun activities leading to small competition that created a lot of interest in students.
5. Describe Your Daily Routine As A Teacher
The usual day begins with the attendance of students. After having lectures with the students, my day is spent marking classwork, identifying any student problems in my subject and coming up with possible solutions. I would take parents in confidence on matters so that progress can be noted at home too. The next few hours are spent preparing for the next lectures and topics that are part of the curriculum. If there are any staff meetings scheduled, I would attend those too.
6. Describe Briefly About Your Experience?
I started my career with an elementary school uptown. I was in my last semester of studies and had time to manage my projects and school simultaneously. In the early months, it was very hard because I never had teaching experience. Soon, I got into a groove with my role! I took some tips for fellow teachers on managing schedules and lesson plans for my students and it helped me a lot. Ever since I enjoy my teaching passion and make sure that I am loyal to all my students because they are the future!
7. What Kind Of Strategies And Mindset Are Required For This Role?
In my opinion, the teaching mantra is simple i.e. make lesson plans relatable for those young minds. In my experience, I have seen great interest by kids in subjects they were not interested in with this mantra. Their minds do not have a lot of experiences to learn from. So if you teach them by coming at their level, it becomes interesting for them. I still remember examples given by my teachers when I was a student.
8. What Is The Biggest Challenge You Foresee In This Job?
Since the role is for high school teachers, the biggest challenge would be getting attention from teenage students. So far, I have taught young students i.e. pre-teen years and I know how to handle them. This will be a challenge for me since teenagers are rebellious in their way and they have a lot of access to technology. To deal with this, I am thinking that I would be introducing a different learning style for them so that I can be more aware and adaptable to their requirement.
9. How Do You Stay Motivated At Work?
I am already passionate about my career. There are a few times when I feel demotivated. I make sure that I avoid any sort of negative thought in my mind so that I can stay focused on my choice of career. On usual days, I stay motivated at work with my habit of experimentation. I like exploring new teaching techniques for which I always keep an eye on Pinterest
10. Describe A Time You Failed In This Role And The Lesson You Learned?
It happened at the start of my career when I had a very tight deadline to prepare a lesson plan. To impress at my first job, I took the challenge and sadly, I wasn’t able to finish the task on time. Even though my superior knew that it is not humanly possible but she gave me a chance to try. Ever since I always made sure that I do not overcommit and I should plan to avoid any sort of delays or miscommunication on such tasks. I always try to start early on tasks given and keep track now so that I can timely identify the problems with superiors and revise quickly.
11. Why Do You Feel You Are Qualified For This Role?
Before applying to this position, I researched well about the school’s reputation in education and extracurricular. I got to know that there has been a slight dip in the board results in recent years. This motivated me to apply and get an opportunity to introduce my teaching strategies to my to-be students. I am confident that I will be able to improve the scores of children.
12. Share With Us Your Greatest Achievement
There are few achievements in my career so far. First, I implemented a series of activities based learning programs, which increased student interest in regular lessons, especially in tough subjects like Mathematics and Physics. I also helped students last year in college admissions through career counselling.
13. How Would You Engage A Reluctant Student?
If I feel that if one of the students isn’t participating in the class, I would first politely ask them about the reason. If they do not respond well, I will adjust my teaching method to engage that student in the lesson in which they are comfortable. It could be an extra duty like class monitoring for the next few days or assigning them as a group leader for the possible relevant activity.
14. Are You Familiar With The Concept Based Teaching Method?
A concept-based teaching method can be defined as a type of learning that centres on big-picture ideas and learning how to organize and categorize information. Conceptual methods focus on understanding broader principles or ideas that can be later applied to a variety of specific examples.it can also be seen as more of a top-down approach that serves as a means of getting students to think more critically about the new subjects and situations they encounter.
15. In Your Point Of View, What Are The Advantages Of The Concept Based Teaching Method?
In my experience, I have used this method with several students of mine and effort has been fruitful in the understanding of the basic concept.
- It helps the student to take a more active role in their learning
- It streamlines content and eliminates redundancies across courses.
- It also encourages students to see patterns and use those patterns to deliver care and anticipate risks.
- This teaching method helps to support systematic observations about events or conditions that influence a problem
- Lastly, Concept-based teaching causes a higher level of retention.
16. Are You Familiar With The Concept Of Co-Teaching? What Are A Few Models Of Co-Teaching?
In my opinion, all co-teaching strategies are effective if implemented correctly, and both teachers should fully understand what is expected of them.
- 1 teach: 1 observe: one teacher has the primary role of teaching while the other teacher observes students
- 1 teach: 1 assist: one teacher is the primary teacher, the other teacher mainly assists in teaching the lessons. This model is best when you have a paraprofessional or non-certified staff in the classroom with the certified teacher
- Station teaching: The students are divided into groups and rotate between both of the teachers for instruction
- Parallel teaching: each teacher teaches half the students. Both teachers teach all students. All the students are mixed up according to the student’s needs and the teachers teach all students
- Supplemental teaching:One teacher works with the students who have mastered the content and the other teacher works with the students needed more support in mastering the content
- Alternative teaching: Both teachers teach the content, however, one teacher teaches one way of learning the content, and the other teacher teaches the concept differently. This works best in math classes where one teacher teaches one method to solve a math problem and the other teacher teaches a different method of solving the math problem.
- Team teaching:Both teachers teach the lesson jointly, where the students cannot delineate which teacher is the lead
17. What Is The Experimental Method Of Teaching Commonly Used In Schools?
The teacher uses an experiment to teach and impart knowledge to the students. it is usually done in the laboratory or classroom with lots of experimental tools and equipment. It creates lasting memory since students are exposed to practical that enhanced their learning rate. They even practise it themselves to a certain level of understanding while the teachers correct where there is a mistake.
18. How Maintain A Helpful Learning Environment In Online Teaching?
An effective teaching strategy for creating conditions that are conducive to learning is to model active engagement, be visibly present and responsive to students, and find interactive resources that help to address different learning styles and promote meaningful discussions. The process of learning hasn’t changed because of technology but the setting has and it challenges teachers to adapt to this environment.
19. How Important Is Parents’ Involvement In A Child’s Education?
Great support from parents is always helpful because the student is only spending 8 to 9 hours at school. I have always seen great results in those children who have active parents. Since I have worked with younger kids till now, I have always been in touch with the parents who get in touch regarding their child’s performance at school. I try to give timely updates to parents to make sure that they learn at school too.
20. Do You Think Technology Has Affected Learning? How?
Technology has affected everyone, even us as teachers. I do believe that it’s a valuable thing if used properly. Due to less concentration, students tend to get distracted by it easily. I have always encouraged my students to use technology for learning by giving them a few assignments. This helps them to learn new things at a young age and somehow prepares them for future professions.
21. Do You Ever Feel Frustrated While Teaching A Kid Who Is Not Paying Attention In Classroom?
Don’t we all get frustrated in this condition? I just make sure that I don’t get angry with them so that they do not run away. I take such kids as a challenge and always give them a little more attention during my lectures. Once they feel that their teacher believes in their skills, they turn themselves into study mode automatically.
22. Based On Your Experience, How Do You Evaluate A Child’s Performance?
I don’t solely rely on my lectures to gauge a kid’s potential. I incorporate short tests and quizzes with bonus point incentives to keep them engaged in my subject. From time to time, I also create lesson plans around group activities and in-class activities so that they are evaluated on all sorts of metrics rather than just exams.
23. In Your Opinion, What Are A Few Qualities That Children Look For In A Teacher?
A teacher of any subject should have good communication skills that show passion for teaching. This automatically generates interest in children in your lesson. While dealing with any age group, patience is the key and little humour is an add on.
24. How Do You Incorporate Social-Emotional Learning In Your Lessons?
All individuals need these skills to build confidence in their lives. I have seen children understanding their strengths and weakness as they learn this skill. Sometimes due to a shortage of time, it’s hard for teachers to incorporate in their lessons but I usually try to add a few activities in my lessons to incorporate it. I start with daily a greeting that builds connections between all students and teachers. I also assign certain responsibilities to kids on weekly turns like a class librarian or cleanup crew where they build up their sense of self-worth.
25. How Do You Maintain Your Professional Development, And What Areas Would You Select For Your Personal Growth?
To grow my skills and knowledge, I spend a lot of reading books and blogs in my free time. I have subscribed to a few YouTube channels where I watch videos related to my subject from time to time.
Conclusion
We wish you all the best for the interview. Before going for the interview, make sure that you research the school and the type of education they are offering. These 25 questions are surely going to help in acing the first round of interviews as a teacher. Good luck!
