The job of a teacher can be one of the most nerve-wracking yet just as rewarding and heartwarming ones on the planet. From passing down all the valuable experiences to the bookish knowledge that is a little restricted to the four walls of a classroom, all this responsibility lies on the shoulders of a teacher and this article comprises the best top 10 teacher interview questions and answers.
Much like interviewing for any other job on the face of this earth, prior research about the institution and subject is mandatory for teacher interviews. That’s not all, just as most teachers suggest one to practice before each test, this is the time for them to practice what they truly preach or in this scenario, teach.
One thing that the Interviewee needs to keep in their mind for this formal interview is that they would not only be dealing with younger students but also their parents at the same time. This job requires both commitment and patience along with the intuition needed to know when and where to draw the line between their personal and professional life.
Throughout the course of this article, you would be acquainted with a number of questions that you might or might not have thought of while figuring out what you would be asked for while giving your interviews, but we are here at your rescue.
This would take you on a journey where you would come face to face with all that is expected of you and you will also get some teacher interview tips and interview questions along with their example answer on the way that is outside your teaching resume.
Below we have mentioned some of the most common teacher interview questions that one must have answers to. Any applicant must go through them all and prepare their answers accordingly to win the heart of the interviewer and to convince them to interview them for the position keeping a child’s education in mind along with their ability to handle a troubling student, or difficult student by fulfilling their teaching duties and to integrate technology and technical skills by adapting to different learning styles.
10 Most Common Teacher Interview Questions:
Q1. Why Do You Want to Become a Teacher?
The most asked and the must have a good answer to the question, is common across all jobs as to why exactly do they want to apply to the specific position or a job. As an extension of being the most asked question, the number of stories one must have heard owing to the same is a given.
An interviewer must have heard about everything under the sun in the interview questions, as an answer to such question, hence, it is very important for a person to come up with a unique and personal answer to stand out from all the other candidates applying for the same job.
Instead of a simple “I love to help people learn” think deeper and try to come up with something original that you are certain about that would be quite unheard of.
Reflect on why you truly want to become a teacher and draw an answer from your personal experiences to make them sound more genuine and reflective of your passion. A heartfelt and real answer would be the best way to go and try to make your answer less general and more specific.
Example Answer– As a student, I was an introvert who would feel very anxious every time it was my turn to read or solve a question on the board. All I hoped was for a teacher who would be understanding of my condition and help me outgrow it somehow. I did have such teachers who really helped me outshine myself and become the confident person that I am today.
Due to the same, I wish to have a teaching job to look out for every single student and whether they are in need of extra attention or less of the same, I want to be able to figure it out and do the same for them.
Q.2 Why Did You Choose This Specific Institution to Teach in?
Another very commonly asked question in most interviews is also asked as one of the common teacher interview questions. One can also use it as the perfect example of how practicing and researching for something beforehand comes in handy.
Your interviewer in such a scenario is genuinely curious about your preference and why you chose their institution to interview in as they also get an outside perception of their work and how it’s perceived and viewed in the teaching interview through the teacher interview questions.
You need to genuinely reflect your enthusiasm and will to work for a particular institution in your answer because you need to convince your interviewer here and prove to them that you are not just a job seeker who is sending out resumes each and everywhere but you are genuinely interested in the job you are interviewing for.
When someone has very specific answers that are altered according to the interview questions and that answer every single detail that is required, it shows how well prepared and excited they are for that job.
Example Answer– For a long time I have been searching for schools that have the same beliefs and outlook towards education as myself and in this school district, your institution is the closest to what I have been looking for. I believe that when two like-minded substances would meet they could give life to a successful and developed entity that would lead to the progress of the school, the students as well as the teacher in more than just one aspect of life.
The student-teacher ratio that you have allows for personalized education and it also reflects on how involved the staff is with helping the students prosper and that’s what motivates you more to apply for a teaching job and get a teaching interview and answer teacher interview questions.
Q3. What is Your Teaching Philosophy?
Just like the reader trying to prepare for the common teacher interview questions, the teachers try to prepare their students for the life that awaits them outside the four walls of the classroom and that could be defined as your teaching Philosophy. Interviewers look for the quality of letting a student be and help him/her reach their individual potential to the fullest.
They look for people who are not going to push students only towards a good academic score but encourage their own personal growth and really help them develop. In short, they should focus more on the growth of their students rather than their personal interests, professional growth, and achievements in their teaching style.
Q4. As a Teacher, What Would You Offer to the Institution?
This is very pretty straightforward yet again a very commonly asked question that is not limited to just teacher interview questions but goes beyond it. This is also the perfect opportunity for you to shine as an individual and flaunt your talents that are not restricted to just teaching. Take this moment to talk about all the things that you plan to do once you get to work your dream job as a teacher in your preferred institution.
This is your moment to talk about all the activities that you have participated in and that seem fit for the institution you are applying to. Every game or exercise could easily help a student. All the teachable moments that you can think of beyond the realms of a book, something that would give rise to more creativity among students is the preferable way to go about things and that is what your answer to teacher interview questions should comprise for.
You can also talk about how you would let your students be the person they are instead of criticizing their every move. Also, talk about how you could use positive reinforcement on your students and make them understand things with the help of examples when they are going in the wrong direction.
Example answer– I love nature and I am a strong believer in how a field trip and getting acquainted with nature can help one broaden their horizon and pick up things faster than a student would inside the four walls.
I love to explore and know the right places to check out for specific instructions and how much they can influence a student’s behavior not only in the classroom but also otherwise. It has the ability to calm them down and be more patient towards learning and growing, so you must mention it during the teaching interview.
Q5. In a Classroom Setting, What Would You Find The Most Frustrating?
To expose oneself and share what truly ruffles your feathers seems to be a vague move, if not for the interview. This allows the interviewer to know how you would behave in certain classroom situations. The best way to answer this question is to take the help of certain past experiences and explain how you have dealt with them before even though they might have frustrated you to a huge extent.
Make sure that even though the situation you are putting across is relevant to teaching and can happen to a teacher in a classroom setting even though it’s personal and you might not have experience as a teacher in the interview questions from before. However, you need to remember that you should only refer to the positives within you as you are convincing somebody to employ you.
Remember to use instances in which you have successfully solved the issue at hand instead of one that you are still facing and figuring out or something you couldn’t find a solution for.
Example Answer– Very Honestly speaking, when a student behaves like they are at school as a favor to the faculty and not for their own better, it doesn’t go down very well with me. However, over time I have learned to use that frustration to the best of my ability and turn it into a challenge.
Instead of giving into that attitude that quite a few teachers do and then later regret, I have started to understand that they behave in such a way to protect themselves and it is their defense mechanism in face of things that happen outside school.
The best way to deal with them is to provide them with a little love, attention, and care and show them that you believe in them as that is honestly all they are looking for in a teacher interview, like in this example answer.
Q6. How Do You Handle Feedback?
While answering this teacher interview question one must keep in mind that teachers are supposed to have a growth-oriented mindset and should be welcoming of criticism and feedback. It is extremely important for them to welcome feedback and also showcase the same in their approach.
This can be a problem for veteran teachers as they might not be as welcoming of feedback due to the experience that they have. In order to answer one of the interview questions, you must draw from your personal experience where you got negative feedback but you took it in the right spirit.
Q7. Tell Me About a Time When You Led a Team and Solved a Problem.
While interviewing you must keep in mind that teaching is a job where you need to keep a number of people satisfied. These are not only students or their parents but the aides, staff as well as other teachers are also people that you need to gel and work well with.
Therefore, an interviewer wishes to know if you would be able to work with so many people happily and conveniently. While answering this question, you can always go back to your past experiences and without fear give an instance about the time you faced a problem during teamwork.
As long as you walk the interviewer while answering the teacher interview questions through how you overcame the issue at hand like this example answer, the interviewer would be impressed and content with your answer.
You must reflect professionalism and patience throughout your answer in the teaching interview along with the zest to make students succeed and learn critical thinking with your teaching strategies and to support students, even difficult students with their teaching methods and ability to cultivate positive relationships.
Q8. Walk Me Through a Lesson, Just As You Would In a Classroom?
This can be a little stressful as no matter how many times you must have played a teacher while playing with your friends and siblings during childhood, this can be a little nerve-wracking.
The interviewer is not necessarily looking for accuracy in your lesson planning and how you keep the students engaged with your lesson plans of a typical lesson would be, it is more about how planned, ready, and enthusiastic you are about the lesson plans according to the school’s philosophy.
This is one of the teaching interview questions that might require more preparation and planning than an ordinary interview question, especially if you don’t have past experience as a teacher. If you don’t have an example lesson plan from a prior role try to whip one up before this interview.
You can start by giving out details of how the scenario would be from the very beginning to the end and don’t forget to cover the reason why you chose to go with that specific approach and be open to questions from the interviewer. Another change that you can bring about in such a scenario is to introduce the changes that you would do to your pre-existing lesson plan if any.
Q.9 What is Your Idea of Classroom Management?
Learning and imparting knowledge is the primary goal for every teacher and that can be easily disrupted when students shout, don’t pay attention in class, refuse to study, are disrespectful, and take away the entire class’s focus from studying. In such a scenario, all eyes are on the teacher to handle the situation and keep the students attentive and focused on learning and creativity, especially in these teaching interview questions.
The teacher interview questions are inclusive of such classroom problems and the ideal way to handle these is to be understanding of the students and their behavior. Instead of getting to know the students as a whole on a class level, the focus should be on getting to know them better as individuals. It’s important for one to build a rapport with them and bond with the students, have trust in them and also support them in their endeavors so that they feel heard and understood.
A few other ideas that your answer to the teacher interview question should comprise of is to practice patience along with rational detachment. A teacher needs to be able to stay calm and take care of students on her/his own while also being able to practice and figure out their pattern so as to not fall in a similar trap again. They need not take things personally and instead try to see beyond the exterior behavior of a student in a class during the teaching interview.
Q10. Do You Want to Ask Any Questions?
This is another one of the very commonly asked teaching interview questions during all interviews let alone being one of the teacher interview questions. Even though it can be considered one of the easiest questions to answer, it is also something that a person should be well prepared for.
To not ask any questions could come across as disinterest as the lack of curiosity is not always appreciated. One must always be active and come up with thoughtful questions to ask the interviewer that can also be about their roles and responsibilities during the teacher interview questions.
If you can come up with questions that are regarding the specific position or role you are applying for then it would be very impressive for the researcher as they would get to see the research that you have done for the position you are applying for in your teaching career for the teaching position to motivate students with your teaching skills.
Example Answer– What are the extracurricular activities that the institution is famous for? What is the student-to-teacher ratio? Any specific questions regarding your position as well as subject.
All About a Teaching Interview.
As we have already covered, Teaching comes with a ton of commitment, responsibility as well as stress but it at the same time is a very rewarding job. One has the power to not only stay informed about the kind of thought process that different people have and how subjective it is, but they also have the power to shape and influence the same.
A teacher can help her students grow and learn about the world that might normally seem far-fetched to them with their teaching skills.
As far as teacher interview questions are concerned, they are inclusive of everything from the common job interview questions like “Why do you think you are the right fit for this job” to more subjective, behavioral, and situational teacher interview questions that would range from how would it be working with children to dealing with their parents.
Your answers to teacher interview questions should comprise of how your philosophy goes beyond the domain of the classroom where you just teach in front of the blackboard.
Check out the attached video to prepare for more such questions-
Final Note
Apart from all the already mentioned questions, behavioral and situational questions are also very significant when it comes to teacher interviews as the interviewer tries to understand how a particular person would react and behave in a specific scenario. As one is dealing with a younger generation in this job, to have the correct behavior is of utmost significance.
It’s very crucial to stay abreast of all kinds of questions during the interview as when it comes to teaching, the questions are not limited but have a very broad range. All kinds of questions are asked as there are too many people to impress and to stay in good books of. However, we truly hope that this article was of help to you to prepare you for your upcoming teacher interview questions.
All those who envision their future as teachers should be well versed in the fact that their job would not be limited to just teaching in the domains of the classroom, it is a never-ending job that requires one to be willing to offer these resources to the students as well as their parents.
Another fact about the job is that even with the stress that comes with the job when the students extend their gratitude for all the knowledge a teacher has imparted, all the tension and stress start to melt off.
