VIDEO – DIVERSITY Interview Questions & Answers! (Diversity in the WORKPLACE Interview Tips & Answers!)
- How would you promote and celebrate diversity in your class?
- How would you deal with a student who uses derogative, racial slurs?
- How would you deal with the diverse, cultural and economic backgrounds of the students in our community?
10 Questions You’ll Be Asked at a Teaching Interview
1. Why did you decide to become a teacher?
Prepare a brief professional mission statement that explains not merely how you want to change students’ lives but also how your own life is enriched by being a teacher. Also, look up the school’s vision statement and reference how your teaching will reflect those goals.
2. How do you cultivate positive relationships with your students and create a sense of class community?
Recount a time you bonded with a student who needed some extra attention and understanding. Show your concern for the emotional well-being of the most vulnerable students and describe your plan for developing students’ social and emotional learning skills. Also explain how you create a sense of empathy and inclusion among your students so classmates support each other on both a personal and academic level.
3. What’s your teaching style or philosophy?
Interviewers want to see that you really want to help students develop inside and outside school—not just push them toward some academic result. Basically, you care about people and their success, and you’ve thought about what that success looks like and how you’ll help students achieve it.
You’ll want to be honest about your specific style and mindset when it comes to teaching. But also consider what this school’s philosophy is like, and try to emphasize where your values naturally overlap.
For example, you might talk about how you take a community approach to education, which means “knowing that you’re one piece of this person’s journey,” says Mary Findley, Senior Teacher Success Manager at Skillshare and a former Teach for America Core Member and elementary school teacher.
You could answer with: “I believe when students are challenged with realistic goals and given the support they need not to just get the answers right but to be able to use those lessons to solve future problems on their own, everyone comes out on top. I think that as a teacher, it’s my job to support my students through the lessons I give, but also through the various challenges they may face at school, and to partner with them as well as other support systems to help them feel motivated, comfortable, and happy in the classroom.”
4. Tell me about a time when you worked with a team to solve a problem.
Parents and students aren’t the only people you’ll be interacting with. You’ll frequently need to partner with aides, school staff, and other teachers to help students succeed, so your interviewer wants to know that you can work with just about anyone.
Telling a story about a team situation where things didn’t go perfectly is a great way to show you can communicate and collaborate with others even when times are tough. “But don’t emphasize the conflict—emphasize how you got through the conflict to have something that was effective,” Swartz says. “Even if you’re not a teacher with experience, you can still highlight how you go about your work by giving past examples” from another context.
For example, you could reply: “In my last role as a project coordinator, I had to partner with our account managers to meet a really tight deadline set by a client. We were all a little frazzled because the project required a lot of revisions, but we put our heads together and divided the work, even staying late a couple days to make sure we finished on time. I definitely don’t think we could have accomplished it without working together, and I believe the same is true as a teacher working with other staff—you can’t go it alone if you’re going to successfully foster a learning environment that works for all students and supports them as individuals.”
5. What are hiring managers looking for when interviewing teachers?
No matter the specific role or workplace, hiring managers look for common themes in qualified teaching applicants:
- Teaching skills: Unsurprisingly, how you work with students on a group and individual level is crucial. “Do they know how to have an effective classroom where all kids are learning and engaged?” says Dan Swartz, Managing Director at Resolve Talent Consulting, LLC, a firm that specializes in education recruitment.
- Data proficiency: In today’s modern school system, data is also incredibly important, Swartz says. He wants to know: “Have you been able to master or are you proficient at the use of data?” So whenever possible, give examples of how you used data to guide you. For example, have you gleaned insights from individual test scores or overall class performance metrics?
- Subject matter expertise: Candidates have to show that they’re adequately knowledgeable about the content area they’re looking to teach, whether it’s history or science. “[A lot] of times there are state standards,” Swartz says. So when it makes sense, try incorporating “how much you know about the standards or how much you can use the standards for your instruction,” he says.
- Teamwork: Being a team player when it comes to working with other teachers, administrators, aides, and staff means you’ll help not only students but also the entire school thrive.
- Organization and accountability: Candidates who are on top of deadlines and can meet classroom goals will go far. “As an administrator, I need to know that I’m going to be able to get lesson plans from you,” says Rob Sheppard, an ESL teacher who started his own online English school, Ginseng English.
- Commitment to students: If there’s one thing that can’t be taught, it’s care for students—so interviewers want to know you have it. “The rest of the stuff, educators can teach.” Swartz says. “They can teach you content, they can teach you how to be a more effective teacher delivering your lessons, but they can’t teach the belief in students.”
Keep these themes in mind as you prepare for your teaching interview and look for opportunities to communicate them whenever possible—especially in response to these common questions.
Need some tips for writing your teaching resume?
6. So, how do you work with diverse students?
Things to think about: what kind diverse students have you come across? Which ones havent you come across – or havent noticed? If for example you say “Ive never had a trans person in my class”, are you sure? Maybe they werent out. Awareness of diverse students is an aspect here.
Do you have biases? (Be honest with yourself. Ask friends who arent afraid to tell you things youre not happy to hear.)
What kind of issues do diverse students face in your field? Are there poorly represented groups (like women in STEM fields)? Note that some issues are due to prejudice, but others are more justified/neutral. For example, foreign students can be at a disadvantage because they dont have native mastery of your local language, or have trouble adjusting to the local academic culture. That doesnt mean anyone is evil, but it is an issue to pay attention to.
7. Tell us about a mistake you made with a student. What happened, and how did you address it?
This is a tough but important question. Your interviewer is asking you to be a bit vulnerable here, but be careful with your choice of anecdote. While we’ve all made mistakes when dealing with students, what you’re really looking for is an example where you made a mistake and then addressed it appropriately. Think carefully about a situation in which you didn’t handle things as well as you could have, but that you got it right in the end. Explain why you handled it the way you did initially, what caused you to reflect and change your mind, and how the situation was resolved.
8. What three words would your peers, administrators, or students use to describe you?
Having been caught off guard by this prompt at a previous competitive interview, I would encourage you to have some thoughtful options to describe yourself. It’s tempting to say things you think your new boss might want to hear, like intelligent or hard-working, but don’t discount character traits or terms that paint you as a team player among peers and a role model for students. Some options to consider are empathetic, creative, caring, or cooperative.
9. Which component of your résumé are you most proud of and why?
Pride may come before a fall, but if asked about your accomplishments, don’t be bashful about conveying your worth. Have you won a grant for classroom materials? Share the details and how they helped your students succeed. Did you receive an award for excellence in instruction? Talk about how the application process helped you reflect and grow. If you’re a recent graduate, you can still brag on yourself: Describe your student-teaching experience and how it prepared you for opportunities like the job opening you’re vying for. Small things, like professional organization memberships, can also help you relay your interest in staying up to date on the latest educational research and best professional development.
10. What questions do you have for me?
While this might seem like the easiest interview question in the book, it’s one you should actively prepare for with thoughtful questions targeted at the specific interviewer and role.
“Don’t just ask, when can I expect to hear something?” Swartz says. If you do have a question about next steps, make it your last one after you’ve posed others. Until that point, “Ask some serious questions about that school. That’s your opportunity to interview them as much as they’re interviewing you, and they are going to respect that,” Swartz says. “Any question that [candidates] ask where I can see that they’ve done their research about the position is a great question to me.”
Here are a few suggestions to get the ball rolling, but be sure to come up with your own *specific* questions about the school and role:
- What do you wish you knew about [role]/[company or school] when you first started?
- What qualities make someone successful here?
- What are you most excited to work on/accomplish at [company or school] right now?
- What drew you to [company or school]?
FAQ
How do you answer interview question about diversity?
What are the 10 most common interview questions and answers?
