Frequently Asked Interview Questions

1. How do you like to see yourself and what are your professional goals for the future?

2. What type of position are you interested in? Why?

3. What qualifications do you have that suit you for teaching?

4. What personal characteristics are necessary to succeed in your field?

5. What position in our school would you choose if you were able to pick freely?

6. What are the disadvantages of the field you have chosen?

7. Do you like working in a small or a large district?

8. What do you know about our district?

9. Why do you think you want to work for us?

10. What sort of principal would you like to work for? Why?

11. Tell me how you think children learn best.

12. Why are you interested in our school district?

13. How much money do you hope to be making here? How much by age thirty? Age forty? Age fifty? By retirement?

14. What type of environment do you prefer to teach in?

15. Would you be willing to teach anything in the district?

16. What is the most important thing you have learned from the previous jobs you have held?

17. Are you more interested in making money or in serving others?

18. Would you like to teach by yourself or with others?

19. What sort of teachers would you choose to work with?

20. What have you done that shows willingness to work (creativeness, initiative, etc.)?

21. Are you willing to advocate for your students even if it displeases your superiors?

22. What characteristics do you look for in your best friends?

23. Are you greatly concerned with pleasing other people?

24. What is your major strength?

25. What is your major weakness?

26. Do you like to be on stage?

27. Define teaching.

28. What types of students rub you the wrong way?

29. Do you have trouble being tolerant of people who are appreciably different from you?

30. Which of your teachers had the greatest influence on you?

31. Tell me how a student's home affects him or her during the day.

32. How did you get along with the other students in your education classes?

33. At what age did you first decide you were interested in education?

34. How do you usually spend your weekends?

35. How did you spend your vacations while you were in school?

36. What kinds of books and magazines do you read?

37. How often do you expect to attend voluntary school functions?

38. How often do you go out? Where do you go, and what do you like to do?

39. Do you think potential employers should consider a student's grades? Why or why not?

40. How did you happen to go to college?

41. Why did you select this particular major (teaching)?

42. If you were starting over again, what major (type of work, etc.) would you select? Why?

43. Do you think you have done the best work you are capable of?

44. Have your extracurricular activities been worth the time you spent on them? Why or why not?

45. Would you be willing to forget all about your education and start over again from scratch?

46. Tell me about yourself.

47. Define "mainstreaming."

48. Define "least-restrictive environment."

49. Describe how you motivate reluctant learners.

50. Have you had experience with cooperative learning?

51. How would you describe a typical hour in your teaching day?

52. How would you grade a student with exceptional educational needs who is working in a regular classroom?

53. How do you feel about whole language instruction?

54. Please tell me about your favorite lesson to teach.

55. Please describe what you feel is your responsibility to teach children in the area of morals and appropriate behavior.

56. How do you feel about teachers' being required to serve lunchroom or recess duty?

57. If you had a student who was wandering around the class, talking loudly, and refusing to take his seat, what would you do?

58. What do you feel is a fair form of judgment for a child who does not complete his or her homework?

59. Whose job is it to handle discipline in the schools?

60. What is the most important skill you can teach a middle-school student?

61. What have you found to be the most effective teaching method for you?

62. What do you feel your role should be in curricular development in your subject?

63. How will you deal with the multicultural aspects of this community, if you teach in this school system?

64. What is the first thing you would do when you get your classroom?

65. Describe what you think is a proper atmosphere for learning.

66. Describe your position regarding failing students versus retaining students.

67. How do you propose to remain current as a teacher?

68. Do you like children (or adolescents)? Why?

69. How important do you think daily lesson plans are?

70. Please tell me about the most rewarding thing that has happened to you as a teacher in the classroom.

71. What is the main purpose of schools in our society?

72. What long-range goals have you set for yourself?

73. What is your greatest strength in the classroom?

74. What is your greatest weakness in the classroom?

75. Tell me about your experience with team teaching.

76. How are you able to use computers in your classroom?

77. What texts would you prefer to use in a classroom like the one we have described?

78. Give me an example of how you would handle a parent who was very upset with you for not giving their child an "A."

79. How do you feel about school choice?

Excerpted from How to Get a Teaching Job, by Courtney W. Moffatt and Thomas L. Moffatt.