1. Can you explain me how you would motivate someone who was slow in the course?
If the teacher and the students are in separate locations, then this could be difficult. In person, it is certainly easier to zero in on the problem. Online, you will have to be persistent in your communications.Students may not often want to confront their obstacles in the course. Sometimes, just arranging for a telephone consultation could sort out the problem.
2. Tell us how do you engage students?
If you have experience doing this, you know that communication, emails, announcements, thought provoking questions, getting to know your students and making them feel important in class matters. If you are a new instructor, you will be engaging your students by doing these very same things and have learned from online professors you have taken courses from or have talked with colleagues about, right?
3. Tell us where do you see yourself in a few years?
Describe what other languages are you proficient in besides English. Maybe you have a foreign language minor or you've practiced another language in previous job or volunteering positions. If you aren't proficient in another language, talk about how you know a couple of key phrases and what you're going to do to learn more.
4. Tell me are you technology proficient?
Here you can discuss how you've used audio and visual aids in the past for job or school presentations and that you'll use various visual aids in lectures.
This is more to test your teaching style than your knowledge of grammar, so you can first start by asking the student what they think the difference is, then give them some correct examples, then do an activity to help the students remember the difference. Try to avoid big grammar words. It's better to use real life examples.
6. Explain me why do you enjoy teaching?
Talk about how great the feeling is when you see that your students have learned something new. Hopefully, that's one of the reasons why you want to be an ESL teacher in the first place.
7. Can you tell us what makes you the best candidate for this position?
This is a loaded question! Of all your qualifications, state the ones that put you over the top. Although you need to maintain a professional demeanor throughout the interview, this question calls for your personal views on early childhood education and how you see yourself contributing to the program. When preparing for the interview, consider the following: Why did you choose the field of early childhood education? How dedicated are you to the young children you teach? How has the field affected your thinking, previous jobs, and life experiences? This is the last message you will share with interviewers, so be sure to give an answer that represents you as a unique individual.
8. Tell me what do your parents do for a living?
Don't get offended by this question. It might be illegal in many countries, but it is often asked as an ESL interview question. If you don't want to answer it honestly, then feel free to lie. Say that your parents are teachers and taught you lots about teaching or something.
9. Tell us how has your education supported your ESL teaching experience?
Here's a good opportunity to discuss English classes you've taken, where you've learned grammar in depth, and foreign language classes you've taken, which helped you learn how to empathize with students learning a new language.
10. Tell us what would you identify as top-notch qualities to be a successful ESL teacher?
Talk about how it is essential that you should be passionate about teaching, empathetic to their students' frustration, and dedicated to helping others learn, and for that, you need to be proactive, patient, and have a sense of understanding that far transcends others.
Dean's tell me they are looking for candidates who know they need to
☛ 1. Follow university protocol first and foremost,
☛ 2. Communicate, 3. Try to reach the student,
☛ 3. Try to understand both sides of the issue when applicable,
☛ 4. Let the student's adviser know,
☛ 5. Re-engage the students to try to retain the learner.
With these items in mind, try to tell the story. Explain what the background is with no names whatsoever (no university names and no student names), how you handled it, and what the outcome was.
12. What is your teaching philosophy as Online Teacher?
Expect an educational institution to ask you this one. If you have studied education at the undergraduate or graduate levels, inevitably, you will have had to discern what your philosophy of teaching is. Online teaching most commonly falls into the realm of humanistic (focused on the individual) teaching and behaviorism (focused on outcomes) approaches, so any authentic statement you can make about aligning with these two types of teaching will stand you in good stead.
13. Tell us how are you going to fit this into your workload?
Try not to take offense to this question. Simple answers here will do wonders. If these scenarios apply, talk about them. 1. The other universities you work for only schedule you X number of times per year and you find yourself very often with far less work than you can handle. 2. You manage your time very effectively. 3. You never take on more work than you can handle and still provide quality instruction. 4. While your CV may seem as though you work for a lot of places, this has given you a lot of experience and scheduling is all over the map, with little consistency. Dean's tell me they want candidates who address this question candidly and honestly, and that they understand an adjuncts workload can be scattered and that it is very likely the candidate does in fact have time for the job.
Here you can talk about what you've learned from earning a TEFL certificate, or you could discuss creating lectures using the presentation, practice, presentation method. Arming yourself with examples, description, charts, and games is necessary. Using a planner or a calendar with alarms is also important to keep everything organized.
15. Fresh Online Teachers Job Interview Questions:
☛ Tell me about a time when your computer crashed during an online learning session. What did you do?
☛ Tell me about a time when you had a conflict with another online educator.
☛ Tell me about a time when you had to implement a new type of software or online platform.
☛ Tell me about a time you had a real challenge engaging one of your students.
☛ What programs do I currently use?
☛ What software would I like to learn more about?
☛ What platform works best for students of X age?
☛ What programs are most helpful for students with learning disabilities?
☛ What software is the most effective for X subject matter?
☛ What do I use to assess students' performance?
16. Basic Online Teachers Job Interview Questions:
☛ What experience do you have in e-learning and online education?
☛ What are your relevant academic credentials?
☛ What are you strengths?
☛ What are your weaknesses? How do you overcome them?
☛ What is your technology expertise?
☛ How do you stay up-to-date with the changing worlds of technology and education?
☛ How do you actively engage students in a virtual classroom?
☛ What methods do you use when providing students with individualized instruction online?
☛ What types of challenges have you faced in e-learning? How did you overcome them? What did you learn or gain from them?
17. Tell us how do you plan to communicate with families?
Your answer should reflect the culture of the community in which you are interviewing. Find out the home languages spoken, the economic status of most families, and the kinds of family involvement encouraged by the school or program. Knowing these details, you can shape a response that demonstrates respect for the families. Would it make more sense to use email or to send letters home? Would it be beneficial to create a class website? Is there a teacher portal available? Be sure to mention that you chose a method because you are aware of the community demographics!
18. Explain me about a time where came up with something creative in your teaching?
Do you think outside of the box? Online teaching is for creative teachers. Ideally, if you can think of a technology-related idea, so much the better. Do you like to experiment with the internet to try new types of assignments or teaching strategies. Recently, I created a screen cast tutorial (I bought my own copy of Camtasia, a screen capture program) and created a video on how to revise a badly written document. The students liked it because they could scroll through it quickly or slowly, as they wished.
19. Tell us your experience teaching online?
Just like the question about your experience teaching adults, the interviewer may just be checking to be sure you know that there is a difference between the methodologies used and engagement level online than in traditional education. He or she is also looking for what your experience level is (“I have X years experience teaching in XYZ platforms teaching ABC subjects” is a nice way to start this one). If you have no experience teaching online, just be candid about it. “I have experience doing ABC, but I have yet to teach online. However. .I believe an online instructor needs to…” and this is where your teaching philosophy comes in. What does an online instructor need to do? What open source platforms have you used just to learn them online (Moodle etc)? Did you have experience as an online student that transfer into the classroom as a professor?
20. Explain me have you ever lived abroad before?
If you have, great! Talk about your fantastic experience abroad, and how it made you want to visit whatever country you are applying for a job in. If not, then make sure you show that you won't get homesick and quit after a month.
21. Tell us how would you deal with a troublesome student?
Say that you will try and be understanding, but if necessary you will deal with them according to the school's policy.
22. Tell me how much time would you give to a student?
It's easy to get carried away. In my early days of online teaching, I answered emails around the clock. Generally, I get back to the students in 24 hours or less, but I don't answer emails in the evening and on weekends. Some students require less support than others. Sometimes a short email will suffice. Sometimes, assignments require detailed feedback.
23. Please explain some of your positive guidance strategies?
Be sure the strategies you describe are developmentally appropriate and effective. It is best to share ones that you have implemented successfully, so you can use examples from your own experiences. Administrators seem to appreciate discussing guidance that reinforces positive behaviors and involves children in deciding how to work together in the classroom.
24. Tell me have you ever had to troubleshoot any problems?
Use the STAR technique here: Situation, Task, Action, Result. Tell a story that demonstrates how you effectively handled some technical problems in a learning situation. If you have good problem-solving skills then promote those.
25. Why do you want to work here as Online Teacher?
Simple enough. You read about them online right? You learned about them in our forums right? You have heard great things about how they uphold academic integrity, how they stand behind their faculty, they communicate regularly, your colleagues love working there, etc. If you are applying to a faith based school be sure to mention this element.
