Monday, February 4, 2008
Critical Incidents in Interviews
I really liked the idea of using critical incidents when in the interview process. Going over that exercise reminded me of sitting with Dr. Hall in the interview process for the EDL program. Going through and actually creating a critical incident and the sought-after choices made me wonder if even some "veteran" teachers would take the first response approach that we gave as a solution or if they would respond with the third tier approach. I'd like to see more critical incident examples that are out there and are used in a teacher selection process.
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5 comments:
I would have to agree with you about these types of problem solvong questions in interviews. This is a great way to find out how the person thinks outside of the ordinary curriculum. I think it can also give the person doing the interview a better understanding of how the applicant would handle in-class situations.
Thinking beyond the curriculum is an excellent point. If a teacher is only good at their curriculum and can not troubleshoot issues that happen on a daily or hourly basis, they almost certainly become a liability to their district. Sure test scores may be good, but they need to be able to perform in all facets of the job.
I think that using critical incidents in nterviews gives the interviewer better insight into the beliefs of the perspective employee. I think it is very easy to look really good on paper and answer the same questions in the correct manner when almost all school districts ask the same set of question. Instead school districts should use the critical incidents type of questions to truly gauge how prepared individuals are in dealing with certain situation. Granted the applicants current knowledge of the school district is small and their understanding of how things are done in the school is almost nothing, there is still some items that you can listen for and see if they understand.
I also agree that a critical incident question(s) play an important role in an interview. It is difficult to find out everything you may want to know about a teacher you are interviewing in 30 minutes. However, posing questions such as the ones we discussed in class can give you a good idea of how a teacher will react in pressure situations and obviously the answer they choose will give an idea of their effectiveness.
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