When you're applying for a teaching position, a typical job interview question is, "What type of classroom management structure would you implement if you were hired?"
Thisquestion is one that's easier to answer with some teaching experience underyour belt. That's because, as a teacher, you've implemented classroom managementevery day that you've taught.
If you’re just launching your career andlooking for your first teaching job, you can useyour knowledge of best practices and developmentally-appropriate planning todiscuss your classroom management approach.
If you've participated in student teaching, you can share that experience as well.
Types of Classroom Management Styles
Mostleading education organizations recommend some combination of assertiveness andflexibility in classroom management. This helps create a learning environment where the studentsfeel respected by their teacher and, in turn, reciprocate that respect—ultimately reducing undesirable behaviors.
Your strategyon classroom management might include both proactive and reactiveapproaches. Many teachers find that vigorously implementing proactiveapproaches reduces the need for reactive approaches.
Proactive Classroom Management
Proactive teachers create a feeling of community in the classroom by modeling and encouraging positivebehaviors, bycreating opportunities for meaningful peer-to-peer or student-to-teacher interactions, and being aware of students who may need additional support through challenging times in theschool day.
Creating a classroom environment where children feel motivated to engage in only positive behaviors will reduce disruption and createlittle need toapply reactive strategies.
Proactiveapproaches may include studentsco-creating classroomrules, or having students create and sign a learning contract at the beginningof the year.
Reactive Classroom Management
Some effective reactive strategies include pre-planning alternate activitiesfor students who finish early andbecome bored, having a redirectionstrategy to use with students to switch bad behaviors into good, andresponding quickly to an upset child or mediating issues between two or morechildren so that undesirable behaviors do not escalate.
How to Prepare a Response
Theinterviewer may focus on your teaching philosophy, your use of differentteaching modalities like visual, auditory, movement, etc., and your approach toclassroom management. To ensure you give your best interview, think about andprepare your answers ahead of time:
- Ifyou have teaching experience, consider how you have implemented, reflected on,and adjusted your teaching practices to figure out what works and what doesn’t.
- When you’re at the beginning of your career, think aboutthe classrooms you worked in during your student teaching and refresh yourknowledge of planningpractices and theories you feel are important to consider.
Define Your Personal Teaching Philosophy
Youmost likely thought long and hard about your philosophy as you completed youreducation degree in college or graduate school. Most programs ask students toinclude a typedversion of their philosophy in a final project or portfolio as part of the culminating coursework for the college or university.
Theinterviewer will most likely want to hear aboutyour teaching philosophy, because it is yourinterpretation of what you think teaching and learning mean. Itwill also include a brief description of how you teach and why.
Part of yourphilosophy should address your approaches to classroom management, usingexamples of successful strategies you’d use at certain times (liketransitions between activities).
Learn About the School's Policies andProcedures
Youshould also take time to become familiar with the classroom management and disciplinary policies of theschool district inwhichyou're interviewing.
Those policies may vary depending on the students'education level. There may be different policies for elementary, middle, and secondary classrooms.
While teachers often have the freedom to develop their own personal classroom management strategies, many school districts have clearly defined consequences regarding student infractions.
A district may also have guidelines for what type of negative consequences, if any, a teacher can enforce in their classroom.Increasingly,you will find schools encouraging their teachers to use more strength-based approaches with their students.
If presented with this interview question, a well-informed, intelligent response will demonstrate your knowledge of the school’s (or district’s) disciplinary guidelines and how you plan to incorporate them into your own classroom management style.
Ifyou're unable to find out much about the school’s disciplinary policybeforehand, be prepared to ask your interviewer how the administration supportsteachers in regard to classroom management. By asking this question, you willgain insight into the school’s support system and whether your personalclassroom management style aligns with its policiesandprinciples.
Share Examples With the Interviewer
Thebest way to illustrate your classroom management style is to describe specificexamples from your past experience. Even if this interview is for your firstteaching position, you probably have experience as a student teacher.
Back upyour examples by explaining how they are developmentally appropriate for theage group you will be teaching.
Showyour interviewers that your approaches are wellthoughtout, that you respectyour students, and that you truly care about their social, emotional, andintellectual success in your classroom. Also, it’s fine to say you plan tofollow your mentor teacher’s approach—as long as you truly agree with thetheories used to create it.
Examples of the Best Answers
Whenyou give personal examples of one of your methods, be sure to describespecifically how the approach has worked well for you. Here are a few examples:
Proactive Strategy Responses
In my third-grade classroom, we created a classroom rules poster together. When it was complete, the whole class brainstormed ideas for a title. The winning title was, “Cool Rules for Cool Kids”—they all signed the bottom of the poster and we hung it in our room.
I feel children should be moving, so we have “Stop, Drop, and Dance” sessions throughout the day. Movement can wake up a child’s brainand it alsoreduces fidgeting (and other distracting behaviors that come from asking a child to sit still all day).Furthermore, movement is a way to work through difficult situations: often I will “dance it out” with a student who is upset about something. Dancing to upbeat music just makes everyone happy!
Reactive Strategy Response
In my first-grade classroom, I implemented a system whereby students were each given a clip on a chart. For each infraction, the students would move their clip through a progression of colors. The disciplines ranged from a yellow warning, to losing half of their recess, to losing all of their recess, to a red warning, which meant a phone call home. Using this simple and effective color-coded approach, I made very few phone calls.
Review More Teaching Interview Questions
Whenyou're interviewing for teaching jobs, you'll also be asked about why youdecided to become a teacher, your teaching philosophy, the experience you havewith technology, and job-specific questions related to the position for whichyou're applying.
Before you head out to an interview, review the questionsyou will mostlikely be asked and tips for responding.
