Instructional Coach Interview Questions
"As an instructional coach, your job will be to work with teachers to help improve teaching techniques and achieve stronger classroom results. Employers are looking for motivated candidates who have a knowledge of effective practices, are skilled at working with adults, and can properly coach individuals who may be set in their ways. In an interview, be ready to discuss your coaching experience, collaboration skills, and how you would handle a variety of classroom scenarios."
Top Instructional Coach Interview Questions & How to Answer
Here are three top instructional coach interview questions and how to answer them:
Question #1: Tell me about your educational philosophy and how you can be an impactful coach.
How to answer: The interviewer wants to learn more about you as a teacher with this question. Provide them with some details about how you go about teaching. Make sure to state your teaching philosophy in a direct and specific manner and use examples from your experience to show how you helped others reach their goals and the goals of the educational system.
Question #2: Have you ever received pushback from a teacher?
How to answer: The interviewer wants to know how you handle conflict with this question. Explain a time you had to work with a teacher who was unhappy with the direction the department was going in. Provide some details about how they made you aware they were unhappy and how you handled it. Be as specific as possible to show how you work through conflict and how you can focus on the work.
Question #3: How will you work with the different skill levels and needs of the teachers in this district?
How to answer: This question is asking how much you know about the district and if you have learned enough about the teachers to come up with a plan. Do your research before the interview and provide some details about how you will first get to know the teachers and get a feel for their needs before coming up with a plan for each of them.
What is the difference between formative and summative evaluation?
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Summative evaluation is meant to assess the amount of student learning at the end of a unit, like a final exam or midterm. Formative evaluation is much more regular and is used by a teacher to change their program to achieve better results. Less
How would I use my experience to coach and support other teachers?
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The best way, in my opinion, to coach and support other teachers is to myself in their shoes. I have past experience being in their situation and so I can empathize and do my best to help them with whatever issues arise. Less
What is your background and why are you interested in being an Instructional coach?
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We are in a stage of waiting since I wanted a salary range that was higher than they could offer for the position. They told me to call back if I was still interested. I will take that as a positive but I did think for the work it would involve as well as the travel that it was a bit low, $48K-$65K/year was the range offered. I earned more as a teacher and would hope to at least match my pay. But the job was really up the alley of where I want to transition so we'll see!! Less
With which types of testing are you familiar?
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All of the current ones being used in education.
After watching a short coaching clip I was asked to describe: What did the coach do well, what was the main focus that was being discussed, if I were the coach what would I have done differently.
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I would have reviewed what we previously discussed....you'd have to see the clip to fully answer this question. Less
As an instructional coach, how do you coach and mentor somebody who is a first year teacher versus an experienced teacher?
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The needs of a first-year teacher differ from that of an experienced one. With a first-year teacher, it is essential that they first establish strong classroom management and learn to deliver the content in a manner that properly communicates key learning in a student-centered manner. More experienced teachers usually are strong in classroom management and their delivery, thus they are ready to be coached on how to ask higher order thinking questions and differentiating instruction to meet each student's needs. Less
How would you handle a situation where the student has [specific special need]? How would you differentiate the instruction?
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Initially I would closely examine the data available on the student from past assessments, teachers anecdotal notes, and examples of the students work. I would use this data to determine what the students area of weakness or difficulty is and then adapt instruction to cater to those specific weaknesses or difficulties. Less