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K-12 Interviewing

Educational Placement and Career Services

November/December Newsletter

Structured Screening Interviews:
aka The Teacher Perceiver / Teacher Insight

Structured interviews have become increasingly popular as the first or screening interview. School districts, including Madison, Verona , and Middleton in this area, use this procedure. Every interviewee is asked the same or similar questions. Several commercial packages in use are the SRI Teacher Perceiver, Teacher Insight, and the EMPATHY/Omaha Interview. A variation termed “urban teacher selection interview” is being used by the Milwaukee Public Schools.

Most of these interviews exhibit certain similarities, and it is not uncommon to be asked to respond to these “canned” interview questions over the telephone. The questions being asked fall into several general categories.

• The first is the situational, in which the interviewee is asked to respond to a given situation.
• Observational questions, based on a third party’s actions, are the second type
• Conceptual questions directed at teacher behavior, beliefs, and personal philosophy is the third type.
• All questions will be job or teaching related.

In general, it is not a good idea to prepare set “canned” answers to the questions. The test values the spontaneity of the response. An understanding of the teacher qualities, such as being positive, organized, committed, motivated, compassionate, knowledgeable, creative, and approximately eight other “good teacher characteristics”, should provide a good base.

Common sense is a main ingredient. Most teachers, barring individuals subject to test anxiety, should have little difficulty in achieving a passing score on one of these structured interviews. Additional information is available from EPCS consultants and the monograph, “The Structured Interview Helpful Information for the Interviewee”, which can be obtained at the EPCS office.

University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education

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