Have you ever had a lesson that didn’t go well? What would you do to improve the lesson?
In an ideal world, every lesson would be flawless, your delivery would be flawless, and every student would master the material every day. Unfortunately, we and our students are both human. We are all aware that there are numerous reasons why lessons fail, ranging from poor planning to a breakfast fight with your boyfriend to the kids having already reached their maximum cognitive load for the day.
You can't tell a class of thirty 6-year-olds, "Let me get back to you about that" or "I miscalculated—give me a moment to revise my thinking" when your lesson is failing. You have seconds to decide how to proceed, and all you see is a carpet populated with thirty wiggling students, their faces blankly looking at you, some audibly whining, and many slowly reclining.
Every teacher has a lesson that does not go well. This question allows you to demonstrate to the interviewer that you are capable of introspection. Explain to the interviewer why you believe the lesson went poorly and what steps you took to improve it next time.
Answer: "When I had to teach the students about volume, I had been teaching for about six months. The students were uninterested in the subject and were extremely rowdy. Instead of dealing with this calmly, I yelled at the students. This did not result in the students quieting down and participating. In fact, it exacerbated the situation. On reflection, I realize that yelling in that manner did not earn me the students' respect. Instead, I now keep calm and amend my lesson plan if the subject isn’t engaging the students."
