Behavioural Questions #1 Flashcards

1
Q

Tell me about a time that you had to deal with a difficult stakeholder and how you managed that?

A

SITUATION
- Foreign teachers (including myself) were getting frustrated with how we were expected to run our kindergarten classes
- Director was adament about use of textbooks despite teachers due difficulties teaching it to students due to lack of engagement
- Parents liked textbooks; equated completion of textbooks with retention of English

TASK
- Find a compromise; create a class that was interesting and engaging for students but allowed students to complete textbooks

ACTION
- Design and proposal of ELA program
- Negotiated a trial period for the class to gauge reactions of parents
- Informed parents of new class
- Adapted from American kindergarten model of a centres-based approach
- 4 rotational stations where small groups participated in various activities and games related to the content of the textbook
- Each station offered a different learning experience including a teacher-led station for guided instruction and assessment

RESPONSE
- Parents enjoyed seeing their children complete a variety of English activities (good from marketing perspective)
- Textbooks were still completed but at a slower rate
- Allowed teachers to properly assess students
- Lessons were much more engaging and interesting for students

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2
Q

Can you tell me about a time you had to manage multiple tasks with competing deadlines? How did you prioritise your work?

A

SITUATION
- New role as manager at English academy
- Academic year ended middle of the year; hectic time

TASK
- Organise annual speech contest and graduation
- Ensure end of year assessments and progress reports were completed on time

ACTION
- Planning events well in advance
- Delegating tasks to staff
- Constant communication; understood frustration from management when things weren’t communicated properly
- Managed conflicts between staff; tension due to end of academic year tasks, addressed staff individually about concerns and stress
- Organised staff dinner and karaoke night; show appreciation for hard work from everyone

RESULT
- The events ran successfully and progress reports/end of year assessments were completed on time
- Wasn’t possible to address all teacher concerns, but teachers appreciated they felt heard
- Learned a lot; knew how to prepare better for the next year

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3
Q

Tell us about a time when you took initiative to improve a process or service within an office.

A

SITUATION
- Initial resource dump in new academy building; scattered resources
- Teachers often asking where they could find things

TASK
- Organise resources to make them more accessible; encourage more frequent use of resources in classes

ACTION
- Organised physical resources onto shelves and in tubs; clearly labelled all resources
- Organised digital resources into folders over network; categorised by English level, subjects, activity types for quick navigation
- Introduced new system in staff meeting to demonstrate how to access and use resources effectively
- Provided ongoing support and recieved feedback to improve the system

RESULT
- Resources were significantly easier to find and utilise
- Encouraged more collaborative and resourceful teaching environment; teachers could easily add their own resources

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4
Q

Can you tell us about a time when you had to alter your own priorities or work activities with little notice due to changing demands?

A

SITUATION
- Teacher/manager in Korea; covered absent teachers on short notice
- Often the bones of a lesson plan prepared; not much detail
- Finish off lesson prep for own classes

TASK
- Ensure learning continued seamlessly
- Students remained engaged and productive, regardless of situation
- Prepare for no lesson plan or students finishing lesson early
- Complete own lesson prep

ACTION
- Use of emergency teaching bag; filled with go-to teaching resources and adaptable lesson plan ideas tailored to different age groups
- Beginning of class; quickly assess age group, group dynamics, current learning topic and sometimes create a lesson plan on the spot
- Utilise knowledge of classroom mangement techniques to ensure smooth process of teaching
- Use allocated time for unplanned activities in the afternoon for proactive planning

RESULT
- Students remained engaged and focused despite unexpected absence of regular teaching
- Maintained classroom routine and structure providing continuity of learning
- Allocating a time for unplanned activities in the afternoon allowed for my own lesson prep to be completed

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5
Q

Can you give an example of a time when you worked as part of a team to achieve a goal and how you adapted to challenges or changes within the team?

A

SITUATION
- All large scale events at the academy in Korea were a collaborative effort requiring input from all teaching staff
- Example: Graduation for kindergarten students; significant event for parents in particular

TASK
- Creating a detailed schedule
- Outlining tasks that needed to be completed in lead up to and on day of graduation
- Discussing schedule and tasks with staff and delegating those tasks

ACTION
- Initial planning; meeting with Director to discuss expectations for Graduation Day
- Held meeting with teachers; discussed and delegated tasks based on stengths and preferences
- Tasks included: parent information, invitations, decorations and stage set up, student performances, awards, graduation speeches from teachers
- Ensured open communication between all staff to address concerns and issues; adapt tasks as necessary
- 7 yr old foreign teacher was ill day of graduation; myself and other teachers stepped in to complete her tasks including reading out graduation speech

RESULT
- Graduation ran seamlessly, even short one staff member
- Received positive feedback from parents
- Collaborating as team gave staff a sense of accomplishment and created a stronger team mind-set

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6
Q

What types of tools or processes do you use to keep on top of your tasks/deadlines?

A

SITUATION
- Teaching full time in Korea; meeting constant deadlines for lesson plans, progress reports, event planning etc.

TASK
- Usually organise to do list for next day the night before
- Use of notepad to write down tasks as they came up - added them to list later
- Review tasks in the morning; prioritise most urgent tasks first (i.e. gathering resources for today’s lessons); also prioritised tasks that required input from others - ensure they had notice to complete tasks
- Checklists for everything
- Take notes of student learning and development in class to use for progress reports
- Designed templates to help organise certain tasks (i.e. lesson plan template, event planning template etc.)
- Regularly check in with teachers about upcoming deadlines

RESULT
- Use of to do lists, templates, prioritising tasks efficiently and communicating effectively meant all deadlines were almost always met on time

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7
Q

Can you give me an example of when you adapted your communication or working style to accommodate the individual preferences of someone you’ve supported?

A
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8
Q

How do you manage communication when there are competing demands for stakeholders?

A

SITUATION
- As manager, frequently addressed competing demands from stakeholders including parents, teachers, admin staff, the Director and Vice Director
- Kindergarten parents always eager for children’s progress reports; same time we would be preparing for Graduation Day
- Director and Vice Director wanted updates on Graduation Day preparations and progress reports
- Teachers required further clarification about what to include in reports

TASK
- Identifying most urgent tasks; progress reports considered most urgent - strong communication with parents pillar of academy and poorly written progress reports could lead to unintended consequences
- Keeping teachers informed to ensure understanding of responsibilities and deadlines

ACTION
- Created example progress report
- Held brief meeting with teachers to provide guidance on required content for progress reports and appropriate phrasing; reviewed tasks for Graduation Day
- Scheduled meeting with Vice Director to update him on the progress reports and Graduation Day planning

RESULT
- Addressed all stakeholders needs while prioritising progress reports
- Progress reports were completed early; allowed extra time to plan for Graduation
- Graduation Day was successful

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9
Q

Can you provide an example of how you successfully coordinated a complex travel itinerary, including unforseen changes?

A

SITUATION
- No experience with travel itinerary in a job role
- Travelled overseas frequently for months at a time
- Managed logistics myself; booking accommodation and activities, organised transportation between destinations, took into account cost effective ways to travel
- Booked a flight that had a stopover in Vietnam; went to check in and found out the connecting flight was located at a separate terminal outside of the main airport - required a visa

TASK
- Find a solution that didn’t require me to leave the airport and wouldn’t cause a significant delay or cost too much money

ACTION
- Checked the process for getting a visa - wasn’t possible to get visa approved in time before the flight
- Located next budget flight - only a few hours away
- Double checked location of terminals for other flights

RESULT
- Stressful situation; first flight I had missed
- Booked flight and continued travelling with only a minor delay
- Valuable learning experience; check terminals in international airports; being flexible and maintaining a positive mindset in order to navigate unexpected challenges effectively

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10
Q

How do you balance being proactive with being responsive to immediate needs?

A

SITUATION
- As manager, had to balance overseeing a team of teachers while also maintaining my own classes
- Example: parents attending information sessions with Director would often request English levels test to be completed on the day

TASK
- Adminster level tests to prospective students
- Ensure lesson plans were prepared well in advance

ACTION
- Preparation; allocated specific hours for proactive planning in the morning (my own lesson prep) and unplanned activities in the afternoon (level tests) - allowed flexibility for addressing immediate issues that arose
- Delegation; urgent tasks may require me to ask other teachers to take the beginning of my class if I needed to adminster a level test - quickly run through lesson plan with them
- Communication; encouraged teaching staff toupdate me regularly on any urgent matters so I can assess and adapt my schedule to address those matters

RESULT
- Proactive planning helped keep the day running smoothly and minimise interruption to student learning
- Teachers didn’t feel overwhelmed teaching my classes due to prep
- Scheduled unplanned activity times allowed me to respond to urgent matters as they came up

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11
Q

Tell us about a time when you to adapt to a signficant change or solve a complex problem at work?

A

SITUATION
- During few months as manager, foreign teacher had to return to South Africa for a family emergency

TASK
- Ensure continuity of lessons for students
- Balance additional workload fairly amongst staff
- Maintain communication with parents about situation

ACTION
- Held meeting to discuss classes that needed to be covered; took some myself
- Scheduled classes; no overlapping
- Provided teachers with additional support and resources to help manage classes
- Once teacher returned, held dinner to show appreciation to staff for taking on extra responsibilities

RESULT
- Students learning continued without disruption
- Feedback from teachers was mostly positive; some struggled with extra responsibilities, but overall felt supported throughout the teacher’s absence and appreciated clear and timely communication

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12
Q

Can you describe your experience working with external and internal stakeholders to address operational issues?

A

SITUATION
- Working as full-time educator at kindergarten; ocassionally had to address concerns parents had about behaviour of their own child or interactions between their own child and other children
- Some parents mentioned feeling that concerns had gone unaddressed in the past
- Example: a parent communicated to me that their child had told them they had learned specific swear words from another child iin the room

TASK
- Gather details about parent concerns
- Investigate situation
- Work with staff in the room to ensure parents concerns were being addressed
- Reassure parent that matters like this are taken seriously; work with staff to find a solution

ACTION
- Myself and other educators held multiple group times to reinforce use of positive language at kinder, setting clear expectations and discussing topics of respectful communication in a developmentally appropriate way
- Worked with other educators in the room to observe children, paying close attention to interactions in the playground; reinforced group time lessons throughout the day
- Maintained open communication with parent and discussed steps taken to address their concerns

RESULT
- Consistency of educators resulted in kinder room becoming much more mindful of respectful communication
- Parent appreciated that action was being taken

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13
Q

How do you approach a situation where you don’t know the solutions? Can you walk me through your problem solving process?

A

SITUATION
- Situations often arise as casual teacher where finding a solution is difficult - working with children who I don’t have a relationship with, don’t know their developmental stage, their needs etc.
- Strategy for helping and supporting children in similar scenarios won’t necessarily work the same way
- Children respond differently to people they don’t know in the room

TASK
- Important to be able to adapt to each teaching environment
- Try various techniques to help manage the group in times of chaos; some children respond to songs, others need a physical activity to alleviate sensory overload, some just need an activity to focus on
- Ensure children have a productive and engaging day of learning

ACTION
- Assess the situation on arrival; observe children - energy levels, interactions with each other, general behaviour, engagement in activities
- Talk with permanent staff in the room about children’s general behaviour and interests; activity ideas - some children may need more guidance and support
- Engage and connect with children; ask open ended questions, develop rapports with children to build sense of trust and security, participate and engage with them in activities
- Maintain daily routine; some children don’t respond well to changes
- Adjust planned activities as necessary based on needs of group
- Reflection; take notes on successful activities and less successful activities - notes on why

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