My First Experience As An Interviewer

I was appointed for the first time as an interviewer for the prospective undergraduate students in education program in Faculty of Education UTM for the next semester intake. The interview session was conducted in Pusat Islam Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT). Since this is my first time being an interviewer, I was so enthusiastic to meet and interact with the potential secondary school teachers. I made a homework about the frequently asked interview questions for prospective students in the field of education. Based on my experience during the interview session, I find women candidates are better than men candidates. They have lots of ideas to talk about after I gave the questions. Otherwise men candidates are more likely to answer briefly. So is the level of confidence which women candidates were found to have a higher level of confidence than men candidates. However there are also male candidates who have the characteristics to be a good teacher in the future.

Here I share some of the questions I asked to the candidates:

1. Tell us about yourself. What would you like us to know about you?
2. What is a unique quality specific to you?
3. What are your three most important reasons for wanting to be a teacher?
4. Do you know what is kemahiran berfikir aras tinggi (KBAT)? In your opinion, why KBAT is introduced in our education system?
5. In Malaysian education blueprint, there are five system aspirations for the Malaysian education system. Can you explain us what are those five aspirations?
6. Why do you want to become a teacher? I pretty sure that you have heard about the roles of teachers in schools nowadays. They not only teach, but they have to do other things like key in data to the system, clerical work, and many more. So do you think you are capable of dealing with all this?
7. A homework was due at the end of a two-week unit. Ali didn’t meet the deadline. He tells his parents that he did not have enough time to finish it. His mother is a Pengerusi PIBG sekolah. What would you say or do?
8. Chee is doing poorly in your class. You talk with her, and she tells you that she considers you the poorest teacher she has ever met. What would you do?