Post- Observation Interview Questions

Script: “I just had the opportunity to observe some of your lessons. Thank you very much. Now I have some questions for you
about your class, experiences in teacher education, and specifically about your teaching thoughts. You may skip any question
if it causes any stress. Remember that your comments are strictly confidential and none of your remarks will be associated with
you by name.
In your consent form, you indicated your permission to allow tape recording of this interview. If that is still agreeable to you, I
would like to turn on the recorder and begin our interview. Do you have any questions before we begin?”

For the interviewer.

Please ask each of the questions, take notes and go aspect by aspect to let the teacher share insights about
each.
A. Becoming A Teacher

1. Where and what exactly do you study to become a teacher?

Fisrt teacher
Janeth Viviana Merchan - National Pedagogical
University - Basic education with emphasis in
Spanish and English
Third teacher
He did not have the main idea of becoming a
teacher, because his plans mainly wanted to be a
nurse since he felt attracted to the human being,
however, not being able to pass the university in
nursing opened the opportunity to study for a
degree in English

2. What motivated you to become a teacher?

Probe: past experiences as a student; model teachers; family profession; social status, economic
factors; cultural factors
First teacher Third teacher
• She had good teachers in high school that • One of their reasons was the fact of being able to
inspired her and finally motivated her to become a educate
teacher

3. What were the most useful or influential courses or experiences you had at the university that have
impacted your teaching? Describe how and why these were especially useful.
(Probe for three responses.)
First teacher Third teacher
• At the University he had some classes called • At the university, she had good teachers who
history of pedagogy and student identity, which encouraged her to finish and teach. Being able to
was showing him important aspects such as the have immersions with Australian teachers has
role of the student and teacher through history allowed him to feel love for teaching and for
looking at experiences that were had for each of English.
these roles

4. Given what you now know about teaching, what do you think should have been part of your university
program but were not? Be specific and tell why these would have been useful in English education.
First teacher Third teacher
• She presented situations where she met students • She had a teacher at the university who,
who lived in very bad conditions and was according to her, lacked pedagogical principles

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 motivated to see the reaction of the students they since she mistreated students psychologically and
had towards learning the English language, this verbally.
motivated her to understand that it can be taught
despite the fact that the students present
difficulties and that dreams can become a reality

B. Today’s Lesson
5. How would you define the objective of today’s lesson? Was it totally, partially or not achieved at all?
Why?
First teacher Third teacher
She recommends that there should be more classes She recommends that you should have more
that teach how to treat students with special needs classes at the university of "speaking" that allows
since she shares that her experience has been you to function in the language
difficult. Today's lesson is based on expressing
opinions about movies; it was partially
accomplished since the students were late but
finally at the end of the class they managed to
express their opinions
6. Assigning numbers, what percentage of predominance would you give to your role as a teacher and to
your students’ roles along today’s lesson? Why?
First teacher Third teacher
According to what the teacher Janeth Vivivan It is considered a demanding teacher where classes
Merchan expresses, she considers her roles to be are presented order and the student must present a
50-50 since she seeks that the students also learn real interest to really learn the language,
outside the class from vocabularies seen within the otherwise, they would simply work for a
class quantitative note

7. When planning today’s lesson, what exactly did you have in mind? Mention minimum 3 aspects and
explain why they were relevant.
First teacher Third teacher
The school where she works has few resources,
little time, and difficulties arise in the classroom
when presenting an English language learning;
Despite these aspects, she considers that they are
what motivate her to give a quality class
(Probe: Previous teaching experiences, school authorities and peers’ comments, your pupil characteristics
and needs, your own opinion about what is best in teaching, the curriculum of the school, etc.)

8. If you had the chance to do something differently in this class, what would it be and why?
First teacher Third teacher
Put up the levels of education because she
considers that nowadays the level has become
basic

9. Is there a particular method or methodology that guided your teaching? Which one and why?
First teacher Third teacher
She uses different methods according to the
student and his/her needs
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 C. Additional Comments
10. Is there anything else you would like to tell me about your teaching experiences, teacher education at
this institution, or about the lesson today? (Other)
First teacher Third teacher
• She comments that she would like to participate • She considers that ethics is a fundamental basis
in immersion classes outside the country so that to consider that one is a good teacher, she also
she can apply what she has learned in Colombia considers that there must be order in the classroom
and avoid at all costs that the students return to the
authoritarian level of the teacher

Thank you very much for talking with me (us) and letting me (us) see your class. I hope that you had
as a positive experience as I did.

How can teachers' perspectives on teaching and learning influence teaching practices?
“Setting an example is not the main way to influence others; it is the only way ». - Albert Einstein-
I think that teachers should be very careful about their perseveration regarding education since, even if it
is not our purpose, our students are always observing us, whether they do it consciously or unconsciously.
Students have 2 great examples when they are in childhood and adolescent age that are always present:
their family and their teachers.
There have been known cases of students who, once they finished school, did not decide to go to
university because, according to them, "they do not like to study", but it has to be clear that the root of
that decision is a teacher, whether in childhood or his adolescence that I present traumatic or ineffective
learning.
To conclude, I believe that the influence that a teacher has is as significant as that of his family in his
learning process since it xis, we who shape the ethical and moral character that education has as a point of
reference.