Example Teaching Questions:
- How would you teach an introductory course in your field?
- How do you get students excited about learning _______? (18th-century literature, for example, or composition, or linguistic semantics, etc.?)
- How would you teach an introductory course in your field?
- How would you teach a survey course that also includes the century before or after the one you work in? (for literature applicants)
- How would you teach a senior seminar/capstone in the major?
- How would you teach the introduction to the major?
- What courses do we offer that most interest you?
- How would you teach X kind of student (continuing learners, first-generation college students, etc.)?
- (for literature candidates) No matter what your field, be prepared for: How would you teach Shakespeare, if you were asked to? (or the other big names courses that draw large enrollments, like Milton, Chaucer, Faulkner, Eliot, etc.)
- We have a 4-4 teaching load with one possible course release a year: how will you adjust to this?
- If you could teach anything you wanted, what would it be?
- What courses do you not see in our curriculum that you would be interested in adding?
Example Research Questions:
Most of the research questions I received were too specific to my work to be helpful here, but below is a list of general questions I answered. Be sure to look back at the writing sample you sent that school (and remember if you sent different samples to different schools) because committees will usually ask you specific questions about that paper or dissertation chapter.
Most research questions will be rather detailed and direct; looking back, most of those specific questions fell under one of four categories: to explain, expand, apply, and translate. These general ones below, however, were also very important:
- Tell us about your research/dissertation/book project. (for this one you can have a “spiel” prepared!)
- Do you bring your research into your teaching?
- Are you familiar with theorist X? How would you apply his/her work to your project?
- What are you working on next? or, What is your research agenda? or, Walk us through the next five years in your research.
- What’s important about your research?
- How does your work contribute to the field?
Other Kinds of Questions:
- What do you think “service” means or entails?
- What do you know about our university?
- Why do you think you would be a good fit in our department?
- Have you heard about our program/certificate/center on ______? Do you see yourself contributing to that?
- And at the end they always ask . . . Do you have any questions for us?