Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.

Beat the Interviews

PROFESSIONAL
Briefly tell the panels about yourself
- My name is eddy Nghendevali Ndafelai; I completed my studies (2018) at Great Zimbabwe University (in
Zimbabwe) for a BED (Hons) Degree. I specialize in Physical science and mathematics.

- I started off my teaching career in January 2016 at Heroes private school where I was ( 3 weeks) observing math’s
and physical science lessons (8-12), and later joined Ondangwa secondary school (in July 2016-june 2017) as a
student teacher on teaching practice.

- I have worked at Okafa combined school as a relief teacher for physical science; mathematics and Natural science
& health education from September to December 2018.
- Currently I am working at oluwaya combined school as a physical science teacher 8-
- I define myself as a role model, hardworking, committed, self disciplined, problem solver and a team worker.

Why do you want to become a teacher?

- I choose to become a teacher because I never want to stop learning (I love learning and I do not want a day to pass
without learning something new).

- Being a teacher you are not just an educator; you are a mentor, a friend and a role model so I want to make a
difference in the lives of a Namibian child’s.

What are the qualities to be a good teacher?

- The most important qualities you must have are punctuality and patience. Students will learn follow your
punctuality
- Be flexible with other staff

Why should we hire you? / Why do you apply for this post?
- Because am looking for the job and want to advance my career and grow professionally
- Because I am equipped to help the school achieve its educational goals
- I am qualified for the job/have met the requirements

Why do you think you are the best candidate for the job?
- Ever ready to comity to the cause of the school
- I have the ability to learn fast
- Confident and energetic person
- I am very committed, ready for challenges and I have the will to succeed
- Because I am equipped to help the school achieve its educational goals

If you happen to be the best candidate for this post, how will you make sure that there is a social interaction
among the stake holders?
- Ensure good cooperation with other teachers, learners and parents
- Develop a spirit of team work
- Organize social events
- Socialize with communities

What are your strengths?

- I am self driven and consider myself as a leader and patience is my biggest strength as a teacher
- I do not give up very easily and am willing to learn new things
- Easy to adapt, friendly and reliable, expressive and punctual.
- Self motivated
- Can work under pressure

“You can’t win unless you learn how to lose.” Mr. Eddy Nghendevali Page 1
Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.

What is your greatest weakness?

- The fact that I have very little experience in teaching could be interpreted as a weakness

If you believe in team work what are the advantage of team work? Or
Why team work is important? /e.g. OKAFA CS is a big team of individuals. Could you tell us why you think
you are the perfect person fit for this team?
- Sharing ideas, skills and knowledge
- Smooth channel of communication
- Encourage co-teaching
- It teaches on how to solve work problems, work hard, handle stress and become a good thinker
- Team player
- Committed/ dedicated individual
- I like working with others
- Sharing resources

How do you handle stress?

- I try to stay calm as possible and focus to get the job done that helps me to effectively manage pressure.

What should you bring at our school?

- Since I am a hard worker, I will bring hard working sprit at your school and all the coding skills and passion I
have gained from the university.

PROBLEM SOLVING
Upon arrival at school, you realize that a certain colleague of yours has negative attitude toward you, he/she always have
negative comment about you and everything you do or have. How will you handle this situation?
Or
You noticed that a colleague of yours does not greet you and does not respond every time you greet him. How will you handle
this situation?
- Approach the colleague and ask where the problem is/ try to talk to the teacher
- Inform the principal [management] about [the matter] your observation with an idea to remedy the situation
- Look for advice
- Include a third person, a colleague/ senior teacher

Mathematics is regarded as a difficult subject by many, compared to other subjects. What plans do you have in
mind to remove this believe among learners?
- Motivate learners to set their goals and work toward them
- Give a lot of activities and give feedback on time
- Refer learners to other study materials where they can get information
- Create a lot of teaching aid that can help learners to remember what they learned during the lesson

A female learner in your class came complaining of uncle who raped her at home. What will you do?
- Interview the learner to ask what have happened
- Involve the school counselor because that learner need counseling
- Inform the principal
- Take the case to the police

“You can’t win unless you learn how to lose.” Mr. Eddy Nghendevali Page 2
Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.

Learners are shouting at you saying you are not a good teacher. What will you do?
- Call some individual learners and interview them, ask them the problem[cause]
- I will look at myself and reflect on my teaching, come up with new teaching approaches, give short notes based on
basic competencies, give more written works, motivate them to develop love for the entire subject because they
are all important
- Develop new possible solution and approaches
- Consult other teachers to guide and give you way of handling because you are new.

Some learners do not attend period or lesson, what will you do?
- Call them and ask them to explain why
- Warn and tell them the importance of attending lessons
- Will continually monitor and check them if they attend
- If they continue call their parents and discuss the issue
- Report them to school head for further action

INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIP
Teachers at school are in groups, one group is against the management and the other one is for. Which one
[group] will you join?
- Actually join no group. I will remain neutral, treat all teachers equal and concentrate on my work. I will be open to
everybody and I will ask and give assistance to everybody.
- I will try to build a good sprit of team work at school because is only though team work you can improve the
school relationship.
Elucidate the term team work and convince the panel whether you are a team player or a sole player and why?
- Working together to achieve the set goals
- Many hands make work easier
- Share problems as a team
- Share ideas
- Delegate others to learn
- Work in harmony
- Sole, not working in isolation, because we believe in united we stand , divided we fall
A colleague does not want to share teaching material with you
- Report that issue to HOD
- Ask HOD for available material at school so that he makes them accessible to all of us.
- If the situation is beyond my control HOD or principal should help on that regard

JOB KNOWLEDGE
What are the rights and responsibility of the teacher?
- To fulfill teaching responsibility in a personal manner
- To consult with parents of learners in both academic and social manner - reinforce discipline in school
- To maintain a written , confidential profile for learners
- Planning & teaching - to give written work
- Presenting lessons - to record learners attendance

“You can’t win unless you learn how to lose.” Mr. Eddy Nghendevali Page 3
Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.

- Assessing learners - record CA

- Organizing extra mural activities e.g. sports/ take part in extra-mural activity - motivate and guide learners
- Monitoring, managing the classroom
- Marking learners work

Success in every subject depends on the maximum time on tasks. Could you please explain what is expected
from a teacher and a learner in order to exercise it?
Or
Tell the panel, how will you make sure your subject will be one of the best performed subjects at the school?
- Attend every lesson
- Daily preparation
- Arrive punctual for the school and lessons
- plan lessons and give activities
- correct interpretation of the syllabus
- Remedial teaching
Quality homework / test
-teaching and support material
- Quality assessments
- The use of different teaching methodologies
- Read by example/ be exemplary

Can you mention documents that you can use to execute your duties well as mathematics teacher and briefly
explain how you are going to use those documents?
- Syllabus: convey information about the expectations/ outline the basic competencies
- Scheme of work: guide throughout the course to monitor progress against the original (syllabus).
- Lesson plan: to guide [class] teaching
- Subject policy: indicates the type of numbers of activities (projects) you (a teacher) need to give.
Why should a lesson plan be regarded a priority in your day to day teaching?
- It helps you to focus on basic competencies
- Guide on how to present the lesson and which teaching aid and methods you should use during the lesson
- Detailed plan of all the activities to be done during the lesson
- It help you to manage the time well [time management]
- It help you to reflect on teaching and identify strengths and weaknesses and deal with them

What students look for in their teacher?

- They look to the teacher as a role model, and the person who can guide them better for the future.
- They want teacher to be approachable with good sense of understanding
- Explain concepts based on their level of understanding

How to identify hidden talents?

- Class activities
- Artistic skills
- Sports

What makes a teacher to be an effective teacher?

- Know your subject & be able to command respect among learners
- Be well prepared
- Be confident in yourself
- Be creative and innovative
- Enrich your lesson with other resources
- Be consistent
- Be passionate, & be able to inspire

“You can’t win unless you learn how to lose.” Mr. Eddy Nghendevali Page 4
Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.

What type of teaching strategies would you use for student with disabilities?
- Break assignments down into shorter tasks and concepts
- Assigning strong peer tutors
- Provide summaries and modifications

How do you define teaching philosophy?

- Teaching is a lifelong learning process, which goes beyond classroom teaching.
- I would equip my students to handle any situation in future
- I will combine individual works with group work to make my students active learners.

How do you create a safe supportive learning environment for your students?
- Create and enforce clear classroom rules and expectations
- Build strong relationships with students
- Immediately stop / intervene in any case of burying
- Follow through to all behavior consequences

What type of practice would you expect to see in your science classroom?
- Simulating questions for students to participate
- Cooperative learning through classroom activities
- Formative assessment and research based teaching strategies
- Lots of hands on learning
CAREER GOALS

What development will you bring at our school if we happen to hire you [key area 2?] / What plan do you have for
this school to improve performance?
OR
If you happen to be recommended for this school with reference to the post that you have applied for, what
plans you have in place for this school?
- Introduce changes like clubs(math) [establish clubs]
- Use the skills that I have to enhance knowledge for both teachers and learners
- Consult subject experts [Consult subject advisor] just to improve performances
- Introduce extra murals activities in lines with my subjects.
- Motivate learners to take your subjects serious
- Organize educational trips
- Class/ grade competition
- Quality assessment
- Personal goal for the school subject and learners
- Schools and learners will receive awards
- Attract public interest e.g. visiting business personnel for donation

What vision do you have for our school?

I have lots of visions:
- Improvement of academic performance of the school
- Change learners discipline/ behaviors
- Build team work at school
- Create good communication between school and community
- Establish subject club that will promote learners interest and understanding towards the subjects.
- Promote good relationships between schools in cluster, circuit and region as a whole.

“You can’t win unless you learn how to lose.” Mr. Eddy Nghendevali Page 5
Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.

If you happen to be successful candidate, where do you see yourself in 5 years time?
- Would see myself as a progressing and competent teacher producing good results.
- I would like to see myself as leader, growing professionally, where I can continue to learn and contribute as much
value as I can.
- I see myself challenging all the teachers producing more than 80%(A-D) symbols
- Additionally I would like to see myself expert of my job description

How would you handle creativity in the classroom?

- Encourage students to think for themselves
- Encourage students to feel free to express themselves
- Be open for suggestion from them
- Challenge students to be free thinkers

How would you describe your teaching philosophy?

- Simple, I use hands on techniques and am approachable to my students
- I also able to adopt my style to the needs of learners for instance if I have learners that are not comfortable with
independent learning. I employ facilitator style of teaching / learner-centered
- I incorporate fun into my lesson when possible

What teaching method do you use besides lecturing?

- I love hands on activities, like experiments to reinforce concepts I have taught? Lectured.
- I also like to take my learners on field trips, both real and virtual to make my subject simulating & interesting that
is needed to motivate students to learn.

How do you interact with parents?

- Provide contact information for parents and encourage them to conduct me / visit the school if they have any
questions about their child’s performance or progress.
- Inform parents about the school activities through parents meetings
- Invite parents to attend school functions and events
- The school participates in the community’s cultural and extra mural activities on a regular basis.
- Regular feedback is given to parents on learners academic performance and behavior
- Organize parent days where by parents check their children’s work and discuss the progress of learners learning.
- Organize fundraising day to raise money for school to work properly and smoothly.

The teaching and learning environment keeps changing. This means that those in the teaching profession must
keep update with all changes. What are your short and long term goals in this regard?
- Involve Continuing Professional Development
- Keep on researching( new skills and Knowledge)
- Keep yourself up to date

How would you relate science to real world career experiences?

- Conduct research experiments on real life problems
- Plan field trips to career based science institutions
- Authentic and performance based assessment

“You can’t win unless you learn how to lose.” Mr. Eddy Nghendevali Page 6
Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.

DISCIPLINE
According to the education act No.16 of 2001 a teacher who administer corporal punishment on a learner commits a
misconduct which may lid to disciplinary action.

Name any 5 alternatives to corporal punishment

- Use clearly stated words of disapproval
- Remove any object which may be the source of problem
- Suspend offending learner
- Deprive offending learner of a privileges
- Sanction the learner from the class if his presence threatens

How will you maintain discipline in your class?

- Set classroom rules and display them on the wall
- Be prepared, maximum on task? Keep learners busy
- Keep in touch with their parents

How will you manage regular attendance of learners?

- Do role calls every day and record in register book
- Inform parents on learners absenteeism
- Find reason why they are absent and correct them
- Discourage them from being absent
- Praise good attendance

DECISION MAKING
If you happen to have a learner in your class, who have just faded/ collapsed/ fell down for unknown reason. Can
you please share with us (panelist) as to what decision will you take based on this scenario?

Or
While busy teaching in the class one learner collapsed and fell of the chair, this disrupted the teaching and learning
process. What will you do as a teacher?
- Calm down the learners
- Go to the collapsed learner and tell others to give space
- Offer any possible assistance/ aid
- Ask the learner what happened if he/she is talking
- If it is too serious, call the ambulance and inform the parent
- Report to the HOD or principal

You have booked to visit etunda irrigation scheme. The circuit organized physical science or mathematics task
for the entire grade 8 learners to be written on the same date same time. Explain how you will handle the two
issues?
- Cancel the trip
- Rebook it for another day, so that my learners will write the task

You have a learner in your class who do not submit his/her class/ home work at all. How would you deal and
solve this problem?
- Talk to that learner and find out how he/she does not submit his book
- Tell him the importance of homework and other activities
- If there is no improvement, call the parents and tell them to help him and give enough time to do his/her school
work.

“You can’t win unless you learn how to lose.” Mr. Eddy Nghendevali Page 7
Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.

You have a personal problem with your phase head thus you are consistently arguing consequently this is
hindering your teaching and learning process.
What will you do to mend this broken relationship?
- Try to solve the problem two of you
- If fail call in mediator e.g. principal
- Talk to him in a polite way

A learner from your class stopped coming to school because of being teased by others due to his/ her HIV
positive. What will you do?
- Investigate the case
- Refer to teacher counselor/ school counselor
- Educate other kids by organizing an awareness
- Call in a social worker

If you noticed a child being bullied in your class, how would you deal with the situation?
- I would talk to all the children involved separately, and also revisit our anti- bullying rules
- The school rules may take its course

What would you do if you suspected neglect/ abuse in the home of one of your student?
- I will report what I saw to the principal, to find a way to handle the situation as a school without accusing/
upsetting the parents

While busy teaching, the principal find you using a cell phone. What will you do?
- There is no way I can come/ go with the cell phone in the classroom, I will always leave it in the staff room

How would you handle a student swearing or using inappropriate language?

- I would remain calm and avoid losing my temper. Because I am the authority figures in the room. It is important
that I maintain order to make sure the other children feel safe.
- I would then escort the student to the office to see the principal regarding their language

What would you say to an angry parent about their child’s grade?
- I would offer to meet with the parent and provide supporting evidence of the lessons the child received in
preparation for the assessment.
- I would then ask the parent(s) to help me brainstorm ways that their child may prepare for and perform better in
assessment

How would you deal with a student who is always/ habitually late?
- I would first talk with the child to see if there is anything going on in school or at home that is causing him/her to
be late.
- After talking with the child, and depending on what they share I would discuss with the school principal the best
possible approach to talk to the family about the repeated tardiness

How would you engage a reluctant student?

- Adjust my teaching strategies to engage the students in a way that they feel more comfortable to participate. This
may be by having a student work with a partner or creating my lessons around a topic that the student may be
more likely to be interested in

How will you eliminate absenteeism among your learners?

- Make learners understand the consequence of absenteeism
- Explain school rules to the learners whereby absenteeism is part and parcel of the rules
- There must be an agreement of documents to be submitted as proof of absenteeism e.g. health passport/ death
certificates

“You can’t win unless you learn how to lose.” Mr. Eddy Nghendevali Page 8
Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.

If you happen to have a learner in your class who is an orphan and suffers from a high degree of vulnerability,
Fellow learners have neglected him/her and this learner feels isolated that it affects his / her performance.

How will you assist this particular learner to perform well and cope with the situation?
- talk to other learners to accept all learners from different backgrounds
- motivate the learner and make him/her to understand the situation
- Assist the parents to get social grant from the government

Learners need more attention. Explain how you can deal/ work with these kind of learners in a friendly
manner?
- Create a secure learning environment
- Guide them according to their abilities

A colleague is absent and learners are disturbing others. What action would you take?
- Inform the principal / HoD
- Combine two classes
- Give them activities
- Keep monitoring
- Delegate another learner to supervise others

A learner is always coming late to school and his/ her CA is behind. What would you do?
- Invite the parent
- Take him/her for counseling
- Give tasks in the afternoon
- Inform the principal/ HoD

While busy teaching, learners start fighting in your class/two learners started fighting over a chair. How would
you solve this problem/ what will you do?
- Stop the fight/ separate (the learners) them with help of other learners and ensure you attend to injury if any.
- Listen to why they are fighting during break time/ after school to find the root causes
- Calm down the situation and continue with the lesson
- Inform the principal/ HoD
- Discipline them after school
- School rules on fighting will apply
- Find another chair
- Inform them that do not fight

You noticed that majority of your learners in your class do not do their homework, they do not even submit
their books.
How will you handle the situation?
- Interview the concerned learners individually(one by one)
- Allow the learners to do the activities while at school and submit them before they go home.
- Give appraisal to learners who submit on time/ do their work
- Engage parents to assist learners by completing tasks or activities at home.

Physical science textbooks/ mathematics textbooks are not enough for all learners. As a subject teacher, can
you tell us how will you solve this problem?
- Consult the HOD/Principal to confirm
- Seek help from neighboring school or circuit office
- Encourage those who can afford to buy their own
- Use of internet and other resources
- Make use of copies

“You can’t win unless you learn how to lose.” Mr. Eddy Nghendevali Page 9
Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.

Soon after your appointment you realized there is no scheme of work & syllabus, what will you do in this
regard?
- Conduct the office of the school principal / phase head
- Neighboring school
- Circuit office
- Google from NIED website

Mathematics and science are two problematic subjects that contribute to poor performances in the country. As
a science teacher what are you going to do to improve and solve the problems of these two subjects?
- Give more exercises and homework
- Mark exercises and give feedback at the right time
- Design relevant teaching aids
- Revise more challenging topics
- Use old question papers for revision

Upon arrival at school, you have realized that the learners find it hard to pass mathematics/physical science. What strategies
will you implement to improve this situation?
- Find out(investigate) why
- Science club or math club
- Extra lessons
- Motivation through career display
- Invite specialist to help/ SEO to help

You noticed during your lessons that a certain learner in your class always disturb others at the back of the class while you
are busy teaching, How will you handle this situation?
- Change the seating arrangement so he seats in front
- Give the learners responsibilities like to be a class captain
- Give extra work in case he/she always finish first before others.

You gave a mathematics test and half of the learners in your class failed the test. What will you do?
- Give remedial lessons
- Look for way how best learners can understand the topic including using different teaching materials
- Give more written work on the topic for practicing purposes
- Seek help from a knowledgeable teacher to help in this topic
- Give another test (re-test)

You are the head of any club and the school plan to have a cleaning campaign on a Friday. How will you ensure that this
campaign is successful / a success?
- Involve other teachers
- Distribute responsibilities among teacher and learners
- Put preparation in place
- Keep updating the principal about the preparation progress
- Ask for colleagues advices

You were invigilating an examination in your class and 30 minutes into the examination, you caught one learner cheating
(copying answers from a piece of paper). How will you handle this situation?
- Confiscate the piece of paper and indicate on then answer script where the learner ended and let the learner
continue writing.
- Confiscate the paper and disqualify the learner
- Or confiscate everything and give the learner a new script to start over

“You can’t win unless you learn how to lose.” Mr. Eddy Nghendevali Page 10
Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.

SUPERVISION / LEADERSHIP
One day the principal left for a workshop and you are in charge, on that day one teacher left without your
consent. How will you handle this situation?
- Find out why they left without your consent
- Show them you are in charge
- Report to the principal upon arrival

An argument over a dirt classroom between learners led to a fight. Explain how you would handle this situation
- Separate them and calm the situation
- Talk to them after lesson to hear sides
- Reprimand the offenders
- Supervise the class captain to control the cleaning list
- Classroom rules must be set up
- Refer them to disciplinary comity to deal with them

There is a high rate of indiscipline, absenteeism and failure among our learners. As a teacher, how will you
contribute to solving these multiple problems affecting our school?
- Identify learners with mentioned problems
- Ask other teachers if the experience the same problem and talk to the learners
- Call their parents and discuss the matter with the parents
- Involve the life skill for counseling

Collective leadership is not about an individual. It is about combined efforts and commitments
As a teacher how do you understand collective leadership?
- Every teacher should feel free to contribute towards the development of the school
- A teacher must actively participate in the school affairs.
- Teachers should be committed to the vision of the school
- A teacher must be self motivated, self driven, passionate and consider themselves as leaders.
- A teacher must sacrifice on their personal agenda towards cooperative achievements

Do you have a question for us?

- Nothing much to say, I just want to thank you for having invited me to this interview session. Thank you very
much.
- When can I expect to hear the outcome of the interview?

KEY AREA: 1. Provision of resources for schools and hostels

2. Curriculum and Attainment
3. The Teaching and Learning process
4. The school as a social unit
5. Management and leadership of the school and hostel
6. Links with parents and the community
7. Links with other schools and the region
SSE – School Self Evaluation
TSE – Teacher Self Evaluation
PAAI – Plan of Action for Academic Improvement
SDP – School Development Plan
COI – Classroom Observation Instrument
ETSIP – Education & Training Sector Improvement Program

“You can’t win unless you learn how to lose.” Mr. Eddy Nghendevali Page 11