Schools and training institutions work to graduate students with the knowledge and skills required to survive in the world of work and continue on in higher education. Curriculum and instruction directors suggest teaching methods, help select content and also monitor the education material used in classrooms. Interviewing for a combined position as director of both curriculum and instruction requires a mastery of the skills required for both jobs. The job candidate must demonstrate practical mastery of both curriculum content and teaching instruction during the interview.
The term "curriculum" incorporates the content taught, performance objectives for the course, materials used and the experiences of the learner. Some education theorists go so far as to suggest that anything related to the educational experience comes under the heading of curriculum. A candidate for the director of curriculum must master the entire content of the core education curriculum issued by the federal and state departments of education for the location of the school or district. The applicant must also understand the official curriculum endorsed by the local board of education.
Questions asked by the employer focus on the material taught in the classroom. Hiring interviewers ask the potential director to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using specific textbooks and education materials over other choices. Interviewers also like to visualize what department content and classroom curriculum looks likes under the new curriculum director. An interview candidate ready to hand out a sample curriculum outline for one major department at the institution demonstrates the ability to handle the complex job of planning a curriculum for the school or training center. Interviewee questions for the employer ask for information about the school or district adoption of the state and federal core curriculum. Some states and districts hold federal exemptions for required competency testing and questions about this exemption, including the intent to reinstate testing at a future date, show the applicant has an understanding of the network of curriculum assessment issues.
Instruction comes under the general heading of curriculum, but a director of instruction focuses specifically on the methods involved in teaching education content. Supervision of instruction involves motivating students, assessing learning and designing lessons. The director must oversee the planning, delivery and evaluation of the teaching experience from both the instructor and student sides.
Questions asked during an employment interview include probes for background information about the job applicant's past employment supervising instruction and the candidate's philosophy of education. Questions focus on the methods the director uses to coordinate student instruction and the types of teacher training planned for the school year. Sample questions also quiz the applicant about key instructional techniques and the importance of popular instructional theorists, including Paulo Freire, Edward C. Tolman, Albert Bandura, and Fergus Cralk and R.S. Lockhart. The potential employee questions for the interviewers focus on discovering the instructional philosophy held by the administrators of the school, district or training center. Applicant questions for interviewers also include carefully crafted questions to determine if the current direction in instruction is one that the school, center or district plans to continue. Some districts hire a new director to bring change and refocus the direction of the classroom instruction.
- Valdosta State University (Georgia): Definitions of Curriculum
- Education Week; Advocates Worry Implementation Could Derail Common Core; Catherine Gewertz
- University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point: Curriculum -- Different Types
- "Educational Psychology -- Effective Teaching, Effective Learning"; Stephen N. Elliott, et al.
- CNN: Obama Administration Gives 8 States Waivers on No Child Left Behind
- WSBT.com: Indiana Exempted from 'No Child Left Behind' Requirements
- Infed: Paulo Freire
- PSYography: Edward C. Tolman
- "Educational Psychology -- One-Hundred Years of Contributions"; Barry J. Zimmerman, et al.
- Psychological Review; The Trouble With Levels -- A Reexamination of Cralk and Lockhart's Framework for Memory Research; Alan D. Baddeley
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