Don’t Let Your Teaching Demo Let You Down

“That guy owes me gas money!” That was my only thought after driving to campus for a faculty candidate interview and teaching demonstration. It was the worst teaching demonstration that I have ever sat through. The absolute worst. This candidate had a doctorate in education and 20-plus years of community college teaching experience—and none of that, seemingly, was applied to their teaching demonstration. That was the end of my second failed faculty search of the semester. Two hiring committees for two different positions. Neither was filled. “Ugh, someone should write an article about how to do this stuff …”

Teaching represents about 75 percent of the work required of a community college faculty member. In your teaching demonstration, you are showing the hiring committee how effective you can be at the one thing that you will be spending the most amount of time doing. A strong teaching demonstration can outweigh a weak interview. Some of the most amazing teaching demonstrations that I have seen have come from the people with the least amount of teaching experience. I have been on a number of committees that hired the applicant with the least amount of teaching experience based solely on the candidate’s teaching demonstration performance. The importance of this part of the interview cannot be overstated.

The key to mastering the teaching demonstration is this: Your job is to show the hiring committee how well you can teach, not how much you know. Don’t try to cram half of a semester’s worth of knowledge into a 30-minute teaching demonstration. Don’t create a 25-slide deck and then plow through a 30-minute fact vomit. Teach to the hiring committee the same way that you would teach to a classroom full of students on your absolute best day in the classroom.

The hiring committee will be paying close attention to everything that you do during your teaching demonstration. In your interview, you were most likely asked to describe your teaching style. The committee will be looking to see if your teaching demonstration aligns with your response to that question. Make sure that you do everything that you described in your interview response.

Every teaching demonstration should have the following seven components:

1. Learning outcome
2. Summary of what will be covered and how it will be covered
3. Lecture component with student interaction
4. Interactive activity
5. Activity debrief
6. Learning assessment
7. Summary and questions

Let’s look closer at each of these components. The assumption is that your teaching demonstration will last about 30 minutes. The times that are listed for each component will reflect this. You can adjust these times if you have a different time limit for your teaching demonstration.

1. Learning Outcome (1–2 minutes)

Start the teaching demonstration by stating the learning outcome for the lesson. Be sure to show the hiring committee the outcome by including it in a slide, writing it on the board or printing it on a handout. This is critical in showing the hiring committee that you understand pedagogy and you know the importance of the learning outcome. The learning outcome will come into play again at the end of the teaching demonstration, when you give a quick assessment to see if the hiring committee succeeded in meeting the requirements of the learning outcome.

A basic learning outcome will look like this:

Some examples from different disciplines would be:

• The learner will be able to calculate the income tax on a given income level.
• The learner will be able to create a five-line poem with rhyme scheme A-B-A-B-C.
• The learner will be able to identify a second-order chemical reaction.

2. Summary of what will be covered and how it will be covered (1–2 minutes)

You have to fit a lot into a short amount of time, so this summary should take you no longer than a minute or so. Give the hiring committee a brief summary of what will take place over the next 30 minutes. Tell them about how long you will lecture. Let them know about the interactive exercise that you have planned for them. Tell them that you will have a discussion about what they learned after the activity. Assure them that there will be time at the end for any questions that they have. And finally, warn them that there will be an assessment to ensure that they have learned what you promised they would.

3. Lecture component with student interaction (10–12 minutes)

By this point you will be a few minutes into your 30-minute teaching demonstration. Now is the time to start presenting your material. You should perform this lecture the same exact way that you would in the classroom. The more comfortable you are with the material, the better your presentation will be. This is not the time to try new things! It is better to keep the lecture simple and let your personality and teaching style shine. Be prepared for technology failures if you are using any technological mediums. If you are using a slide deck, have your slides printed on handouts just in case. If you are using a whiteboard, be sure to show up with your own, brand-new markers. A good hiring committee should make sure everything is ready for you, but it is best to always come prepared. If you are providing handouts, then be sure to make plenty of copies. Your teaching demonstration will most likely be in front of more people than just the members of the hiring committee.

Again, be sure that your teaching style matches the teaching style that you described in your interview. If you described your lecture style as interactive, make sure to engage with the hiring committee during this lecture. Ask questions. Ask for examples. Keep everyone engaged.

Finally, have a topic-specific handout for the hiring committee. This is something that you would normally give to students when you are teaching. It could be a summary, a formula, an outline or a diagram. This shows how you engage with students and, more importantly, it will serve as a reminder to the hiring committee when they are reviewing your performance and making their hiring decision.

4. Interactive activity (3–5 minutes)

Have some kind of interactive activity that shows your ability to engage students. If you already have an activity for this topic, great. If not, make one up. For example, one of the most creative activities I observed involved an applicant for a chemistry position who asked six hiring committee members to walk around holding pieces of colored paper and then to pair up, depending on the color of paper they were holding, as part of a lesson explaining the concept of covalent bonds.

As with the lecture, keep it simple. It doesn’t have to be a long or detailed activity. You are showing the hiring committee how you teach. Student engagement is a key part of that. By this point in the teaching demonstration, time could be getting tight. Make sure that you are aware of your time limits and plan this activity accordingly.

5. Activity debrief (3–5 minutes)

When the activity is complete, you will spend a few minutes discussing why the activity was performed and what the students learned. Continue to ask questions and engage with the students.

6. Learning assessment (2–4 minutes)

You started out by stating the learning outcome for this teaching demonstration. You lectured about the topic. You had the students complete an interactive activity. You discussed the activity and the learning that was supposed to take place during that activity. Now it’s time to ensure that the learning actually happened. Give all the attendees of your teaching demonstration a quick learning assessment. Since time is short, this should be no more than one question, one problem, one formula, one written paragraph, one drawing, etc. Keep it very short and have it tie directly back to the learning outcome that you stated in the beginning.

Make this a paper-based assessment that the members of the hiring committee can take with them. Give them something to take with them that shows how you made sure that they learned what you taught them. This will remind them of how good of a teacher you are when they are making their hiring decision.

7. Summary and questions (2–4 minutes)

As with any teaching that you do, you will want to leave time at the end for questions. The hiring committee will want to see how you respond to questions after a lecture, so give them time for that opportunity. A good hiring committee will ask some difficult questions. Be prepared to answer these questions the same way you would respond to a student if they were the one asking. This may be the last interaction that you have with the members of the hiring committee, so make sure to leave a positive and lasting impression.

It may seem that I gave nothing more than a quick recap on basic pedagogy. I did. The basics haven’t changed for centuries. Stick to the basics and let your personality and classroom demeanor carry the weight. Don’t be the candidate who owes the hiring committee gas money.