Interview Reflection

Chatting it up with Alberto provided great feedback on my interview questions.  Through the hypothetical interview in class, I realized how important and useful a scenario can be.  This can establish a great context and framework to kick start the interview and hopefully put the interviewee at ease.  I really tried to build progressive questions that could easily be regressed, if need be, to a more familiar topic if the student got nervous/anxious.  This was also my game plan for the “I don’t knows”.  The mock interview also revealed the power that these questions can have to expose a student’s struggles with connections and processes.  I was, however, not expecting the difficulty in biting my tongue when it came to explaining or discussing answers.  I definitely struggled with allowing an assessment to occur instead of quizzing the interviewee for the right answer. 
Little packages of information were mentioned in the class discussion as a useful tool and I whole heartedly agree.  The interview, after all, is a conversation with a purpose and these tidbits provide a helpful semi-formal structure, which may encourage the student to open up and reveal his/her thought processes.  Over the weekend I plan on revising my scenario and I would also like to fit in a drawing of a conceptual model in there somewhere as well.