The Life of a Communications Teacher - Term Paper Example

No Dull Day at All The Life of a Communications Teacher: A Career-Related Interview and Analysis June 3, Some people hate communications subjects and courses because they do not have good communication skills, or they are not extroverts, or for other personal reasons, but a Communications teacher for more than 20 years told me that he teaches Communications classes because every semester, he works with a different crowd and he finds it inspiring to watch these new students grow and learn from their classes (D. Garard, personal communication, May 15, 2014). I interviewed Dr. Darin Garard last May 15, 2014 at his office. He is the Communication Department Chair of Santa Barbara City College. He is married with two young kids. I informed personally that I would conduct a career interview and that I knew him from his former students. I also e-mailed him my interview questions too beforehand so he could prepare for the answers. A career-related information interview is a dynamic interview with specific purposes (Fox, 2010, p.84), and for this interview, the main interview objectives are to learn more about the job of a communications’ teacher and the needed knowledge, skills, and attitudes to be a successful communications’ teacher, to improve my communication, interpersonal, and interviewing skills, and to find out about other interesting information that affect teaching life, such as family and other extra-curricular activities. From this interview, I learned the importance of setting the interview, the role of setting in the interview, the value of the interview introduction stage in setting the tone of the interview, the significance of interview sequence and questions to an engaging and comprehensive interview, and the role of rapport and nonverbal expressions in being a competent interviewer. Setting the Interview: Killing the Stomach Jitter Bugs Before I set the schedule for the interview, I was truly quite nervous because I did not know the teacher personally and since Dr. Garard did not know me also. I selected him because his former students suggested him. They stressed that he is an engaging, funny teacher and that he can give enormous insight about what it means to be a Communications professor. I already spoke with Dr. Garard in person and it was not easy to schedule an interview with him. As Fox (2010) asserted, interviewers should be patient and accept that they are not exactly the priority of their interviewees. She said insightful words that will humble all interviewers: “The successful information interviewer cannot afford to be a fragile or easily offended soul” (Fox, 2010, p.85). I agree with her because if I focus on being offended for the re-scheduled interview, I would not gain Dr. Garard’s trust if I try to pressure him to have the interview. My deadline for the paper is not his deadline, in other words. I am just thankful that I finished the interview before the paper is due. I talked to Dr. Garard personally to schedule the meeting, and I also met him face-to-face to confirm the meeting. Before I spoke to him, I prepared a brief script saying who I am, how I identified him, why I was calling, and when I would like to meet, but of course it depends on his free time. The brief script was quite effective in structuring the introduction for my interview objectives and identity and in decreasing my nervousness. During this time, I observed and sensed in his voice that he was always in a hurry for classes or to finish consultation with his students. He had a line of 4 or more students outside. These students did not look anxious or afraid, only serious or appeared to be preparing for their questions and concerns with Dr. Garard. Because Dr. Garard seemed to be a busy person (with piles of folders from students on his desk because it is the final week of classes), I decided to ensure that I should give a good impression when we first met. I gave him a firm handshake and a sincere smile, while also maintaining eye contact (Fox, 2010, p.85). He confirmed our interview and apologized for not replying timely to my messages at times. He said he received the interview questions and was prepared to answer them all. He noted that I should add follow-up questions to make the interview more intensive and interesting. In addition, Dr. Garard said that he was interested in helping students in their career planning and he actually hoped to have more time for it, but his family, school, and work responsibilities hardly give him extra time. Dr. Garard had a gentle, sincere, and confident demeanor, though he looked a bit exhausted. I figured that I would have to make an extra effort to make the interview interesting to maximize both our time and energy. To improve the quality of my questions, I researched Dr. Garard’s career field, industry, and college in order to arrange informed questions. I tried to learn more about Communications teaching as if I am conducting a job analysis, so that I can ask relevant questions (Levashina et al., 2013, p.4). I believe this process enriched my questions and show that I exerted effort in preparing for the interview. The Interview’s Introduction: Setting the Interview’s Tone The interview’s introduction includes my professional image and introduction script. I came on time for the interview wearing semi-formal attire. I reinforced my professional image by shaking his hand firmly, smiling sincerely, and maintaining eye contact. I already informed Dr. Garard beforehand that I would be recording the interview and that I would be writing notes, and he agreed. The introduction script included restating my reasons for the interview: Good morning, Dr. Garard. My name is Ying, and I am a friend of your former students. He suggested that I should conduct a career interview with you because he believes that you are a model Communications teacher that I hope to become also someday. As a professor for more than 20 years, I believe that you can offer me insights regarding the career of a Communications teacher. Right now, I’m trying to learn more about the field and the kinds of opportunities available. I am also interested in know more about you as a person, and how non-teaching activities impact your teaching philosophy, style, and objectives too. The script was essential to settling down my interview jitters, as well as clarifying the interview’s purposes. The setting provided privacy, but only to some extent. For a couple of times, when he saw professors leaving, he said goodbye and made small talk with them. The setting is still open to interference, but he made sure that he did not stay long with these small talks. I realized how busy a professor’s life where workplace relations are essential. All in all, I believe that the introduction of the setting went well and I was able to express myself clearly in setting the interview objectives. Interview Sequence and Questions: From This to That For the interview sequence, I used a topical sequence so that I can connect questions better under one topic and to prevent myself from going off topic by adding irrelevant questions. The interview sequence was divided into several topics: (1) College Teaching Background; (2) Education Background and Opinions; (3) Teaching Roles, Duties, and Experiences; (4) Student Assessment; and (5) Teaching and Learning. The topics were meant to be exhaustive and to prevent too-narrow, closed questions that could make the interview boring (Fox, 2010, p.86). For instance, in “Teaching and Learning,” I asked: “How are teaching-related activities evaluated by students and the department?” This is an open question, which I followed with a follow up question: “How often does the school conduct the student evaluation?” After that, I posed a closed question that made him evaluate his answers further: “Do you think that these evaluation measures are fair and sufficient?” All these questions belonged to one topic that improved the depth of questions for each topic. Topical sequence can also provide a good organization of questions and ideas. In “Teaching and Learning,” I asked: “What are the challenges and opportunities for changing teaching and learning assessment?” The last question is: “What is your general advice for students who also want to teach in colleges and universities?” These questions are connected because they aimed to know, not only teaching assessment, but teaching in general as a Communications teacher. A topical sequence is quite essential in organizing questions and producing a good flow of dynamic conversation. From the interview sequence, I chose mostly open questions for every topic and used proper transition sentences for every topic. For instance, on “Teaching, Roles, Duties, and Experiences,” I asked: “How will you describe your teaching style?” This is a primary, open question that motivates the respondent to provide detail and description. I also had closed questions to guide the respondent to certain information. One example of a closed question is on “College Teaching Background” where I asked: “Are there specific courses that you think are most important to future college professors in the field of communication?” The closed question aims to focus on what exact courses that aspiring Communications teachers should take. During the interview, I realized I lacked follow-up questions in my interview questions, although I did provide transition sentences when I shifted to new topics. I added a follow-up question one time after to make sure that I can get the most out of the questions. An example is when I asked, “What are assessment techniques that you think are effective in assessing student learning?” Dr. Garard answered “writing,” so I followed the question with: “How about oral communication?” From his answer, I consider the power of relevant follow-up questions in engaging interviewees. These questions can be both important to increasing more knowledge about the interviewee and keeping the interview more focused on the topics (Babbitt & Jablin, 1985, p.511). Moreover, I used transition sentences to connect interview questions by topic sequences. An example is when I transitioned from teaching background to teaching roles and responsibilities, I said: “Aside from your teaching background, it will be interesting to know your daily roles and responsibilities and to find out more about the real teaching workplace.” The transition helped connect questions and to prepare the interviewee for the next round of questions. In addition, because of the previous research on his resume, including his research and other school activities, I asked him relevant questions about his research. For example, I asked him something about person-centered message production because of his past papers on it: “Your research paper talks about person-centered message production, what do you mean by person-centered message production?” He looked quite impressed with my reading of his past paper. He wanted to know more about me asking the question but I was not able to expand my answer on it. Furthermore, I also asked about his participation in Student Learning Objectives because I learned that he was involved in it as department chair. I asked him: “Are you involved in assessing and developing these learning assessment strategies and instruments? What is your involvement in these activities?” The combination of closed and open questions helped expand his answer to the question and to show his contribution to student assessment practices in college. I saw the importance of research on the background of the interviewee in order to engage him and to explore important aspects about the field of communications. Rapport and Nonverbal Factors: Silence Means Something Nonverbal signals are important in establishing rapport and keeping the interview dynamic. During the interview, I built rapport by showing interest in my interviewee’s answers, which can be attained through eye contact, smiling (when appropriate), nodding, and leaning a little bit forward when showing enthusiasm and preparing for follow-up questions (Fox, 2010, p.86). All throughout, it is essential for interviewers to practice active listening, so that proper follow-up questions can be asked and enable me to explore his answers more and to learn more from them. One example of active listening was when I asked him about his general advice for students who also want to teach in colleges and universities. When I showed interest through my gestures and eye movements, he provided numerous examples. My active listening was fruitful because I learned more about his college student life and how it contributed to his formation as a Communications teacher. During the interview, I also combined non-verbal cues with verbal expressions for emphasis or to keep the conversation going. For instance, when I asked “Do you think that college, in general, has sufficiently prepared you intellectually for your job? Why?” I showed enthusiasm through my eye contact and leaning forward a little, as if I want to catch everything he is saying. He was then excited in explaining that actual teaching prepared him more intellectually in being a teacher than college education alone. Apart from my nonverbal cues, I also became aware of my interviewee’s nonverbal behavior and tried to respond to them properly. For example, when I asked him on why he is a popular and well-loved teacher, he answered briefly, looked away, and played with paper clips. By tuning in to my interviewee’s body language, I changed the volume and tone of my voice to bring his consciousness back to the interview. For instance, when he looked bored, I added some hand movements when asking new questions. Nonverbal cues are important in improving the dynamism of the interview process. Conclusion: Interviewing Lessons I consider the interview as successful because I managed to ask all the questions and I realized that I should add follow-up ones wherein the questions were relevant and interesting to the interviewee and interviewer. It helped that I did research on the professional and social background of the interviewee and prepared a semi-structured interview questionnaire. Moreover, I did not forget interviewing ethics in asking for the interview, starting the interview, and conducting and closing the interview. I used proper nonverbal cues and combined them with speech as needed. I also actively listened and observed my interviewee’s body language to understand if my pace is too slow or the interview is getting boring. Being sensitive to the interviewee’s behaviors is important to successful interviewing. Finally, I believe that I have attained my objectives because I learned more about the career of Communications teachers. I understand the college and extra-curricular preparations that are essential to gaining experience on Communications. The interview definitely inspired me even more to be a Communications teacher, not only because of the work opportunities waiting, but because I have interviewed Communications teachers and they were two of the most engaging and nicest people I have ever talked to. Thus, the interview increased my enthusiasm further in becoming a Communications teacher too in the future. References Babbitt, L.V., & Jablin, F.M. (1985). Characteristics of applicants’ questions and employment screening outcomes. Human Communication Research, 11(4), 507-535. Fox, M.R. (2010). How to conduct an information interview. Businessweek’s Guide to Careers, 84-86. Levashina, J., Hartwell, C.J., Morgeson, F.P., & Campion, M.A. (2013). The structured employment interview: Narrative and quantitative review of the research literature. Personnel Psychology, 1-53. Read More