Korean Job Discussion Forums

[withnail]

When applying for a university job, particularly in Seoul, were you asked to give a teaching demonstration as part of the recruitment process?

If so, would you mind sharing your experiences?

For example, did the university give you any guidance on what type of demo they wanted to see or was it left to your judgement?

Did they tell you what level of proficiency the lesson should be pitched at?

What was the duration?

Were there any real students or was it more like a teaching presentation?

What did you do? Were you successful?

Much obliged!

[some waygug-in]

Never done one or even been asked to, probably 'cuz I'ze nverr werkked at a uni.

I've always imagined that an appropriate demo would be kind of like those guys at the supermarket you hear sheaking over the largely inattentive crowd as they pass by.



Sorry, couldn't resist.

Perhaps someone who knows something can respond now.

[buster brown]

I'm at my third different uni in Korea and I've only been asked to do one teaching demo. I wasn't given any guidelines to prepare.

On the day I showed up for the demonstration, the director gave me a copy of the textbook and told me to prepare 10-15 minutes from a specific lesson. I had 20-30 minutes to look over the unit and make some plans. Then, the 'class' was made up of the director and another staff member who speaks English relatively well. The hardest part of the deal was that both of the 'students' pretended to not speak English well, even though I'd talked to both of them before the demo lesson.

Since that time, I've talked to other teachers who had similar experiences at other unis. It seems that everyone has a difficult time delivering a student-centered teaching demo to staff members who are far above the level of the students that you'll be teaching in the future.

[lifeinkorea]

I have to do a high school demo tomorrow. They told me to pick a topic to talk about, but I don't see how this demonstrates my ability to teach.

[jrwhite82]

They probably want to hear your voice. Do you speak slowly and clearly? Do you have a thick accent? Too nasal? Stutter? Do you get nervous speaking in front of groups?

Public speaking skills are definitely relevant to teaching...especially another language.

[RMNC]

Yep. Speak slowly, clearly, with good pronunciation and and deep, echoing voice that everyone can hear. Besides that, they're just making sure you know how to talk about whatever book they assign. How you look and sound is 75% of it, the teaching itself is smaller.

[withnail]

bump

[andrewchon]

I've not interviewed for uni or Seoul, either. But I've done many 'impromptu' demos at job interviews. Not one was ever successful. Which makes me suspect that a 10 minute demo with 10 minute prep is just a device enabling them to say "you can't teach", instead of "sorry you are too old/not Caucasian/not American/not female/stink of cigarette smoke/too fat/voice is too deep/not fashionably badly dressed enough/no history of sexual conquests = gay/not compensating you for travelling long distance on your own dime for this unnecessary interview that could've been done by Skype/we have no idea what we're doing/etc...

[Whistleblower]

I've never had to do a demonstration lesson before in Korea but when I returned to the UK, I was requested in one interview to talk through a successful lesson. In my most recent interview for a college, I was requested to plan a lesson on the teaching of articles. I had to prepare a formal lesson plan and talk through the lesson plan. Obviously it was open to scrutiny and I think it does demonstrate proficiency in one form or another. I would not be swayed about doing a demo lesson for any future interview in Korea or elsewhere.

[NYC_Gal 2.0]