Once the skill is performed accurately and independently under one condition, are you arranging multiple opportunities for the student to practice responding under new conditions?
As the student develops competence responding to one question posed in one way, then move to that same basic question posed in a different way. For example, support the student in recognizing that the following questions are all designed to obtain the same information:
“Tell me about any work or volunteer experiences you have had.”
“Have you had any experiences that are relevant to this position?”
“Tell me about your work history.”
“So, what you some things you have done that might prepare you to work in this position?”
As you target particular behavioral and situational questions, support the student in recognizing how a particular set of questions is designed to assess a particular quality. Use visual supports such as graphic organizers to help the student to “see” the connections. This may help the student to recognize WHY the interviewer is asking a particular question, which in turn, may help him generate a response that takes the employer’s perspective into consideration. For example, all of these questions below are designed to assess an applicant’s teamwork skills:
“Do you like working with others?”
“What is the best part about working with a group or team?”
“Have you ever had to work with a group and the group did not agree on how to handle a task or project? What did you do?”
In many cases, behavioral or situational questions are designed to assess one of five main qualities:
1. Teamwork (I can get along with others)
2. Cooperation (I listen to my boss, I follow rules)
3. Dependability (I come to work on time, I turn in my work on time)
4. Self-control (I can accept feedback without exploding, I can stay calm under stressful situations)
5. Service orientation (I am willing to help others, I am polite to customers even if they are upset, “the customer is always right”)
Are you arranging opportunities for the student to practice the targeted skill in natural environments and under natural conditions?
Carefully consider how you arrange the environment in role-play simulations to most closely approximate what the student would encounter when he is in an actual interview. Use props to represent items that might be found on an interviewer’s desk when the interview is likely to take place in some form of office setting. Incorporate those props to assess how the student responds to them – Does he fidget with those items? Is he visually distracted by those items? Also consider that some interviews might occur in less traditional contexts (e.g. in a restaurant booth).
Have you adapted visual supports so that they can remain in the natural environments that this student encounters now, and in the future?
Consider how you might adapt scripts and reminder cues to support the student in practicing key behaviors just prior to an actual interview. Many of us use such strategies before an anxiety-provoking interview experience. Furthermore, the individual might be able to carry those notes (visual reminder cues, adapted scripts) into the interview. He may be able to intermittently refer to his notes to help him generate responses that are adequate, relevant, and appropriate.
Are you collecting data to make adjustments to your teaching and to ensure that the student is performing the skill across multiple conditions?
To more effectively prepare the individual for interview questions, more than one person needs to serve as the “interviewer” in mock interviews. As others engage the student in these practice sessions, devise a system to report progress. Consider whether you can use a form such as the one below to support data collection and to achieve more reliable evaluations of performance across raters.