Hearing candidates try to describe what their teaching is like reminds me of the time when I tried to explain to a Latin American friend what an orgasm is. My explanation sounded weak, confused, and unconvincing.
“I knew you were faking it, just like everybody else!” the friend exclaimed triumphantly.
Clarissa's Blog 
Right, but explaining things, teaching included, is part of the skillset of teaching, whereas explaining things is not in most cases part of an orgasm.
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Good point. 🙂
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Genitally induced momentary euphoria. Too many words or exceptions? Wait, I’m sure that’s not convincing either.
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Personally, I find the responses more enlightening if you ask them to describe their last lesson or two in detail, and then ask questions about specific parts fitting into the curriculum. Not sure this would work for orgasms though 🙂
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It really does help when people describe some of the activities they use. But it’s hard to drag it out of them. Mostly, people just begin to recite Krashen at us. Which is not very helpful because we’ve all read Krashen and could quote him as well.
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Well, citing Krashen is a pretty good indicator that their pedagogical framework is about 40 years out of date, so there’s that . . .
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Yes, it feels very 1980s when that happens. It’s like the world’s been asleep for decades.
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