Peyton Turner Interview Research Paper

Peyton Lilleman

700633139

Peyton Lilleman

Faculty Interview

For my faculty interview, I selected Dr. Turner. I selected Dr. Turner because I wanted to interview a professor that I thought was interesting and one that I thought I could be comfortable talking to. All of my professors seemed nice, but I was still hesitant to interview them. With Dr. Turner, we have had review sessions on Wednesday nights. Usually less than fifteen people show up, so we all got a lot of one on one instruction. Because of these sessions, I was more comfortable with Dr. Turner than any of my other professors.

To schedule the interview I went to his office one day after class

and we set up a time that worked for both of us. The interview was on September ninth, after class that ended at eight fifty, I went to his office and the interview started around nine. The interview took place inside of his office.
I asked Dr. Turner the five questions already given to us, along with six of my own.

The first question I asked was “Why did you teach this field of study?” Dr. Turner said he chose this field because he had an interest founded on experience since he was a person of stutters. He also said that he never saw himself becoming a Speech Pathologist before it happened. The second question I asked was, “Where did you study and why did you choose that place to study?” He replied that he first attended the Western Michigan University because one professor there was a major contributor to the field of Speech Pathology. He went on to say that he knew he wanted his Ph.D., so he then attended University of Wisconsin, located in Madison, Wisconsin. It was one of the top three programs for Speech Pathology. After answer these questions, I followed up by asking how he went from living in Michigan, to Wisconsin, to Missouri. Dr. Turner chuckled and told me that he first came across Missouri when he was looking for a job. After visiting, he enjoyed the people that were there and he knew this was a place where he could be successful. The third question was, “What do you like best about the courses you teach?” He responded by telling me that he enjoyed that

the courses were interactive and physically based. He enjoys the logic behind what he teaches, the process of thinking things through to get the answer to the problem. His favorite class in American Phonetics because it gives him a lot of interaction with the students. The fourth question was, “What do you like the least about the course that you teach?” Dr. Turner explained that he dislikes how it is hard for some of his students to catch on to the subject material. Most of his courses involve memorizing the material and he feels bad for the students who can’t keep up with the large amount of information. The fifth question I asked was, “Can you tell me about your family, likes, dislikes, and hobbies?” He responded that he has a wife and two children. His wife used to work in the Speech Language Pathology department, but she retired when she got Lyme disease. His daughter is twenty-six, soon to be twenty-seven, and lives in Oregon where she is a Psychologist who works with children. His son lives in Kansas City and is currently in Law School. He also has one granddaughter named Nora. He used to enjoy running until he started having issues with his knee, so know he does his best to stay fit and being out and moving around. The sixth question was, “When you became a Speech Pathologist, did you intend to teach, or did you want to practice?” Dr. Turner responded that he had always wanted to teach and do research and that he did not intend to practice. The seventh question I asked was, “Were there any other careers you looked into before you decided to be a speech pathologist?” I was amused to find out that the first major career he wanted was to be a conservation agent. He says he later realized it wouldn’t have worked out because he would have had to talk to a lot of people, which he didn’t want to do. He also said he thought he could have been a post officer, but he thought the career would have been too boring. I then asked him, “What do you like best about your job?” He told me he enjoyed watching student’s skill and confidence grow as they learned more. My ninth question was, “What do you dislike most about your job?” He responded that he didn’t like how not all students will do well. He also said his job doesn’t give him as much time for research as he would have liked. The next question was, “Did you set career goals?” Dr. Turner told me that had always wanted to get his Ph.D., and after that was achieved, he then wanted to get tenure. He also has a personal goal to maintain his level of teaching if not improve on it. He also wanted to put aside time for research and publishing. I followed up by asking if he had achieved the goals he had set so far to which he responded that he felt like he had, but still wished he was able to publish more.