Student feedback surveys

Asking students for feedback is one way to show them that you care about their ideas. Giving students a voice in their educational experience also reduces students’ resistance. Instead of fostering a teacher v. student dynamic, getting students involved in what happens in your classroom nurtures a community spirit. Let them know, “We’re in this together!”

Keep the surveys short and targeted. As you can see from the examples above, you can survey students on anything. What do you want to know?

• Topics your students are interested in?
• Activities students find most engaging?
• If they think your behavior/consequence system is effective and fair?
• How confusing or clear they find a mini-lesson?
• If they feel ready for a test?

You can also track something over time - for example, how ready do students feel for independent work every day? How interested are they in each day’s lesson? You would do this as part of an improvement plan for your teaching.

Don’t assume. Don’t wonder. Don’t pretend to read minds. Ask your students!

Example 1:

Example 2:

Example 3:

Example 4:

Suggestions for use:

1. Decide what you want to know from students. It’s best if this is an area of teaching you have control over. That way you can act on the information and students feel heard.
2. Consider your overall goal. Are you looking for one-time information (ex. for unit planning or on a specific class system) or do you want to track progress on students’ perception of your class/teaching? If the survey is part of an improvement plan for you, communicate that to students. (Ex. “I’m working on making sure that you always know why we’re doing a certain class activity. Therefore, I’m going ask you 2-3 times a week if an activity’s purpose is clear to you. You deserve to know why we’re doing things.”)
3. Timing is everything: Surveys can inform the work you do during class, tomorrow, or in a few weeks. When do you need the information? One teacher uses pop-up surveys during class to decide if a class discussion or activity should continue. Another teacher uses surveys several weeks before the start of a unit to inform planning.
4. Paper or digital? Do you have easy access to computers? Do all/most of your students have phones and are they allowed to take them out for educational purposes? If you answered yes, creating surveys using google forms or SurveyMonkey is a great way to collect feedback because you don’t have to tabulate results. Don’t worry if you don’t have easy access to technology; a short paper survey (2-4 questions) can be tabulated very quickly.
5. Get help: If surveys are anonymous, students or a classroom aide can help you tabulate the results.
6. Take a sample: You can survey all of your students and only look at a subset to notice trends. Or, you can ask just a few students to take the survey. If the subset does not reveal a useful trend, you can always look at more data.
7. Share data with students: Let students know what the survey suggested and what you are doing with this data. For example, one teacher used survey results to select the essential question for a unit. When students started the unit, they knew that a majority of their peers wanted to explore this question. Another teacher used the Atlas Looking at Student Data Protocol to help her students analyze the data.

Thank you to Matt Grimes and Amrita Dani