This 15-Minute Activity Will Allow for Massive Growth as a Teacher

A Student Survey Can Help You Grow

Teachers are constantly giving feedback to help our students do better. At the same time, it can benefit us to open ourselves up to the same kind of feedback from students. I will admit it’s scary when your critics are 13-year-olds with excellent snark skills. Trust me, they can really surprise you and teach you a lot about yourself! Your students will offer a unique perspective and, hopefully, confirm your perceived strengths. Student surveys can really help you grow!

Create a Student Survey

During the last couple weeks of each semester I would allow about 15-20 minutes for students to fill out this survey about my class.  I would use a simple Google Form (which does all the work for you), but a paper survey would also work.  

My student survey starts out with some standard warm-up type questions about my class, which the students will answer using a scale score.  You can ask them what the class was like, what activities they liked (or didn’t), and then throw in the two most important questions: “What worked in this class?” and “What would you change in this class?”

I then like to offer up a huge list of activities we did that semester and allow them to tell me which ones were their favorites.  Include all of the activities and not just the ones you thought were good. Including an “Other” option will allow kids to put activities which you may not have thought about. To extend this even further, the next question you could ask is which three were the least favorite? This question would allow you to improve the activities next year. (Check out the list below for some questions that I found to be pretty useful in my classroom!)

What else could I ask in my student survey?

• What activities, labs, or lessons did you enjoy the most this year?
• Which did you not enjoy?
• What is something you would change about this class if you could?
• What motivates you to learn?
• Did you feel respected or supported by your teacher/classmates?
• What is an achievement in class this year that you’re proud of?
• Did you understand the classroom expectations?
• Was the teacher’s grading and feedback clear and helpful?

These questions will provide you SO much insight into your classroom.  I would take an extra minute or two to explain that you want the students to be as detailed as possible on these questions.  I always like to remind my students that I’m not the one taking the class, they are. They’re the experts! You may have some students who say there are no weaknesses, but challenge them to think a bit harder about the question. Where did they struggle, and how could I have helped them more?

Now It’s Time To Reflect and Take Action

Once the answers have all been submitted, I challenge you to really sit down and analyze the data. There will be a wealth of information given to you, and it’s your job to figure out how you can improve based upon the data.  As silly as it sounds, this was one of my favorite activities to do as a teacher.  I couldn’t wait to see what my students said about my class, and I actually learned more from reading the negative feedback more than the positive feedback.  Real growth happens through reflection.

What other questions would you ask your students?  Leave a response in the comments.