ASSESSMENT

Student Survey Questions: Enhancing Teaching Through Student Feedback

11 May 2024/ By Zineb DJOUB

Student feedback is essential for teachers to adjust their instruction and meet the needs of their students. But what kind of questions should we address to gain relevant information about how our students are going throughout the learning process? To support you in creating more engaging, supportive, and effective learning environments for your students, I’ve created a list of student survey questions you can use to gather their feedback. These concern back-to-school, the quality of your instruction, the classroom learning environment, your assessment practices (including feedback), and the whole learning experience.

Back-to-school student survey 

These students’ survey questions can be addressed during the first weeks at school to learn about students’ expectations, learning styles, needs, perceptions, and more.

1. How do you feel about this new school year?
2. What are your goals for this year?
3. What do you think about the grade level/or subject matter I teach?
4. What do you expect to learn from this course?
5. What do you find hard in learning?
6. What activities do you find more engaging?
7. What topics do you prefer to talk about and discuss in class?
8. What motivates you to do more in learning?
9. What teacher qualities do you value the most?
10. What extracurricular activities do you plan to do this year?

You can add options to the above questions to support students in responding.

For instance, for question N°5, what students find hard about learning, options can include: getting things organized (the physical and digital space), revising regularly, doing assignments, attending classes regularly, getting attentive and focused during the lesson, participating in class, and interacting with peers.

Assessing teacher instruction: Student survey 

To help students learn, we must always examine what is working well and what needs to be changed or adjusted in our instruction.

The following student survey questions will help you gain insight into how your students find your lessons, including materials, tasks, and instructional strategies, to foster understanding, active engagement, and motivation.

You can write them on worksheets and put them on a table. Students can complete them in class at the end of each lesson/unit.

To evaluate quality instruction, I used rating scale questions. For instance, you can ask students to rate the following statements on a scale from 0 to 5 where 0 means ‘Strongly Disagree’ and 5 means ‘Strongly Agree’.

1. How clear are the learning objectives for the lesson?
2. How well does the teacher explain the lesson?
3. How effective are the teaching tools and materials (name them) in helping you understand the content?
4. How relevant are the tasks provided to help you practice what you’ve learned?
5. How well does the teacher encourage class participation and discussion?
6. How engaging and interesting is the lesson?
7. How do you rate your teacher’s organizational skills?
8. How motivated are you to work on assignments outside the classroom?

Assessing the learning environment: Student survey 

Creating a positive learning environment is of paramount importance for students to feel comfortable, get involved, and learn. While we strive to build positive relationships with our students, it’s important to recognize that our interactions, words, and intentions may be misunderstood by students.

Conflicts can also arise among students that might not be visible to us in the classroom.

Therefore, checking out the learning atmosphere is necessary from time to time. To do so, here are some student survey questions to use. It’s better to ask students to explain more, instead of responding with yes or no.

1. Do you enjoy learning in my classes?
2. Do you feel comfortable asking questions and expressing your ideas in class?
3. Do you find it easy to collaborate with your classmates on group projects?
4. Do you feel supported by your teacher when you need help and encouragement?
5. Do you feel welcomed and included in the classroom activities?
6. How do you feel about the classroom rules?
7. Do you feel safe while being on the school campus?
8. How do you find extracurricular activities?

Evaluating teacher assessments: Student survey

Assessment remains an integral part of the teaching process that can support learning and improvement.

So, for better assessment experiences, the following student survey questions aim to evaluate your assessment practices (both formative and summative), including your feedback provision (both oral and written).

You can gather such feedback after each assessment, at the end of a semester/year, or you can consider midpoint check-in. This depends on the frequency of assessments and the course’s structure.

1. How clear are the assessment criteria for exams/tests/any assignment?
2. How fair do you consider the assessment methods and criteria used in this course?
3. What do you think of your involvement in the assessment process (name the formative assessment strategies you’re using)?
4. In what ways do you believe you can showcase your understanding and knowledge more effectively?
5. According to you, the keys to an effective exam experience are:

• Good exam preparation.
• Effective exam time management.
• Stress management during the exam.
• The kind of questions addressed (the cognitive load required).

6. How would you describe your teacher’s feedback (oral and written) after taking exams/tests/assignments (Yes/No)

• It’s encouraging and motivating me to work more.
• I find it clear, and explicit, providing detailed information about my weaknesses and strengths.
• It indicates clearly how I can improve further.
• It’s regular, telling me how I’m progressing.

7. What improvements would you like to see in the assessment process?

End-of-year student survey

These are open-ended questions to be addressed at the end of the year to gauge students’ overall impressions of the entire learning experience. Some examples of these questions include:

1. What materials and activities do you wish your teacher had not used in the classroom?
2. What do you wish your teacher had introduced into the lessons?
3. What positive learning experiences you’ve had this year that you’ll never forget?
4. Have you encountered any negative or challenging learning experiences this year?
5. What learning goals could you achieve this year?
6. What are your goals for next year?
7. What advice would you give to students in next year’s class?

To conclude, student survey questions are great tools for learning more about our students’ personalities, beliefs, attitudes, perceptions, goals, learning needs, motivation, and more. You can use them throughout the year to build positive relationships and bring up more meaningful learning opportunities for your students.

But, it’s important to adapt those questions to students’ ages and levels. So, prepare your survey and get ready to gather feedback to improve further your teaching.