A Weekly Student Survey Transformed my Teaching

Open communication is an essential part of any healthy relationship. However, teachers often find ourselves the only person in the room who communicates. As an 8th-grade science teacher, I’ve come to realize the importance of immediate feedback in the classroom and inviting my students into the conversation not just as thought partners but as leaders of the discussion of what the classroom should look like. I have found a practice that will ensure your students have their voice heard and your practice will continue to improve. The great part is that it will take at most five minutes once every week or two!

That’s why I started giving feedback surveys at the end of each week and implored the team to do so as well. The goal was to see what our students felt about our classrooms. I wanted to hear from my students about what was working and what wasn’t. The survey had six questions:

The full eight-grade teaching team met and decided that these questions would be a successful check-in to find out needs to be changed and improved individually.  Additionally we saw that we could group the data together to target students who were feeling negative about two or more classes across the grade.  We chose to give them every two weeks in google forms and analyze the data the next week in teams.

What took me back right away was the open and honest responses we received. Students were not shy about letting us know what was going well and what was missing the mark. They told me about the lessons they enjoyed, the ones they found confusing, and the ones they wished we had spent more time on. Here are three examples:

“I am scared to ask questions because I do not like raising my hand”

“I work better with my friends and want to work with them”

“When we are doing group projects I have fun but I do not learn as much as when we do stuff by myself.”

My team was built of a veteran of seven years at the school, a former principal turned math teacher, and a second-year teacher. They all had some reservations and were nervous about the feedback, but when we read through the surveys, the team realized how valuable the students’ feedback was. They weren’t being mean or negative just to be mean. They were simply expressing their opinions and offering suggestions for improvement.

So as a team we agreed on Monday mornings, we would choose two or three items of feedback and display them for the class as the things we as teachers would be working on that week. For example, one week we told our students we would work on the following:

1. Students asking to work outside in order to get a break from the classroom, so we decided that one class per week would take place outside.
2. Students advocated for doing assessments in partnerships so we as a team designated one “exit ticket” early in the week that students could submit as partnerships, in order to alleviate the stress over a newly-introduced topic.

Showing the students our specific response to their specific feedback gave them an observation point for the week so they could see that not only were we taking their feedback, they now had a degree of control over the conversation. It was incredible to see their faces light up when they saw that we had listened to them and saw that they realized this was a partnership now where we worked together to get better not just students but students and teachers. They knew that their voices mattered and that they had a stake in their education.

As time went on, it became increasingly clear that this wasn’t just about making changes to the class and improving our classrooms, it was about making more meaningful connections with every student. The feedback surveys also gave us a chance to pull students for check-ins to ensure they felt heard. In our surveys, the students would rate if their voice was heard from 1 – 4. 1 signified that they had not felt seen or heard in class, while a 4 meant they felt they belonged and were seen and heard in our classes. We decided as a teaching team that if we had any 1’s we would have a sit-down with those students to have a better understanding of what we could do to help ensure all of our students belonged in our classrooms. It was a powerful way to build relationships with our students and show them that we cared about their well-being as well as their academic progress. The immediate feedback was very beneficial to our classroom and teaching practices, but being able to directly address students who did not feel welcomed or heard in our classroom was transformative. I knew exactly what certain students needed and it helped transform how I went about my teaching for not only those students but the class as a whole.

Taking on more and adding to teachers’ workload always seems overwhelming but this quick immediate feedback survey can be implemented seamlessly and can have a large impact on student culture and performance. My team has shown the power of student voice in class and we have seen increased engagement. This is hardly surprising: when students feel that their opinions and perspectives are valued and heard, they are more likely to be engaged in the learning process. They may be more willing to participate in class discussions and activities, leading to a more dynamic and interactive classroom.

Incorporating immediate feedback and student’s voice in the classroom is not only beneficial for students, it also helps to create a positive learning environment and improve teaching practices. When students feel that their voices are being heard and that their feedback is being taken seriously, they become more engaged and invested in their learning. When teachers use this feedback to make changes in their teaching practices, students see that their opinions matter and that their teacher is committed to their success. This can improve the overall classroom culture and create a more collaborative learning environment where students feel comfortable sharing their ideas and working together. Using feedback surveys and check-ins with students allows teachers to identify areas for improvement and make changes in real time. This can lead to more efficient and effective teaching practices, which ultimately benefit both the teacher and the students. When teachers can receive feedback quickly and make changes accordingly, they can better meet the needs of their students and create a more productive learning environment.

Overall, the use of immediate feedback in the classroom has been transformative for us as teachers. By involving our students in the conversation and making sure their voices are heard, we create a more collaborative and empowering learning environment. It’s not always easy to hear criticism or suggestions for improvement, but when we embrace the feedback and use it to make positive changes, we empower our students and help them succeed.

As teachers, we often rely on our administrations and other teachers for feedback on what is going well and what is not working out in our classroom, but we’ve never learned as much from them as we learned when we went to the real experts on what’s going on in our classrooms: our students.