Here are some of the best questions for an elementary school student survey about getting help when stuck, plus tips on how to create them. With Specific, you can build your survey in seconds, with smarter follow-ups and easy analysis every step of the way.
Best open-ended questions for an elementary school student survey about getting help when stuck
Open-ended questions are amazing when you want honest, detailed feedback straight from students—especially because they let kids use their own words and surface things you might never think to ask. They’re best used when there’s a chance the issue is complex, or when you’re trying to uncover themes and feelings, not measure a simple yes or no.
Just keep in mind: open-ended questions can sometimes lead to higher nonresponse rates, especially with younger audiences. For example, Pew Research Center found that open-ended items may yield nonresponse rates as high as 18% to over 50%, compared to only 1-2% for closed questions. [1] Still, what you get in terms of new, genuine insight makes the effort worthwhile—Thematic research shows 81% of respondents flagged issues missed in standard grids. [2]
Here are 10 of our favorite open-ended questions for elementary school students on the topic of getting help when they’re stuck:
Can you tell me about a time when you got stuck learning something in class? What happened?
How do you usually feel when you can’t figure something out at school?
What’s the first thing you do when you need help with your work?
If you ask someone for help, who do you feel comfortable talking to the most?
Can you describe a good experience you had when you got the help you needed?
Is there anything that makes it hard or scary to ask for help at school?
What would make it easier for you to get help if you’re stuck on a question or problem?
How do your teachers or classmates usually respond when you tell them you’re stuck?
Have you ever tried to help a friend who was also stuck? What did you do?
If you could change one thing about how getting help works at your school, what would it be?
Open-ended responses shine a light on problems and emotions that a simple checklist might miss, letting us support students even better.
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for elementary school student survey about getting help when stuck
Single-select multiple-choice questions offer clear, structured options—great when you need to quantify how many students experience something or trigger a deeper discussion with a simple follow-up. For elementary students, this format feels especially approachable—choosing from a list is often much easier than writing a long explanation.
Here are three sample multiple-choice questions for this topic:
Question: When you get stuck on a school assignment, who do you ask for help first?
Teacher
Friend
Parent or family member
I try to figure it out by myself
Other
Question: How often do you feel comfortable asking for help when you don’t understand something?
Always
Most of the time
Sometimes
Rarely
Never
Question: Which part of getting help at school is hardest for you?
Not knowing who to ask
Feeling embarrassed or shy
Not having enough time
I don’t like to ask for help
Other
When to follow up with "why?" A “why?” follow-up works best when you want to dig below the surface—like when lots of kids choose "feeling embarrassed." For example, after the question above, you could ask, “Why does it feel embarrassing to ask for help?” This opens up new context and surfaces real barriers students face.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Sometimes your pre-set options miss something unique. “Other” lets students give you answers you didn’t expect, and follow-up questions here can uncover surprising problems or creative ideas you wouldn’t have heard otherwise. Those unexpected insights are often where real improvement begins.
NPS-style question: does it fit for elementary school students getting help when stuck?
NPS (Net Promoter Score) is typically used to measure loyalty and satisfaction by asking how likely someone is to recommend something to a friend. In a student context, we can adjust the question—for example: "On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to tell a friend to ask for help when they’re stuck at school?" This gives you a quantifiable sense of whether students are advocating for positive help-seeking, and can help track changes over time.
Want to try this approach? See how an NPS-style survey for elementary students works inside Specific. It’s quick to set up and customize so it really fits your situation.
The power of follow-up questions
Follow-up questions are game changers—especially when powered by AI. Asking "can you tell me more about that?" or "how did it make you feel?" helps uncover the full story. It’s not just collecting answers; it’s building understanding in a conversational way.
In fact, recent research has proven that combining open-ended and closed-ended questions makes surveys 27% more predictive of future behavior than ratings alone. [2] When students explain their answers, their challenges and their ideas for solutions become crystal clear.
Specific’s AI-driven follow-up question feature listens to student responses in real time and asks deep, natural follow-up questions—just like a caring adult would. The result: richer insights, less need for back-and-forth emails, and a survey that feels like a real conversation.
Student reply: “I don’t like to ask for help.”
AI follow-up: “Can you share what makes you feel that way? Has something happened before that made it hard?”
How many followups to ask? Usually, asking two or three follow-ups per relevant answer is the sweet spot. Getting the right amount of context often just takes a few extra questions. Plus, with Specific’s settings, you can decide when to skip ahead—no one gets frustrated or overloaded.
This makes it a conversational survey: Instead of feeling like a test, your survey feels like a helpful conversation, keeping elementary students more engaged and relaxed.
AI survey response analysis: Analyzing open-ended text is easy now, thanks to tools like those in Specific’s AI analysis suite. You can search, summarize, group by themes—all without reading hundreds of separate answers yourself. Even with lots of unstructured text, it’s fast and insightful.
AI-powered automated followups are a whole new way to survey: Try generating your own conversational survey for students and see the difference for yourself.
How to write prompts for ChatGPT to generate questions for getting help when stuck
Prompts are the magic behind creating quality survey questions with AI. To get started, here’s a prompt you can paste into ChatGPT or any GPT-based tool:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for elementary school student survey about getting help when stuck.
This will give you a good starting point. But you’ll get much stronger results if you give more context (your goals, your situation, or what you want to learn). For example:
I am designing a survey for elementary school students to understand when and why they ask for help when they are stuck with schoolwork. Our goal is to make it easier and less intimidating for anyone to seek help. Suggest 10 open-ended questions to uncover what students feel, do, and wish would change.
After you have your list, sort it and look for themes. You can ask:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
From there, if you want to dig deeper into a specific category (like “barriers to asking for help” or “positive experiences with getting help”), use:
Generate 10 questions for the category “barriers to asking for help.”
This process will give you a survey truly tailored to your needs, using the best of AI and your own insights.
What is a conversational survey? How is AI survey generation different?
Conversational surveys turn feedback into a natural, friendly chat. Respondents—especially students—get questions one at a time, with the AI following up as needed, keeping the process smooth and unintimidating. The result? Higher engagement, more honest responses, and fewer blank answers, even on open-ended questions.
Here’s a quick comparison:
Manual Survey Creation | AI-Generated Conversational Survey |
---|---|
Build survey by hand; can be slow, repetitive | Simply describe your goal—AI generates expert questions instantly |
Static forms; feels like a test to students | Feels like a chat; AI follows up, adapts to each student’s answer |
Manual analysis of responses | AI sorts, summarizes, and groups feedback for you |
Limited adaptability, often generic | Easy to edit and personalize in chat with AI survey editor |
Why use AI for elementary school student surveys? Because it saves time, makes surveys less scary (especially for students), and allows you to gather and process much deeper feedback. AI survey examples like those from Specific empower teachers and administrators to act quickly and target real needs, not just surface trends.
We’ve seen that AI survey generation, especially when paired with AI-powered survey builders, beats traditional forms for both engagement and insight. Curious how to start one? Our short guide on creating elementary school student surveys walks you through every step—no experience required.
Specific offers best-in-class conversational survey experiences, making it effortless for both creators and respondents to have a positive, insight-rich journey every time.
See this getting help when stuck survey example now
Try a live conversational survey on getting help when stuck—see in real time how AI-driven follow-ups and response analysis unlock feedback that standard forms miss. Do more than ask questions: understand your students and act on what matters most.