Here are some of the best questions for a teacher survey about performance feedback, plus tips for asking them right. You can use Specific to quickly build such a survey with a few clicks.
Best open-ended questions for teacher survey about performance feedback
Open-ended questions let teachers share their experiences and ideas in their own words, opening the door to the kind of feedback that reveals what’s really working (and what isn’t). They’re ideal when you want context, depth, and honest reflection. Just note—open response rates are typically lower than multiple-choice: Pew Research shows item nonresponse averages around 18% for open-ends versus just 1-2% for closed questions, sometimes swinging as high as 50% for certain topics. [1] Still, nothing matches a great story or a concrete example when you’re improving your feedback process.
What aspects of the current performance feedback process help you grow most as a teacher?
Describe a recent feedback conversation that stood out to you—what made it meaningful or useful?
Which areas of your teaching practice do you wish to receive more feedback on?
How could the school or administration make performance feedback more actionable for you?
Have you received feedback that felt unclear or unhelpful? What would have made it better?
Can you share a personal goal you set based on recent feedback?
How do you prefer to receive critical or constructive feedback?
In your opinion, what’s missing from our current approach to teacher performance reviews?
How does feedback impact your daily classroom decisions?
When have you seen feedback positively influence a colleague’s teaching? What happened?
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for teacher survey about performance feedback
Single-select multiple-choice questions work well when you need to quantify teacher sentiment or pinpoint patterns. Sometimes teachers feel more comfortable choosing from options than writing full replies—this gets the conversation started and helps you see trends before you dig deeper. These are perfect for pulse checks, baseline stats, and sparking follow-up questions where more detail is needed.
Question: How often do you currently receive performance feedback?
Weekly
Monthly
Once per semester
Rarely/Never
Question: How clear is the feedback you receive about your teaching performance?
Very clear
Somewhat clear
Not very clear
Not at all clear
Question: Which format do you find most effective for receiving performance feedback?
Written report
Face-to-face meeting
Group discussion
Other
When to follow up with "why?" Sometimes a single choice is only the starting point—a “why” lets teachers elaborate so you know what’s behind their choice. For example, if a teacher selects “Not very clear” about feedback, follow up with “Why do you feel the feedback is unclear?” This turns a statistic into a story you can act on.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always include “Other” when you suspect your list might not cover every option. Sometimes teachers have unique needs or ideas—if they select “Other,” follow up and ask them to explain. That’s how you spot trends you may have missed and uncover those unexpected insights.
NPS-style questions for performance feedback
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) approach is super effective for quick benchmarking—even in the context of teacher performance feedback. While it's often used for customer experience, asking teachers how likely they are to recommend the current feedback process can reveal broad sentiment at a glance. The classic NPS question is:
On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our teacher feedback process to a colleague?
This gives you a quantifiable baseline—and with AI-powered follow-ups, you can immediately ask promoters what’s working best and detractors what would change their mind. Try generating an NPS survey for teacher feedback to see it in action.
The power of follow-up questions
Follow-up questions are where the magic happens. Asking a few smart follow-ups can dramatically boost the quality and clarity of teacher survey data. In fact, field studies show that AI-powered conversational chatbots not only increase participation but also elicit more specific, relevant, and clear feedback. [2] When respondents are prompted in real time, you get richer insights—without a mountain of back-and-forth emails (which drain everyone’s energy).
Specific’s AI follow-up feature dynamically asks clarifiers in context, so every reply is meaningful and actionable. This is a game-changer: the survey feels like a real conversation, not a cold form. That means teachers are able to clarify what they mean, share stories, and give you a complete picture in less time.
Teacher: “Feedback feels rushed.”
AI follow-up: “Can you share an example of when the feedback felt rushed, or describe how it was delivered?”
Without that follow-up, you’re left wondering: was it an issue with timing, delivery, or something else?
How many followups to ask? In general, 2-3 targeted follow-up questions will get you most of the context you need. With Specific, you can set a maximum—so teachers aren’t bombarded but you capture the story. There’s also a “skip to next” option whenever you feel you’ve gotten the info you wanted.
This makes it a conversational survey: Teachers are drawn in by the flow—it feels natural, like a quick chat, rather than a stressful form-fill. That’s why response quality improves.
AI survey analysis is easy. Even when you gather loads of open-ended replies, Specific lets you analyze all responses with AI, surfacing key themes, summaries, and action points in seconds.
These automated followups are still new—try generating a survey to see the experience for yourself.
How to prompt ChatGPT for great teacher performance feedback questions
Want to craft your own set of questions with AI tools like ChatGPT? Here are some great starting prompts to get quality output every time:
Start broad if you want general ideas:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for teacher survey about performance feedback.
You’ll get even better results if you give AI more context about your school, the teaching environment, what you want to achieve, the tone you prefer, etc. For example:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for a teacher survey about performance feedback. The goal is to improve our mid-year review process at a K–12 school and understand what types of feedback are most helpful. Please include questions on classroom observation, peer feedback, and feedback timing.
Next, organize your questions for clarity:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Then, decide which categories are your top priority and push further:
Generate 10 questions for categories “Feedback Timing”, “Peer Feedback”, and “Classroom Observation”.
This workflow helps you both brainstorm broadly and then dig into the specifics that matter most.
What is a conversational survey?
A conversational survey is a feedback tool that interacts with teachers in real time, just like a chat. Instead of firing off a clunky form, the AI asks each question naturally, adapts follow-ups to their replies, and keeps the tone engaging. The result? More participation and much deeper feedback.
Here’s how conversational AI surveys from Specific compare to old-school surveys:
Manual Surveys | AI-Generated Conversational Surveys |
|---|---|
Static, feel formal | Conversational, feels like chat |
Require manual follow-ups | Follow-ups asked in real time by AI |
Difficult to analyze at scale | AI summarizes and analyzes responses instantly |
Boring for teachers to complete | Feels interactive and engaging |
Why use AI for teacher surveys? With an AI survey example, you get richer insights, higher-quality data, and more actionable feedback—without mountains of manual work. AI can probe for details, clarify ambiguous answers, and make teachers feel heard. Plus, instant analysis means you act faster, not weeks later. Specific’s conversational feedback tools set a new standard for smooth, human-like experiences—giving both administrators and teachers a more insightful, frustration-free process.
If you're curious about easy step-by-step setup, check how to create a teacher performance feedback survey using AI.
See this performance feedback survey example now
Transform how you collect and act on teacher feedback—see how seamless, interactive surveys unlock deep insights, fast responses, and genuine engagement. Try a conversational survey that feels like a real conversation and discover what your teachers really think.