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Create your survey

Create your survey

How to create teacher survey about planning time

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Adam Sabla

·

Aug 19, 2025

Create your survey

This article will guide you on how to create a teacher survey about planning time. With Specific, you can build a survey like this in seconds—just generate your own and start gathering insights right away.

Steps to create a survey for teachers about planning time

If you want to save time, just generate a survey with Specific. Here’s how easy it is to create a semantic, conversational survey about planning time for teachers:

  1. Tell what survey you want.

  2. Done.

Honestly, that’s it—you don’t even need to read further if speed is your top priority! AI powers the entire creation process with expert-level knowledge, automatically generating questions and even prompting respondents with follow-up questions to capture relevant, deeper insights. If you’d like to design your own from scratch, check out Specific’s AI survey builder.

Why teacher surveys about planning time matter

We talk a lot about efficiency, but the reality is teachers spend a median of 54 hours a week at work, with only about 5 hours set aside for planning or preparation [1]. Those hours often get eaten up by grading, paperwork, or impromptu student support, not dedicated prep. If you’re not checking in on how teachers spend or experience planning time, you’re likely missing out on actionable, honest feedback that can inform everything from policy tweaks to teacher support programs.

  • Lack of dedicated planning time leads to increased frustration and burnout, risking retention. Multiple studies, including a 2025 report, cite that teachers frequently lose invaluable prep time to interruptions like behavioral incidents or last-minute requests [2].

  • International stats make it clear—U.S. teachers teach over 1,100 hours a year, well above the OECD average [3]. With so much classroom time, there’s less bandwidth for reflection or collaboration.

  • Surveys consistently show teachers value more planning time as a main factor in staying motivated and satisfied at work [4].

So, if your school district, admin team, or education nonprofit hasn’t run a teacher survey about planning time recently, you’re missing a critical feedback channel. Use it to spot stressors, understand scheduling needs, and drive retention by acting on direct teacher input. For more on the benefits and importance of teacher feedback surveys, we’ve dug deep on best practices and examples.

What makes a good teacher survey about planning time?

A solid teacher planning time survey asks clear, unbiased questions and uses a conversational style—the more your survey feels like a natural chat, the more honest and complete the responses. Semantic keywords like “the benefits of teacher feedback” and “importance of teacher recognition survey” matter less than actually making it easy for educators to share real experiences.

Let’s break down survey practices that make the difference:

Bad practices

Good practices

Vague, technical language

Conversational tone with familiar vocabulary

Leading or double-barreled questions

Clear, unbiased, one-topic questions

Too many required fields

Flexible, skippable and relevant followups

We measure survey quality through both the number and quality of responses. You want volume—lots of teacher responses—but also detail and candor. Keep it conversational, easy to complete, and always structure questions so educators feel safe sharing openly.

Question types and examples for teacher survey about planning time

Let’s walk through the options for question types that really fit a teacher survey about planning time:

Open-ended questions offer the richest feedback and work best when you want educators to explain pain points or suggest solutions in their own words. Use these for exploring frustrations or getting ideas you might not expect.

  • How do you currently use your planning time during a typical week?

  • What would make your planning time more effective or less stressful?

Single-select multiple-choice questions help you quickly identify trends or quantify answers across your team. Best for “choose one” scenarios where you want to compare results at a glance. For example:

  • Which of the following regularly interrupts your planning time?

    • Behavioral incidents

    • Administrative meetings

    • Supporting students individually

    • Other (please specify)

NPS (Net Promoter Score) question gives you a fast metric on satisfaction or willingness to recommend your school or district based on planning time. For more on how to generate an NPS survey on this topic, try the instant NPS survey generator.

  • On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend your school as a supportive environment for teacher planning time?

Followup questions to uncover "the why": Always consider follow-ups after an initial response. When someone says planning time is “often interrupted,” a follow-up like “Can you share a specific example?” gets you much more actionable insight. Use followups to clarify vague responses and pull out concrete stories.

  • "My planning time is often interrupted." (Prompt a follow-up) “What usually causes these interruptions?”


You’ll find even more expert guidance and model questions in our article on best questions for teacher surveys about planning time.

What is a conversational survey?

Conversational surveys feel like a real conversation, not a cold web form. You get higher response rates because questions adapt in real time—thanks to AI—and respondents aren’t stuck reading long or impersonal blocks of text. With an AI survey generator like Specific, you don’t have to manually design every question or worry if something’s unclear: the AI ensures clarity, relevance, and a conversational flow.

Manual surveys

AI-generated surveys

Every question must be written and proofed by hand

AI creates clear, relevant questions instantly

No follow-up unless you plan for it

Automatic follow-ups for full context

Static, form-like experience

Feels like natural chat—dynamic and flexible

Why use AI for teacher surveys? It’s extremely fast, adapts to each respondent’s answers, and eliminates bias. If you want inspiration, there’s a detailed guide on how to create a teacher survey with AI, and why the user and respondent experiences are so much better than traditional survey tools. “AI survey example” is not just a buzzword—these new, conversational surveys get better responses and make analysis a breeze. At Specific, we’ve built the best-in-class experience for conversational surveys.

The power of follow-up questions

Follow-up questions are where AI-driven, conversational surveys really shine. Instead of respondents leaving vague or partial answers, the survey instantaneously asks probing, contextual questions, leading to full clarity and context. If you want to see how automated follow-up questions work in detail, check out our feature article on followups.

  • Teacher: “I don’t have enough time to plan thoroughly.”

  • AI follow-up: “What specific tasks or interruptions most often cut into your planning time?”

How many followups to ask? Generally, 2–3 smart, context-aware followups are enough. It’s important to let respondents skip to the next question once you’ve got what you need—Specific lets you customize this so the conversation never feels tedious, just natural.

This makes it a conversational survey—responses feel like a real conversation, not an interrogation, raising both the authenticity and depth of your data.

AI survey response analysis | open-ended survey answers: Even with lots of unstructured text, analyzing teacher responses is a breeze with AI-powered tools. If you’re curious, there’s a step-by-step guide to analyzing survey responses with AI and getting actionable insights instantly.

Automated followups are a totally new concept—generate a teacher survey, try it, and you’ll see the difference in quality right away.

See this planning time survey example now

Don’t just imagine better teacher feedback—see how conversational AI surveys reveal real insights, adapt in real time, and make analysis effortless. Create your own survey and experience the unique advantages firsthand.

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Sources

  1. Education Week. How Teachers Spend Their Time: A Breakdown

  2. Twinkl. What Do Teachers Consider the Most and Least Valuable Uses of Time in 2025?

  3. Statista. The Annual Hours of Net Teaching Time in Primary Education

  4. NCTQ. Planning Time May Help Mitigate Teacher Burnout

Adam Sabla - Image Avatar

Adam Sabla

Adam Sabla is an entrepreneur with experience building startups that serve over 1M customers, including Disney, Netflix, and BBC, with a strong passion for automation.

Adam Sabla

Adam Sabla is an entrepreneur with experience building startups that serve over 1M customers, including Disney, Netflix, and BBC, with a strong passion for automation.

Adam Sabla

Adam Sabla is an entrepreneur with experience building startups that serve over 1M customers, including Disney, Netflix, and BBC, with a strong passion for automation.