How to Create an Awesome Teacher Feedback Form

A teacher feedback form (also called a teacher evaluation form) is an integral part of any class you teach, and it's an even more critical part of your student's learning experience.

Teacher feedback forms can be one of the essential tools to help improve your teaching style and classroom management. They can also be the most underutilized, either ignored or forgotten by teachers and staff members alike.

You can use these forms to find out what students think about the curriculum or to see what they are struggling with or excelling at so that you can adjust their education plan accordingly.

However, it's hard to know what information you should be collecting and how best to collect it to ensure the most helpful feedback possible. Here are a few tips that you can use to prepare an excellent teacher feedback form.

Get kids excited about filling out the feedback form.

One of your main goals in creating a teacher feedback form is to get students excited about filling it out. While many kids are honest and straightforward when providing feedback, some are more tactful with their remarks.

The way you present your form can help them be as candid as possible. Make sure you keep your instructions short and positive so that kids don't have time to overthink their answers or think up reasons not to answer.

Keep it simple.

Some teachers find it helpful to take student feedback while teaching a lesson, while others prefer to let students fill out their comments and thoughts at home.

Either way, keep your teacher feedback form simple and easy to understand by using age-appropriate language and only asking one question at a time. Also, make sure that your questions don't overlap with each other.

Know your students

Teachers need to know what kind of feedback will be most helpful. Before developing a teacher feedback form, you need to know your students well enough to understand their strengths and weaknesses.

For example, high school students involved in extra-curricular activities may have lots of fans on Facebook and Twitter – but do they also do well in class?

High school teachers should develop a feedback form that asks about participation in class, attendance, and homework completion.

Give them space to think.

One of the best ways to do that is by allowing students a week or two between receiving their feedback and returning it.

Space gives them time to reflect on what they've written and how it may affect their relationships with others in the class.

Your students will likely be more honest when you give them time to think about what they're saying, which will help you develop more precise goals for improvement.

Ask about their class.

Teachers usually have a lot of classes, so it's essential to be considerate and ask the student about their classes. This way, you will get specific information about what happened in class and how to fix any problems.

Ask open-ended questions

Open-ended questions invite dialogue instead of closed questions that can be answered with a simple yes or no. An open-ended question is much more valuable, but it's also harder to craft.

For example, when surveying students, you might ask: What was your favorite part of today's class? (closed) vs. How would you rate today's class on a scale of 1 to 10?

Do some research on what other teachers have asked

Before creating your teacher feedback form, think about what others have done. Sometimes it's good to come up with your questions, but other times you can save time by borrowing from others.

Conduct a quick Google search and look at several other forms to see what types of questions have been asked in the past. Just don't copy verbatim.

Conclusion

Whether you're a brand new teacher or have been teaching for years, all teachers can use feedback from their students to help them improve their lessons and their classroom management techniques.

Teacher feedback form template

We understand you are busy, and that's why we've made a free teacher feedback form template on HeyForm. But if you want to build an online form from scratch, sign up with our free online form builder today.